Jon Raymond

Jon Raymond is an independent filmmaker, writer, and photographer, while holding a day job as a web developer in the financial sector. From 1970 to 1974 he studied photography and film at the Philadelphia College of Art (now known as the University of the Arts, after merging with the then Philadelphia Academy of Performing Arts).

Just a few years prior, David Lynch attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Art a few blocks away. Jon finds that it’s no coincidence that he sees filmmaking as an art and is greatly inspired by David Lynch. Unlike Lynch, Jon did not secure a place in filmmaking and moved on to eventually join the Air Force in what seemed like a 180-degree turn from his past convictions against the Vietnam War. But it was peacetime and Jon needed work like most people who join the military. This was an adventure for him and he enjoyed seeing the world as a flight engineer, until the Gulf War happened. He moved on to graduate school in Communication at the University of Delaware (1991 – 1994). This led him into a computer-programming career and then to employment in Los Angeles in 2000. There he fell in love again with filmmaking. He took on studio extra work and student and short film roles as an actor. He started writing screenplays and then began producing and directing his own short dramatic and documentary films.

With the presidency of George Bush and then the 2008 election between McCain and Obama, Jon became very interested in politics and took on a grass roots blogging stint with the Huffington Post. His involvements lead him to make documentary clips for more blogs and eventually a feature film titled Got Healthcare?. He started a feature endeavor for an anti-war film in early 2009. There was a hard drive crash and loss of edited work, plus the anti-war movement fizzled out with the health care activism.