Ravi Srinivasan, TIFF programmer and ‘champion’ of Canadian movie group, dies at 37

Ravi Srinivasan, senior supervisor of competition programming for the Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant and a “champion” of the Canadian movie group, has died at age 37.

“We’re saddened and shocked to study of the sudden passing of our colleague and pal Ravi Srinivasan. As a programmer, champion for filmmakers, and director of his personal hometown movie competition in Sarnia, Ravi was identified to many for his ardour, his generosity and the enjoyment he delivered to cinema,” Cameron Bailey, chief govt of TIFF, stated in a press release late Sunday.

“For Ravi, who drew on each his Filipino and his Indian immigrant heritage in his work, illustration all the time mattered. It was constructed into how he considered movies, and the way he invited all audiences to interact with the tales on display screen that moved them.”

Srinivasan, who grew up in Sarnia, Ont., studied movie and English literature at Wilfrid Laurier College after which movie and tv manufacturing at Sheridan Faculty. Along with his work with TIFF, which he joined in 2013, Srinivasan programmed for Scorching Docs and Reel Canada, which produces Nationwide Canadian Movie Day. After beginning at TIFF as a seasonal programming affiliate, Srinivasan was final 12 months promoted to the full-time function of senior supervisor for competition programming, specializing in movies from South Asia, the Philippines and Canada.

In accordance with an interview he gave with Wilfrid Laurier’s Campus Journal in 2018, Srinivasan entered the business with solely a ardour for cinema – and never a single contact to his identify. Whereas making an attempt to safe an internship to satisfy the necessities of his postgraduate program at Sheridan, Srinivasan used the TIFF program information to cold-call dozens of producers and manufacturing homes.

“I didn’t know anybody within the business, and I had zero contacts,” he stated. “You identify it, I known as it!”

After lastly wrangling a gathering with producer Jennifer Jonas, Srinivasan secured an unpaid internship for her firm New Actual Movies, working in its workplaces throughout the day earlier than beginning his night-shift gig with the Canadian Opera Firm’s name centre. After half a 12 months, New Actual employed Srinivasan on a full-time contract, which finally led to his entry into film-festival programming.

Whereas balancing his programming work with TIFF – wherein a typical version of the annual competition would see him display screen 300 movies over the course of three months – Srinivasan based the Sarnia-based South Western Worldwide Movie Pageant (SWIFF) in 2015.

“We’re all shoppers of tradition, however we’re making an attempt to create creators of tradition, and that begins on the grassroots degree,” Srinivasan instructed The Sarnia Journal that 12 months. “We need to assist make Sarnia a spot the place younger folks can create movie.”

Since that inaugural version, SWIFF has grown to incorporate stay concert events, virtual-reality reveals and an business summit (with such company as Room screenwriter Emma Donoghue and iconic Canadian filmmaker Patricia Rozema) alongside its slate of feature- and short-length movies.

In the meantime, Srinivasan’s work at TIFF helped introduce audiences to acclaimed homegrown filmmakers like Sophie Deraspe (2019′s Antigone), Kathleen Hepburn and Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers (2019′s The Physique Remembers When the World Broke Open), V.T. Nayani (2022′s This Place), and Shasha Nakhai and Wealthy Williamson (administrators of the Canadian Display Award-winning 2021 hit Scarborough). He additionally sat on the board of administrators for Toronto’s Regent Park Movie Pageant and the Way forward for Movie Showcase.

“I used to be lucky sufficient to work with Ravi for almost a decade,” TIFF’s Bailey stated in his assertion. “I all the time appreciated his sharp views on movies, however what I beloved most was his sense of humour and his generosity to all. Ravi embraced life, films and folks, in all their complexity. We’ll miss him dearly.”