- Occupation
Director - Country
Latvia
Simanis Davis
Version. LNO
Ten years ago the Latvian National Opera was re-opened after immense reconstruction. Now this is the place where artists and the stage come together in an unusual atmosphere to create „the miracle"of music, action, text - elements of the opera phenomenon.
Valkyrie Limited
Love, hate, power and greed are just a small spectrum of human characteristics encoded in Richard Wagner's The Valkyrie. It is universal opera and therefore creates a massive challenge to an artist's imagination. Valkyrie Limited is an investigation of the director's mentality into and beyond the reality of staging the Valkyrie at the Latvian National Opera. Taking the Valkyrie phenomenon to an abstract level, the film seeks the fragile link between a pragmatically constructed performance and the world of the unconscious that lies within the music and the narrative.
Sounds Under the Sun
Composers are regular people – they drive public transport, do sports, pay their bills. And still – they are very different as they are able to comprehend sound. The documentary film Sounds Under the Sun is an inspiring cinematic journey all over the world to meet some of the world-famous contemporary classical music composers. Visiting Alaskan forests, skyscrapers in Tokyo, and war zone in Georgia, the film gives a glimpse of how the composers share their struggle to create music from the moment of sonic creation till the moment when their music is interpreted for public (the film features composers Sir John Tavener from the UK, Leonid Desyatnikov from Russia, Giya Kancheli from Georgia, Dobrinka Tabakova from Bulgaria, John Luther Adams from the USA, and Ko Matsushita from Japan, and one of the world’s best youth choirs, Kamēr..., from Latvia).
Ten years ago the Latvian National Opera was re-opened after immense reconstruction. Now this is the place where artists and the stage come together in an unusual atmosphere to create „the miracle"of music, action, text - elements of the opera phenomenon.
Valkyrie Limited
Love, hate, power and greed are just a small spectrum of human characteristics encoded in Richard Wagner's The Valkyrie. It is universal opera and therefore creates a massive challenge to an artist's imagination. Valkyrie Limited is an investigation of the director's mentality into and beyond the reality of staging the Valkyrie at the Latvian National Opera. Taking the Valkyrie phenomenon to an abstract level, the film seeks the fragile link between a pragmatically constructed performance and the world of the unconscious that lies within the music and the narrative.
Sounds Under the Sun
Composers are regular people – they drive public transport, do sports, pay their bills. And still – they are very different as they are able to comprehend sound. The documentary film Sounds Under the Sun is an inspiring cinematic journey all over the world to meet some of the world-famous contemporary classical music composers. Visiting Alaskan forests, skyscrapers in Tokyo, and war zone in Georgia, the film gives a glimpse of how the composers share their struggle to create music from the moment of sonic creation till the moment when their music is interpreted for public (the film features composers Sir John Tavener from the UK, Leonid Desyatnikov from Russia, Giya Kancheli from Georgia, Dobrinka Tabakova from Bulgaria, John Luther Adams from the USA, and Ko Matsushita from Japan, and one of the world’s best youth choirs, Kamēr..., from Latvia).
Escaping Riga
Escaping Riga is a cinematic journey, a docu-fiction trying to find answers to the question how the history of the 20th century has influenced people from the same place to lose their childhood illusions of comfort and become totally disillusioned. The main characters of the film are two world-class 20th century geniuses, the British philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin and the Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein who were born in the city of Riga around a hundred years ago. Blending small everyday episodes of the lives of the two personalities and narrated by the director, the film is a personal interpretation of their life stories in the time period from their first meeting at the beginning of the 20th century to their second and last meeting after two world wars in 1945.
Escaping Riga is a cinematic journey, a docu-fiction trying to find answers to the question how the history of the 20th century has influenced people from the same place to lose their childhood illusions of comfort and become totally disillusioned. The main characters of the film are two world-class 20th century geniuses, the British philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin and the Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein who were born in the city of Riga around a hundred years ago. Blending small everyday episodes of the lives of the two personalities and narrated by the director, the film is a personal interpretation of their life stories in the time period from their first meeting at the beginning of the 20th century to their second and last meeting after two world wars in 1945.
Dāvis Sīmanis works as a documentary director, scriptwriter, editor, story editor, lecturer as well as assistant DoP. Has received Award for the Best Debut (Version. LNO, 2007) and FIPRESCI Award (Valkyrie Limited, 2009) at the Latvian National Film Festival Lielais Kristaps. Contributing writer for the magazines Rīgas Laiks and Studija. Education: Mag. Phil., University of Latvia. Filmography (selection): Sounds That the Sun Makes, creative documentary, HD, 61 min, co-director, Studio Mistrus Media, 2010. Pēdējā tempļa hronikas / The Chronicles of the Last Temple, creative documentary, 4K Digital, 70 min, Director, Studio Ego Media, in production; Born in Riga, creative documentary, 16mm/HD, 52 min, Director, Studio Mistrus Media, in development; Valkyrie Limited, creative documentary, HD, 52 min, Director, Locomotive Productions, 2009; Medības / Hunt (dir. Andis Mizišs), feature, 35 mm, 72 min, Editor, Studio Ego Media, 2009; Loengrīns no Varka Kru / Lohengrin from Varka Crew (dir.Viesturs Kairišs), creative documentary, 16 mm, 80 min, Editor, Ego Media, 2009; Darbaļaužu balets / Working Class Ballet, (dir. R. Vinovskis), creative documentary, SD, 52 min, Editor, Locomotive Productions, 2007; Zīmētājs / The Draughtsman, creative documentary, HD, 20 min, Director, Locomotive Productions, 2007. Tumšie brieži / The Dark Deer (V. Kairišs), feature, 35 mm, 80 min, Editor, Studio Kaupo filma, 2006; Version.LNO, creative documentary, SD, 26 min, Director, Locomotive Productions, 2006. Award for the Best Debut film of 2006/2007 at the National Film Festival Lielais Kristaps 2007.