Iris (Sarah Adler in her first role) comes to visit her sister Anne (Nathalie Richard) one year after a debilitating accident. A darkly comic film of quiet revelations.
Starring Nathalie Richard, Sarah Adler, Daniel Aukin. Cinematography by Deborah Eve Lewis. Music by Stewart Wallace. Premiere Sundance Film Festival.
“The intelligence that permeates David Barker’s rigorous, personal, and deeply textured first feature is striking ... distinctly unlike other works populating the American indie film landscape.
— Sundance Film Festival Catalogue.
“Hollywood can’t beat this! A miracle of Indie filmmaking.”
— The New York Post
“Intriguing, accomplished ... discards the didactic tone of so much American independent filmmaking in favor of a character study that leads to no easy conclusions. Here's hoping some adventurous producer will allow Mr. Barker to take his gifts further.”
—The New York Times
“A great and important work. Bressonian in its austerity, capturing the mystery of being as deeply as Bresson does. I highly recommend it.”
— Ray Carney, author Cassavetes on Cassavetes
DAYLIGHT
2009, 80 mins
A revisionist genre film about an upwardly mobile couple that is a few weeks away from the birth of their first child. When a family wedding draw them out of Manhattan to venture upstate, the lose their way on unfamiliar wooded roads. What was supposed to be a regular drive alters their lives forever.
Starring Alexandra Meierhans, Ivan Martin, Michael Godere. Cinematography by Nils Kenaston. Music by Stewart Wallace.
“Critic’s Pick! An unusually delicate psychological thriller.... [Barker’s] films coax us into looking below the surface.”
—The New York Times
“Critic's Pick! This isn’t your usual exploitation flick. It grows more unpredictable and erotic with each new scene…”
— Vincent Musseto, The New York Post
“Daylight takes a standard kidnapping plot and turns it inside out. Barker and his formidable stars ... have written a script that concentrates on fleshed-out characterizaton, leaves the audience to connect the dots and demolishes genre clichés.”
— The Los Angeles Times.
“Favorably compared to the work of Michael Haneke, this psychological thriller follows couple Daniel (Aidan Redmond) and Irene (the very pregnant Alexandra Meierhans) as they pick up a seemingly-innocent hitchhiker (Michael Godere) on their way to a wedding. But it’s not all screaming and melodrama as the film unfolds into something a bit more subtle and tense, with director David Barker infusing quiet eroticism and benevolence on the proceedings … even some of the biggest names in the industry can't do this."
— Playlist / IndieWIRE
SEVEN DAYS
2004, 10 mins
A short film about Richard Nixon, his Irish Setter, and the bombing of Cambodia.
Cinematography by Nils Kenaston. Music by Stewart Wallace.
“A clever and comic short film in the spirit of the White House satire. It doesn't focus on Bush but on Nixon (or rather his dog) even though the film also meshes with the present situation. In Seven Days, our view of the president is restricted to knee height because it is filmed from the perspective of the Irish Setter King Timahoe. It's the first week the new president is spending in the famous Oval Office and he has given himself the task of making his new dog affectionate. At first he is not very successful. The war that got out of hand (then Vietnam) and the death of Eisenhower (his great example) do not seem too get through to him, but the dog's reticence drives him mad. In only 10 minutes, Barker manages to sketch a completely absurd situation (with all the necessary political implications), and in his approach he is just as cautious as the shy dog. The things such an Oval Office has to put up with.”
— Rotterdam Film Festival.
Screened at over 40 international festivals and venues.
