Mara Ravins
Mara Ravins is a history and theatre graduate from the University of Toronto and New Media (Film & Photography) graduate of the Ontario College of Art & Design. She worked extensively as a performance/installation artist before devoting to film, where she’s worked professionally for over 25 years on low and high budget productions, starting out as an Art Director/Production Designer for independent Canadian films.
She has worked thousands of hours on union shoots as decorator/buyer and on set wardrobe for series such as Odyssey5 and Friday the 13th and was Assistant Wardrobe designer for Paul Haggis’s first feature Red Hot. She has made a living the last eight years evaluating projects for financing, both domestic and international co-productions, for a corporation which supports films, television series and digital media projects. In addition to constantly creating new film work, she continues to serve as a freelance production consultant and mentor for young filmmakers and artists.
As producer, writer and director of her own films, (owner of Laika Films Inc. since 1994) she is the first Canadian/ Latvian to receive full production funding from the Open Society Institute (now Sundance Documentary Fund) for her docu-drama feature “Matin Dans Une Forêt de Pins”. A recipient of numerous grants from the Canada, Ontario and Toronto Arts Councils, Danish and Canadian National Film Boards, her films have played at international festivals garnering critical acclaim.