Davis Simanis

Davis Simanis

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.

Known for

Best Documentary Films

Award-Winning Documentaries
Curated For You

WATCH NOW
Laurel Left

2187 films
And a new one every day

Laurel Right
Laurel Left

The preferred platform
of true documentary lovers

Laurel Right
Laurel Left

Half of all revenue goes
directly to the filmmakers

Laurel Right