EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

As a youth Ray knew he wanted to make movies so he moved from his hometown in northern Canada to the United States where the film industry was bigger. When he discovered that it wasn’t bigger in Minnesota he transferred to film school in Toronto (“Hollywood North”) and skipped orientation week to attend the Toronto International Film Festival. To earn his Bachelor of Fine Arts he learned that film is art and television is furniture. After a few decades of editing television documentaries he saw a film at a vegan bake sale that made him decide that the world had to change, and he had to start with himself, becoming a vegan activist and a vegan (in that order). Pivoting his media skills to the smaller screens of social media, he finally had the chance to make art on the big screen by editing an award-winning feature film.

Ray’s own short film was selected in the very first vegan film festival in Ottawa and over the years he has covered the IVFF as a live correspondent for UnchainedTV. He’s been the official red carpet photographer and has been involved in judging both vegan films and cookbooks. As Executive Director he sees the International Vegan Film Festival as a springboard for visual storytellers to equip the inner animal advocate in each of us.