Fern Levitt

Fern Levitt is a Canadian-born animal activist, documentary producer and director. Her films focus on human rights, the Holocaust, discrimination against African-Americans in the US, animal welfare, and socially relevant issues. She is best known for her 2016 documentary Sled Dogs, which aired on the CBC Documentary channel. It explores the Iditarod, raising allegations of animal cruelty among breeders, trainers and kennels of the event's sled dogs. Fern has personally interviewed several world leaders including President Clinton, President Bush Sr. President Vaclav Havel of the Republic of Czech and Fern was chosen to direct a documentary of former President Mikhail Gorbachev to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Perestroika and Glasnost. Her film was presented in Washington at an evening honouring the former President of the Soviet Union. Her most recent film “The Stolen Life of Lucy the Elephant” is the first film to expose the cruelty of keeping elephants in zoos. This film was inspired by Lucy, the lone elephant who has lived for over 40 years at the Edmonton Zoo and the relentless fight by the activists to send her to a sanctuary in California.