Today we’d like to introduce you to Katha Cato.
Hi Katha, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My name is Katha Cato and I am the Executive Director of the Queens World Film Festival. My husband, Donald Preston Cato is our Artistic Director and we recently wrapped our 11th Annual Festival, our 2nd one during Covid. The first festival during Covid took place on March 19, 2020, and was broadcast live from our apartment as we worked around the clock to bring 191 films from 31 nations to a world that had suddenly shut down. As promised, we ran for 11 days and over 30,000 people tuned in. It was an incredible opportunity to bring those voices forward, to be part of a system that made sure the films were seen, to make sure that filmmakers were heard in that eerie silence.
Of course, we thought the pandemic would be over by now. We usually run in March, however for 2021, we pushed the festival to June, again, certain that everything would be back to……normal. However, that was not the case and we ran a completely virtual festival of 198 films online with 142 of those films also screening for socially distanced and grateful live audiences in 5 venues across Queens.
It was one of the hardest things we have ever done.
And we have done some hard things.
I am a stepmom and a grandma.
I am an artist. I am a producer.
I’m bossy.
I’m a 5-time cancer survivor.
A wife of over 30 years.
And we are making our way through the pandemic day by day, event by event, connection by connection.
We are determined to be part of what helps or heals.
I just turned 64 years old. And most of those years were good.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Coming from a small town and making my way to NYC to run a festival that was just named as one of the top 50 in the world by MovieMaker Magazine has been a journey that was never ever easy. Of course, as an older white woman, I had doors that were just automatically opened for me, but it was still never ever close to easy.
I just don’t do easy. I’m from the desert, and that can be a rough place.
I grew up in the southeast tip of California, a few miles from the Mexicali and California border where my parents were deeply involved in the agriculture and equestrian community. While I too participated and earned many trophies in horse riding competitions, I really wanted to be an artist of any kind. Something that was not normal in our small town of Brawley California. However, I was determined.
I earned a BA from California Polytechnic University in Pomona, an MFA from the University of Oregon, and in the ’80s, moved to New York with my theatre company ‘For Play Improvised Theatre’. We pioneered the Improvisational Herald format (the long-form) into the NY Improv Comedy scene and I won a MAC Award (Manhattan Association of Cabarets) for Best Comedy, two Backstage Magazine Bistro Awards for Best Director and Best Comedy and NY Post’s Bill Ervolino named me as one of the year’s ‘Most Exciting’ Improvisers in 1989.
Shortly after Preston and I married, his children came to live with us and I transitioned into Social Services at the historic Henry Street Settlement. For many years I served first as the Arts-in-Education Coordinator and then Director of After-School and Camp Services where I was responsible for six after-school sites and three camps. I am also a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Business Executive Education Program and during my tenure at Henry Street, I was recognized by NY State Education for exemplary After-School Programming and received the 2015 PASEsetter Award for leadership in the field.
I pride myself on saying that I always leave everything on the field.
However, I soon learned the price of that kind of complete physical and mental commitment.
in 2012, I suffered a minor stroke and abnormalities in my platelets were discovered.
In 2013 a large mass was identified in my bile duct and liver and 4 weeks later, I was in surgery, giving up 75% of my liver and a lot of other pieces from everything surrounding the liver.
I did several months of chemotherapy, every Thursday so I could recover Friday, Saturday, Sunday and return to work on Mondays. However on the last day of chemo, thyroid cancer was detected. More surgery. And then the original cancer came back and I took radiation therapy.
I was great until 2016 when the cancer came back on my lung and in 2017 I did more surgery.
Now, I’m scanned every 6 months and just months from that coveted 5 year mark of ‘No Evidence of Change’. I have lots of Drs. and I know lots of big medical words.
However, I also know about hope, determination, commitment, and survival.
In the last 18 months every system that exists on our planet has been rattled or broken – and some of them justifiably so. I believe that we must find new ways to be with each other. We must find new ways to bring the best of ourselves forward.
I believe in the restorative power of art, art-making. I believe in belonging to each other. I believe in gathering.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
The Queens World Film Festival is an annual event that is programmed thematically, grouping like-minded films that are exploring similar themes together to create a specific cinematic event. Each BLOCK of films is followed by a live Q&A with filmmakers, producers, and actors. Thematic programming makes it very easy for us to market the BLOCKS to audiences who are interested in the themes explored by those films, guaranteeing that we help filmmakers find their audiences.
After the festival, we actively look for Encore Screening venues for festival alumni, bringing exciting indie films to NY City museums, schools, parks, beaches, community, and youth centers which enables new and underserved audiences to experience these unique films. In 2020 and into 2021 we added live broadcasts with screenings and filmmaker panels to our offerings, giving us the opportunity to connect filmmakers and film lovers from all over the planet in real-time, even during a pandemic.
Our ranks are filled with a constantly rotating roster of interns from colleges, film schools, and youth development organizations who work tirelessly to keep our systems and records in order. While our mission statement speaks to the drive to engage the community in film and media events – internally, our mission statement is just 2 words: The Films.
We do whatever it takes to screen each film with the right films in the right venue for interested audiences.
When we stand at the back of the screening and we watch all of the people laugh at the exact same moment or when we stand in the wings of a screening and we see the blue lights on the upturned voices, it is incredibly special. It feels as if we are part of a world that understands that we are more alike than we are different.
In April 2021 we were notified that we are ranked in the top 50 Film Festivals worldwide worth submitting to. That is an industry title, it says that filmmakers all over the world understand that we curate the festival to ignite conversation. Our festival reminds everyone that from the beginning of time we have gathered in the darkened caves, around the flicking lights of ancestral flames to share our stories. We have upgraded the caves, the flickering lights are now zeroes and ones, but gathering to share our stories remains vital to our survival.
It is an honor to be part of that tradition.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs, or other resources you think our readers should check out?
Oh my – I live by Heal Your Body by Louise Hay. It’s a book! I’m sure there are all sorts of digital ways to digest her materials, however, this is a paper-bound, dog-eared book that has been bedside for many years. She lists body parts or ailments alphabetically and gives affirmations to say if you are suffering some kind of ailment or challenge.
With as much time as I have spent in hospitals, I have found myself on tables and in machines with all sorts of tubes connected to really inconvenient locations on my body. I have also found that almost everything done in a hospital room happens in 20 – 60 second bursts. I learned how to slow my breathing waaaaay down and repeat selected affirmations to myself over and over and over and over.
I made one up from a combination of all of my icky things that have happened to my little body.
“I walk peacefully and gracefully into each new phase of my life. I know what I need to know and I can learn what I need to learn. I lay down and let go of the things I no longer have a need for.”
That last part, about letting go of things I no longer need is a little challenging, but I keep working at it.
Contact Info:
- Email: kathacato@gmail.com
- Website: queensworldfilmfestival.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/queensworldfilmfest/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/QueensWorldFilmFestival
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/QueensWorldFilm
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwUGkAKfLF-bF9FnrCx3dTg
Image Credits
Ken Brown
Andrew Ross
Queens World Film Festival
