Ray Privett is Founder and President of Cinema Purgatorio LLC. Based in midtown Manhattan, Cinema Purgatorio shares offices and a strategic alliance with film industry legend Richard Lorber's company Lorber HT Digital.
Cinema Purgatorio's clients and collaborators include:
Privett left Facets in mid-2004, when he was hired as Programmer and General Manager of the Pioneer Theater in New York City. At the Pioneer, he oversaw that theater’s period of most success. He was a nearly constant presence at the Pioneer, making sure several thousand shows, configured into hundreds of distinct programs, actually went on and then were accounted for, from mid 2004 to early 2008. In his era, thousands of articles about screenings appeared in the New York Times, Post, Press, Magazine, and Sun, and also the Village Voice, Time Out New York, Gothamist, the Reeler, on Fox News International, and in many, many other outlets. Filmmakers and intellectuals who appeared at the Pioneer in that era included, among hundreds of others, Angelo Badalamenti, Michale Boganim, Douglas Buck, Larry Cohen, Larry Fessenden, Luis Guzman, Hal Hartley, Aaron Katz, John Landis, Malcolm MacDowell, Lech Majewski, Reverend Jen Miller, Bill Plympton, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Andrew W.K., S.T. VanAirsdale, and internet visionaries including Lawrence Lessig and the founders of Blip.tv and Rocketboom.com.
Privett founded Cinema Purgatorio LLC in late 2007. In early 2008, he chose to leave the Pioneer, because he thought he could be more effective in film world activity as his own boss under Cinema Purgatorio, and to work on other performing arts related endeavors. To facilitate some of that work, Cinema Purgatorio installed Cinema Purgatorio @ KGB / Kraine, a collapsible cinema that functions as an extension to a stage theater within a former speakeasy and Ukrainian-American Socialist Social club.
Privett is author of Amos Gitai: Exile and Atonement, published in English by Cinema Purgatorio and in French by Editions Cinemaction / Le Septieme Art. He has published in popular and scholarly journals including Millennium Film Journal, Cineaste, Senses of Cinema, KinoEye / Central Europe Review, The Reeler, International Documentary, Visual Anthropology Review, TDR: The Journal of Performance Studies, DOX: The Magazine of the European Documentary Network, and elsewhere.
Privett has been quoted or cited in outlets including the New York Times, the Guardian, Wired Magazine, the Reeler, the Chicago Reader, the Village Voice, AM New York, the New York Post, Variety, the Jewish Week, Fangoria, the New York Sun, НОВОЕ РУССКОЕ СЛОВО, Dziennik Związkowy, Nowy Dziennik, Moviemaker Magazine, New City Chicago, the Bergen Record, Twitchfilm.net, Washington Square News, Columbia Spectator, Video Business, indieWIRE, Video Store, and Salon.com.
He has served on juries at the Chicago International Film Festival, Dokfest: the Munich Documentary Festival, and the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Czech Republic).
"[a] left-field distribution house."
Archive of press coverage of
Quotes about the Pioneer under Privett:
"Living proof that New York City still rocks. . . . . .the go-to place
for young filmmakers whose movies are too wild and crazy. . . the
Pioneer Theater has become something of a curator for the new
generation of inexpensive, digital movies], presenting the best of
these handmade films . . . their programming always picks talent that's
worth watching. . . pearls grow from a speck of grit, and there are
treasures aplenty down here among the shoestring budgets."
"Whenever I can, I try to plug the Pioneer Theater in New York's East Village, which is doing the movie gods' work on earth."
"Things get a bit nuttier at places like [the] Pioneer Theater, which shows an utterly indefinable array of films."
"Ray Privett...did wonders as programmer for [the] Two Boots Pioneer Theater...."
"Nobody in this small town is more supportive of local independent filmmakers than the Pioneer. Period."
"[the] Pioneer Theater is a true trailblazer, going out on a limb every night to present the most eclectic selection of everything available on film (and video)."
"Much more fun than the Sunshine or the IFC or the Angelika."
"The Pioneer's programmers display a keen eye for genre flicks, strange indies, and other cult oddities that call to mind the midnight movies of the past."
"The best little filmhouse in NYC!"
- DreadCentral.com
Cinema Purgatorio's clients and collaborators include:
- rock band the Flaming Lips ("The greatest U.S. band today" - The Guardian) and Warner Brothers Records for public exhibition of their film Christmas on Mars: A Fantastical Film Freakout Featuring the Flaming Lips (70 plus cities, and counting);
- Lorber HT Digital, Lorber Films, and Alive Mind Media for distribution label management (facilitating approximately 24 releases per year, on platforms including "theatrical," "semi-theatrical," educational, home video, and digital download);
- New York City independent horror filmmaker and financier Larry Fessenden for projects including I Can See You, directed by Graham Reznick;
- filmmaker Lech Majewski, who was hailed in 2006 with a rare, full, mid-career retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, and also had a specialized theatrical tour organized by International Film Circuit, followed by a DVD release of four titles through Kino International.
Privett left Facets in mid-2004, when he was hired as Programmer and General Manager of the Pioneer Theater in New York City. At the Pioneer, he oversaw that theater’s period of most success. He was a nearly constant presence at the Pioneer, making sure several thousand shows, configured into hundreds of distinct programs, actually went on and then were accounted for, from mid 2004 to early 2008. In his era, thousands of articles about screenings appeared in the New York Times, Post, Press, Magazine, and Sun, and also the Village Voice, Time Out New York, Gothamist, the Reeler, on Fox News International, and in many, many other outlets. Filmmakers and intellectuals who appeared at the Pioneer in that era included, among hundreds of others, Angelo Badalamenti, Michale Boganim, Douglas Buck, Larry Cohen, Larry Fessenden, Luis Guzman, Hal Hartley, Aaron Katz, John Landis, Malcolm MacDowell, Lech Majewski, Reverend Jen Miller, Bill Plympton, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Andrew W.K., S.T. VanAirsdale, and internet visionaries including Lawrence Lessig and the founders of Blip.tv and Rocketboom.com.
Privett founded Cinema Purgatorio LLC in late 2007. In early 2008, he chose to leave the Pioneer, because he thought he could be more effective in film world activity as his own boss under Cinema Purgatorio, and to work on other performing arts related endeavors. To facilitate some of that work, Cinema Purgatorio installed Cinema Purgatorio @ KGB / Kraine, a collapsible cinema that functions as an extension to a stage theater within a former speakeasy and Ukrainian-American Socialist Social club.
Privett is author of Amos Gitai: Exile and Atonement, published in English by Cinema Purgatorio and in French by Editions Cinemaction / Le Septieme Art. He has published in popular and scholarly journals including Millennium Film Journal, Cineaste, Senses of Cinema, KinoEye / Central Europe Review, The Reeler, International Documentary, Visual Anthropology Review, TDR: The Journal of Performance Studies, DOX: The Magazine of the European Documentary Network, and elsewhere.
Privett has been quoted or cited in outlets including the New York Times, the Guardian, Wired Magazine, the Reeler, the Chicago Reader, the Village Voice, AM New York, the New York Post, Variety, the Jewish Week, Fangoria, the New York Sun, НОВОЕ РУССКОЕ СЛОВО, Dziennik Związkowy, Nowy Dziennik, Moviemaker Magazine, New City Chicago, the Bergen Record, Twitchfilm.net, Washington Square News, Columbia Spectator, Video Business, indieWIRE, Video Store, and Salon.com.
He has served on juries at the Chicago International Film Festival, Dokfest: the Munich Documentary Festival, and the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Czech Republic).
Quotes about Cinema Purgatorio:
"Cinema Purgatorio has taken Christmas on Mars to places we never thought possible! And we dream big! Thanks for everything!"- Scott Booker, Manager, the Flaming Lips
"[a] left-field distribution house."
- Wired Magazine
"...we’re gonna continue partnering with him because Ray is a great,
hard worker. He has helped us on a lot of movies, and it’s time for us
to team up in public instead of him just slaving away in the dark.”
- Larry Fessenden, Producer and Director, Head of Glass Eye Pix Studio
Archive of press coverage of
Privett's era at the Pioneer
Quotes about the Pioneer under Privett:
"Living proof that New York City still rocks. . . . . .the go-to place
for young filmmakers whose movies are too wild and crazy. . . the
Pioneer Theater has become something of a curator for the new
generation of inexpensive, digital movies], presenting the best of
these handmade films . . . their programming always picks talent that's
worth watching. . . pearls grow from a speck of grit, and there are
treasures aplenty down here among the shoestring budgets."
- Grady Hendrix, New York Sun
(quotes gathered from four separate articles)
(quotes gathered from four separate articles)
"Whenever I can, I try to plug the Pioneer Theater in New York's East Village, which is doing the movie gods' work on earth."
- Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com
"Things get a bit nuttier at places like [the] Pioneer Theater, which shows an utterly indefinable array of films."
- Seth Kugel, New York Times
"Ray Privett...did wonders as programmer for [the] Two Boots Pioneer Theater...."
- V.A. Musetto, NY Post
"Nobody in this small town is more supportive of local independent filmmakers than the Pioneer. Period."
- S.T. VanAirsdale, TheReeler.com
"[the] Pioneer Theater is a true trailblazer, going out on a limb every night to present the most eclectic selection of everything available on film (and video)."
- Andrew Aber, Village Voice "Best of NYC"
"Much more fun than the Sunshine or the IFC or the Angelika."
- New York Press "Best of New York"
"The Pioneer's programmers display a keen eye for genre flicks, strange indies, and other cult oddities that call to mind the midnight movies of the past."
- Tony Timpone, Fangoria Magazine
"The best little filmhouse in NYC!"
- DreadCentral.com
