Musivision Films

 

Donald Ranvaud producer and humanitarian - Dead at 62 a personal story of a great man

 

Donald Ranvaud  producer and inspired man

 

 

Donald Ranvaud (right) in my garden in deep and engaged conversation as always.Under the grapes in my garden in full bloom.  As jury at the Montreal Festival 2015 

 

The loss of Donald Ranvaud is a loss to the film world and personal loss for me. Anyone who has ever met the man has suffered a loss with his untimely death. He was on the jury of the 2016 Montreal World Film Festival and found dead of a heart attack in his hotel room on the last day of the festival. I met Donald nearly four years ago ago in the Dominican Republic and we immediately began talking about film. Of course. It was on a bus going from the city of Santo Domingo to the seaside on a quiet bus ride. The only voices to be heard were Donald's and my own. Everyone else was staring at the beautiful scenery or feigning sleep on the big rolling bus. I began telling Donald about my film I Spy My Father. A film that has been in the works for several years as research. All that research an idea for my film. A film about my father and his own short life.  A film I never mustered enough courage to complete stuck on the script because it was too close to my heart and writer's block.  But even as just a personal story and my words to describe my story on that bus, it captured Donald's spirit and his heart. It is with Donald's effort he kept trying to connect me to a certain successful producer. He even offered to team up. But that producer would not be available or something else would come in the way. WellI’m finally meeting that producer after so long and probably because Donald died. And I emailed that producer to tell him the news. Of course he had already read about Donald’s death in the trades. So I meet him next week. Finally Donald’s words and death have convinced him to meet.  It is Donald's sensitivity and humanitarian touch which moves me so and breaks my heart today. I had seen him  last week here in Montreal where he was on jury for the Montreal World Film Festival. 

I texted him Saturday night, the night he died to meet up before he left on the 8th. He never replied. 

 

Thank you David for your films, sensitivity and vision.

 

Here’s some info on Donald in case you didn’t know it all. He was amazing

Credit: Wikipedia 

From 1976–88, Ranvaud taught at the University of Warwick (English and comparative literature) and the University of East Anglia (film studies) and also at the College of South Wales (film theory). During this time he also worked as a freelance journalist for MFB, Sight and Sound, The Guardian, La Repubblica, Cahiers du cinéma and American Film, as well as founding the independent cinema and media magazine Framework, which he edited until 1988.[7] He published several books on Italian cinema and directed documentary items for C4 magazine programmes and RAI 1, including portraits of Paul Schrader, Raul Ruiz, Cui Jian, Laurie Anderson and David Mamet.

 

In 1988 Ranvaud established the European Script Fund with Renee Goddard as part of the MEDIA Programme of the Commission of the European Community, where he stayed on for 18 months, during which time the Media Programme was fully integrated into EC policy.

 

Ranvaud worked as a producer full-time after 1989, working with directors and in countries that would soon become prominent in the world of independent film: in China from 1989 to 1993, he produced Life on a String and Farewell My Concubine in Latin America from 1994 to present, he produced Central do Brasil,Familia Rodante, Xango, Lavoura Arcaica, Babilonia 2000, Madame Sata, and City of God, garnering a total of 12 Oscar nominations. He was also executive producer on The Constant Gardener by Fernando Meirelles in Kenya.

 

Alongside productions, he managed sales at Videofilmes, Bouquet Multimedia and Sogepaq as well as helping to set up the Wild Bunch.

 

As Buena Onda's Creative Director since 2003, Ranvaud continued to discover filmmakers, helping them to access world markets. He was an ambassador for Latin American cinema, setting up joint ventures with Cinergia in Costa Rica for Centro America, and with the Puerto Rico Film Fund. After establishing the film school La Fabrica with Roberto Lanza in Bolivia, he set up an Institute for 2nd features, theatre and cinema (Artes Andes Americas), together with Cesar Brie's Teatro de los Andes in Yotala, Bolivia.

 

Since early 2005, first as Head of International Relations with Rain Networks, Brasil, and later independently, Ranvaud focused on what he considered to be the central question for the future of a possible cinema – a cost-effective distribution platform.

 

 

additional credit : Wikipedia

 

Donald Ranvaud a blurry wonderful evening in Santo Domingo Dominican Republic Cineglobal Festival