We recently connected with Katharine League and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Katharine, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
As cheesy as it might sound, I think a large chunk of my work ethic comes from where and how I grew up. The first part of that equation is the Midwest. It’s a little hard to explain, but I’ve always felt like Midwesterners knew how to put their heads down, get stuff done, and in the midst of it all find joy in the little things. Neighbors helping neighbors wasn’t just a colloquialism, it was what we were taught to do. You hold the door if you can, you lend a helping hand. I’ve lived a couple of different places now and I can tell you it doesn’t exist everywhere in the same capacity. Some days I am more conscious of my actions than others, but the instinct to be there for others and those around you is always there at the baseline.
For the second part of the equation, I have to give credit to my parents. My parents have owned a dance studio for over thirty years now, and like any small business, it can be a lot of work. By the time I knew my letters and numbers I was helping check-in the recital costumes on our living room floor. Before music was attached to our cellphones, I clocked many hours alongside my mom in the music section of Barnes & Noble or Borders sifting for songs that would work for a piece in that year’s dance recital. To this day, if a song comes on I think she would like to use, I drop everything and send it her way. My siblings and I watched our parents put in long hours, and sometimes, being along for the ride, we would too.
It wasn’t until a lot later that I realized just how much I had learned and absorbed simply being around it all, and perhaps how different my approach to tackling tasks is due to these experiences. As such, I learned one other crucial bit of information. Work ethic isn’t rooted in a paycheck. Money comes and money goes, you can’t wholly control that. You have to search for value in other places. For me, I find joy in helping those around me. Contributing to the happiness of others somehow fuels me. So that is what I seek out, both as a person and in my work as a filmmaker, to make others feel seen. Maybe it is through the story I am telling, or maybe it is with the team I am working with behind the scenes. Yes, I have larger, overarching goals, but ultimately looking for the little joys and accepting that they should be as worthwhile as any larger accolade, that is what makes my work ethic what it is on the day to day.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Hello there, my name is Kate. I’m a filmmaker who specializes in writing, producing, and directing. One of my biggest internal challenges has always been feeling like I enjoy both technical and creative tasks. There is sort of an unwritten rule I think that people tend to be one or other, but I always felt unfulfilled when I tried to put myself resolutely in one of those boxes. Math was my favorite subject in school, but I would still come home and bury myself in a book, movie, or tv show. I thought it was simply that we all enjoy our escapes, and to an extent I suspect that is true, but in my head, I’d often plop myself in the middle of a story, theorize how it could be different, how it could continue on, or even pretend to be a character I thought would fit well in the world. Stories brought me joy, and that feeling never left, even as I grew up.
After high school I pursued my bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering and went on to work as an electrical engineer and lighting designer for several years. However, my inkling to tell stories stuck around. One day during the Covid-19 pandemic, I impulsively picked up my computer and started looking up master’s programs in film. Not long after that, I landed in Savannah, GA at Savannah College of Art and Design, where I gained my foundational knowledge in the field, and began my filmmaking journey.
My latest project is called “Down to the Last Touch.” It is a short film showcasing a high school swimmer battling with performance anxiety on the day of a big meet. The film highlights the mental health relationship between athletes and their sport, and hopefully serves to aide similar modern-day conversations promoted by individuals like Simone Biles and Michael Phelps. Seeing an athlete on screen every four years for the Olympics doesn’t aptly represent the hurdles these individuals face. “Down to the Last Touch” is my small way of asking audiences to pause and think about how we frame competitive athletics. You can only say so much in a short film, but I hope that this story holds the seed of a larger conversation to be had.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Three qualities I feel have been impactful on my journey so far are being dependable, observant, and persistent. I think the why on these is pretty straightforward, but I suppose my advice to improve these types of qualities is just to be cognizant of what quality or skill you want to obtain and take small steps towards them. For example, with dependability it could be a small as volunteering to do something that you normally wouldn’t, or jumping in when someone voices they need help. I think you have to find the method that works for you, but when I know I struggle in an area I have to practice putting myself in uncomfortable situations in order to grow, and although sometimes it feels like falling in the deep end, it also feels pretty good looking back from the other side.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
I am always looking for people to collaborate with. Film is a team effort and if I’ve learned anything it is that you have to surround yourself with people who feel as strongly about this fact and your story as you do. If you are a writer looking to bring a script to life or someone who doesn’t love to write but has a cool idea, DP’s looking for a director to collaborate with, post-production crew hoping to contribute to new projects, or really anyone looking for a writer/director/producer, reach out to me via Instagram and I’d love to see if we can work on a project together in the future. If anything, I spoke about here resonates with you, whether you have a project on your mind now or not, even if film isn’t your medium, please feel free to say hello! I love meeting new people and hearing their stories (and I thank you very much for taking the time to read mine), and you never know how one art might integrate with another in the future.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @the.sunshine.kate
- Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-l-80a201102
Image Credits
Brode Voigt (voigt.brode@gmail.com)
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