Ray Barry

Director, AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center

Ray Barry has spearheaded AFI’s initiative for the rehabilitation of the Silver Theatre and creation of the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center—a state-of-the-art center for the moving image arts. For many years, he has served as the Director of AFI’s National Film Theater at the John F. Kennedy Center and has extensive experience with the technical, management and artistic issues involved in specialized film exhibition.

Barry has been instrumental in developing a wide variety of special exhibition projects for presentation throughout the United States and overseas. Project highlights include the annual European Union Film Showcase and Latin American Festivals in Washington, DC; Milos Forman’s presentation of a complete retrospective of his works in Prague (1995); and a rare American appearance by Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez with a comprehensive exhibition of the film adaptations of his works in 1997.

Active in the field both locally and nationally, Barry’s activities have included serving on the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers’ Projection Practices and Standards Committee; participating as a panelist on European Institute forums on trans-Atlantic issues, including their roundtable on “Building Cross-Cultural Markets: Next Steps for European Film;” and, most recently, serving as a member of the Slamdance 2000 Festival Jury.

Barry is also active in the Washington metropolitan community. He serves on the Boards of the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, the Greater Silver Spring Chamber of Commerce and the Episcopal Caring Response to AIDS. He has also served on the Montgomery County Executive’s Arts & Entertainment District Study Group, is an active member of the Paint Branch High School Business Advisory Council and is a graduate of Leadership Montgomery.

He holds a BA in History from Georgetown University and has done graduate work in secondary education at George Washington University.