Ray Cleve Privett

Ray C. Privett, 46, died unexpectedly of natural causes on February 10, 2024, in Progreso, Yucatán, Mexico. 

He was born on May 27, 1977, in Edina, Minnesota, to Ray and Kathy (Johnson) Privett. 

Ray described growing up in Duluth with his self-effacing wit: he was “the definition of the average American: middle-class, raised Protestant with principally Northern European heritage, much of it known but some of it unknown, living almost equidistant from the Atlantic and the Pacific (and the Arctic, though that seems less important).” 

Ray attended the Marshall School, New York University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of Minnesota-Duluth, earning degrees in linguistics, cinema studies, and accounting.

 Professionally, Ray managed Facets Multimedia’s import and releasing line in Chicago, during which time he spearheaded the international campaign that freed Iranian director Tahmineh Milani from her imprisonment. 

As the indefatigable programmer for New York’s Pioneer Theater, he cultivated a vibrant home for radically independent film. A profile of him in the Wall Street Journal marveled that Ray “worked with seemingly every art-house and nonprofit cinema institution in New York.”

 For film festivals from Chicago to the Czech Republic, Ray served on prize juries and curated innovative retrospectives. His insatiable curiosity found an outlet in a wide array of publications, including reviews in major film journals; a book about the director Amos Gitai; an anthropological study of Duluth’s Fourth Fest from an Ojibwe perspective; and interviews with avant-garde filmmakers from Cameroon, China, Israel, Mali, Mauritania, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, and Yugoslavia.

 An entrepreneurial spirit, Ray founded his own booking company, Cinema Purgatorio, which collaborated with artists such as Low, Björk, Sigur Rós, and The Flaming Lips. He produced multiple documentaries, and even made a cameo appearance in the aptly titled “Cinemania.”

 Over the last decade, Ray channeled his business acumen into a new career as an accountant, employed first by Film at Lincoln Center and most recently by the ride-sharing startup inDrive.

 Post-Covid, Ray enthusiastically adopted a nomadic lifestyle, visiting friends and family in his unique vehicles. He had a knack for finding free and fast internet connections, hot showers, cozy couches, and convivial meals with his globe-spanning community. During these memorable visits, Ray’s ever-active mind shone—through movie clips, through musical connections, and through literary quotations—as he pursued his lifelong quest for knowledge and understanding of the people he loved. 

He is survived by his parents; his sister April Privett (Bryan Groth); his niece and nephew Nissa and Walton Groth; his aunts and uncles May (Fred) Broman, Pete (Cathy) Privett, Gary (Joanne) Johnson, and Roger (Nadine) Johnson; his cousins Andrew Broman, Annalisa Mines, Faith Privett, Casey Johnson, and Marina Udd; and countless friends and colleagues, including Jeremy Rubin and Amanda Webb and their children John and Julia.

 Ray was preceded in death by his grandparents Ray and Mildred Privett, Phyllis Fournier, and Merlin Johnson; his Aunt Kay (Privett) Johnsen; his Uncle Jay Privett; and his cousin Brianna Johnson.

 A visitation will be held on Monday, April 1st, from 5-7PM at Dougherty Funeral Home, 600 East Second Street, Duluth, MN.  Visitation continues Tuesday April 2nd, from 10AM until the 11AM Memorial Service at First Lutheran Church, 1100 East Superior Street, Duluth, MN.  Arrangements by Dougherty Funeral Home (218) 727-3555.

 Memorials in Ray’s name may be directed to the Duluth Library Foundation or the Duluth Depot Foundation’s “Arts for All Scholarship” program, which supports youth and young adults pursuing art and culture opportunities.