Tara Jeffrey
A memorial fund has been established at Wilfrid Laurier University, in honour of Sarnia’s Ravi Srinivasan, a champion of Canadian film who died earlier this year at age 37.
More than $10,000 has been raised towards the Ravi Srinivasan Memorial Award in Film Studies, through the university’s crowdfunding program, ‘Hawkstarter.’
“The goal is to establish an endowed award to recognize a student in Film and English Literature at Laurier who demonstrates community involvement and academic achievement,” the university noted.
Srinivasan studied Film and English Literature at Laurier after graduating St. Patrick’s High School, then moved on to post-graduate studies in film and television at Sheridan College.
He landed a job as a programming associate for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in 2013, then launched his passion project — the South West International Film Festival (SWIFF) in Sarnia in 2015.
In 2019 he became a programmer for Canadian and International feature films, then took on a full-time role as Senior Manager, Festival Programming in 2022.
He also served as senior programmer of National Canadian Film Day and international programmer for the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.
His death sent shockwaves through his hometown, and the broader Canadian arts and culture community, prompting an outpouring of condolences, along with donations to help cover the family's funeral costs.HAWKstarter projects are led by Laurier students, staff and faculty, the university said, and “showcase the depth and breadth of the many ways that the Laurier community can make a real-world difference," and can be set up in memoriam.
For more on the Ravi Srinivasan Memorial Award, visit: https://hawkstarter.ca/Ravi-Srinivasan/