Katharine Asals

History

Katharine Asals has had a long career in documentary editing including award-winning films such as Kevin McMahon's Stolen Spirits of Haida Gwaii, Clint Tourangeau's Deep Inside Clint Star, Min Sook Lee's El Contrato, and Mary Ellen Davis' Tierra Madre. Katharine has made several short films, including Past History, which screened at TIFF, won a Documentary Award at the Ann Arbor Film Festival and was nominated for a Multicultural Award at the Yorkton Film Festival. She recently completed a Masters at York University, and has been presenting and publishing articles on film theory. She has taught at the Canadian Film Centre, Humber College, Sheridan College, and Ryerson.

Movies

Returning Home

Editor

Skilfully intertwining narratives concerning residential school survivors and Indigenous peoples' relationship with imperiled wild Pacific salmon, Sean Stiller's stirring documentary is a revelatory testament to strength and resilience. At the heart of the film is Phyllis Jack-Webstad, the survivor who founded the Orange Shirt Day movement. While Phyllis recounts her childhood trials to youth across the country, her relations in the Secwépemc territory near Williams Lake are contending with another outcome of colonialism: the upper Fraser River's lowest salmon runs in Canadian history.

The Lion In Your Living Room

Editor

The film is filled with fun facts that show how cats make good pets, yet in other ways are wild and untamable.

Six Miles Deep

Editor

This short documentary offers a portrait of a group of women who led their community, the largest reserve in Canada, Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve, in an historic blockade to protect their land.

Tree

Editor

Personifying Mother Earth, she walks through her domain. She observes her environment and what has happened to it. She weeps. She feels violated. Not only has man damaged her but they continue to damage each other. She sighs. She will visit and start again sometime soon.

El Contrato

Editor

This documentary from Min Sook Lee follows a poverty-stricken father from Central Mexico, along with several of his countrymen, as they make their annual migration to southern Ontario to pick tomatoes. For 8 months a year, the town's population absorbs 4,000 migrant workers who toil under conditions, and for wages, that no local would accept. Yet despite a fear of repercussions, the workers voice their desire for dignity and respect.

Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media

First Assistant Editor

A film about the noted American linguist/political dissident and his warning about corporate media's role in modern propaganda.

Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media

Animation

A film about the noted American linguist/political dissident and his warning about corporate media's role in modern propaganda.

The Canadian Delegation

Editor

In the summer of 1989, as the Soviet bloc crumbles and China fends of a democratic revolt, the head of Canada's Young Communist League leads a delegation of youth to an international student festival in one of the most isolated and enigmatic nations in the world.