Dāvis Sīmanis is a Latvian filmmaker and film theorist whose work spans poetic documentary cinema and cross genre fiction features. Alongside his directing practice, he lectures on film theory and film history at film schools in Latvia and Finland. He has recently completed his PhD, with his main research focus on the cinematic devices used to represent history.
His films have screened and received awards at major international festivals, including IDFA, CPH DOX, and DOK Leipzig. In 2014, he directed Escaping Riga, a docu fiction exploring the lives of two twentieth century intellectual figures, British philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin and Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein. In parallel to his academic and documentary work, he continues to develop feature fiction projects.
Education includes a Master’s degree in history from the University of Latvia, followed by doctoral studies at the Latvian Academy of Culture.
