JANE RAY, Artistic Director, The Whicker’s World Foundation, UK

Jane Ray set up the Whicker’s World Foundation as an Artistic Director after she was persuaded to leave the BBC after 29 years. She and Alan Whicker had worked together at the BBC in London and on the island of Jersey throughout 1990s. The Whicker’s World Foundation was launched in 2015 to support emerging talent in international documentary. It is financed through the generous legacy of the UK broadcast journalist Alan Whicker.
Jane is an award-winning documentary director and investigative journalist in her own right. The move from senior BBC management has enabled her to return to this, her first love. She is in demand as speaker and trainer: at the British Film Institute, The National Film and Television School and New York University. Her own company, Cat Flap Media, has documentary work in development with the BBC, Channel 4 and Spring Films. She has worked as a panelist, mentor and decision maker for Greenhouse, GZ Film Festival, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Crossing Borders, Docs Port Incheon, the IDFA Academy, the AND Program at Busan Film Festival, Double Exposure (the Festival of Investigative Documentary Journalism) and the inaugural Dhaka Doc Lab.
The Whicker’s follows Alan’s passion for global stories and seek to support original, access driven stories that take the audience into a new or hitherto unseen world. The criteria also include ‘Being personal, but not partisan’. Wit, flair and curiosity are always welcome. The Foundation has partnerships with Sheffield Doc/Fest, Chicken and Egg Pictures, The BFI and London’s Open City Documentary Festival.