David Barker studied philosophy and anthropology before turning to film, where he is an editor, screenwriter and director. 

A member of ACE, he is best known for his extensive work as an editor - particularly in fiction with director Josephine Decker and in documentary (also as co-writer) with Petra Costa.

As an editor and writer, he has been involved with a number of projects dealing with the challenges to democracy and societies in crisis including three documentaries: The Edge of Democracy (co-writer/editor) and Navalny (editorial consultant), both nominated for Academy Awards, as well as Costa’s new film Apocalypse in the Tropics (co-writer/editor); two fiction films by Nepali new wave director  Deepak Rauniyar: White Sun (editor and writer) and the Pooja, Sir (writer), both of which premiered at the Venice Film Festival.  He is currently writing several episodes of a fiction series being developed by HBO that explores these issues.



Other doc credits include Costa’s Olmo and the Seagull, Zachary Heinzwerling’s Hulu series Stolen Youth, and Pacho Velez and Sierra Pettengill’s The Reagan Show. In fiction, he edited director Josephine Decker’s Sundance Special Jury Prize-winning Shirley as well as consulted on  Madeline’s Madeline and Butter on the Latch, and was co-writer and editor of Thou Wast Mild and Lovely, and additional editor on The Sky is Everywhere.

He wrote and directed directed two microbudget films: the feature Daylight, which was the ‘Critic’s Pick’ in both The New York Times and The New York Post on its release Afraid of Everything featuring actresses Nathalie Richard (Irma Vep) and Sarah Adler (Notre Musique) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was called “A miracle of indie filmmaking” byThe New York Post.

He is currently developing a series set in 1970s Chile which has received support from The Sloan Foundation, Tribeca Film Institute, and The Gotham TV-Series Lab.

Besides making films, he has been active in distributing and programming other filmmakers’ work: as artistic director of the Cinematexas International Short Film Festival, founded by Athina Rachel Tsangari, (called ‘the most inspiring and significant film festival in the country’ by IndieWIRE during his tenure), and co-founder of Noon Pictures, an independent distribution and sales company that released films by filmmakers such as Jean-Luc Godard, Harun Farocki Laura Mulvey, and Isaac Julien.

David has taught extensively as a visiting professor at Brown University, Bard College, Boston University, and University of Austin at Texas, among other institutions.

He studied filmmaking and criticism with filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin and cinematographer/
filmmaker Babette Mangolte (Jeanne Dielman), and philosophy with Giorgio Agamben and Jacques Rancière.

He lives and works in New York City and Santiago, Chile.