​STORYTELLING IS LIKE FLYING

Katharine gave up her promising career as a trapeze artist to become a filmmaker, driven by her desire to tell visual stories. Her work continues to be informed by the ethereal sensation of freedom that flying brings; nothing compares to the feeling of gliding through the air, the moment of weightlessness and the exhilaration as your wrists are grasped in a perfectly timed catch. For her, creating is a process of overcoming fears, forgetting self, processing life, interpreting people and getting to a place not visited before. There is no greater joy than connecting to an idea, letting it guide you, and then trusting in the process to get to an end. 

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IN THE BEGINNING

Katharine’s life began in Nigeria, where she was conceived, and the year her parents ended six years of life in Africa. Her father was a New York Times foreign correspondent covering the upheavals of post-colonial Africa. He reported on the warfare that for almost a decade engulfed nations like Congo, which was newly liberated, and Angola, which was struggling for independence. But it was after he voiced support for Biafra's independence that the Nigerian government put a price on his head, and the family fled to Paris. Katharine’s first words were in French; she is still fluent. Thanks to her curious parents, her world has been a wonderful mixture of East, West, North, and South.

ON FINDING FILM

She first discovered filmmaking in her late teens, constructing homemade animated films by bleaching, scratching, and drawing directly onto discarded film she pulled from dumpsters outside the New York City Kodak building. She's been telling stories through moving images ever since.

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SUPPORTING THE EDITING COMMUNITY

Highlights of mentorship, teaching and jury participation:​

• NYU News & Documentary MFA Program - Masterclass: Building tension in the edit, 2026​

• Asian American International Film Festival - Sikay Tang Critical Lens Award: Jury Member, 2026

• DOC NYC - Finding and Shaping Your Main Characters: Editing Panelist, 2021

• Asian American International Film Festival - Best Documentary: Jury Member, 2018

• DOC NYC - Grabbing Your Audience's Attention: Editing Panelist, 2018

• Montclair Film Festival - The Art of the Promo: Editing Panelist, 2014

• AMC Networks - Internship Program: Mentor, 2011-2014

• Columbia University - Lab in Fiction Film, Professor - BFA senior thesis students, 2000