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 in fiction with director Josephine Decker and as a writer and
editor in documentary with Petra Costa.
He has been
involved with two documentary films nominated for Oscars: The Edge of
Democracy (co-writer/editor) and Navalny (editorial consultant). 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. He is currently editing and co-writing a new film in Brazil with Petra
Costa.
In fiction,
he has collaborated extensively with the director Josephine Decker, as editor
of her Sundance Special Jury Prize-winning Shirley as well as consulting
editor on her Madeline’s Madeline and Butter on the Latch,
co-writer and editor of Thou Wast Mild and Lovely, and additional editor
on The Sky is Everywhere.
He has also collaborated extensively with Nepali new wave director, Deepak
Rauniyar as editor and co-writer of White Sun, which premiered at the
2016 Venice Film Festival where it won the Interfilm Award, screened at the
2016 Toronto Film Festival and 2017 New Directors/New Films Festival, and won
numerous international prizes. He also edited Rauniyar’s Highway, and
co-wrote the director’s new film The Sky Is Mine, which is in
postproduction.
He has collaborated several times with the
anthropologist Elizabeth Povinelli and the Australian indigenous art collective
Karrabing Indigenous Corporation onWindjarrameru: the Stealing
Cunts, and When Dogs Talked, which was awarded Best Short Fiction Film at
the 2015 Melbourne Film Festival.
He 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) which 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.
A short filmSeven Days premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival, screened at over 40
international venues.
Besides making films, he has been active in distributing and programming other
filmmakers’ work: as artistic director of the experimental cinema festival
Cinematexas International Short Film Festival, founded by Athina Rachel
Tsangari, (which was 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.