Catbird Productions Inc was founded in 2006 by independent producer KATARINA SOUKUP, who brings with her almost ten years of experience working as documentary and multimedia producer with award-winning, internationally acclaimed Inuit filmmakers Igloolik Isuma Productions, the creative team behind the Canadian cinema classic Atanarjuat The Fast Runner (2000), winner of the Camera d’or at Cannes 2001.

Soukup founded Catbird Productions with a desire to produce exciting, socially-relevant independent documentary, fiction, and interactive projects which push the boundaries of their respective genres.  As a producer, she seeks out projects that tell powerful human stories and reveal the extraordinary in the seemingly ordinary. She is particularly interested in films about music, art, culture, the environment, and human rights.

Under Catbird, she has already produced Umiaq Skin Boat (Official selection, Hot Docs 2008) and Kakalakkuvik – Where the Children Dwell (2009) by award-winning director Jobie Weetaluktuk, as well as Tusarnituuq! Nagano in the Land of the Inuit (2009), a documentary by Félix Lajeunesse about the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and conductor Kent Nagano’s first ever tour of the Canadian Arctic. Tusarnituuq! had its World Premiere at the 2009 Montreal World Film Festival and aired on Radio-Canada, ARTV, APTN and SVT Sweden.

Before focusing on filmmaking, Soukup’s sound art projects, such as Radio Bicyclette, Live from the Tundra, and Arctic Phonographies were presented at art venues in Austria, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, the USA, and in Canada at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). Keen attention to sound remains an essential aspect of all her films.

In 2008, Soukup had the privilege of working with mentors Jennifer Baichwal, Elizabeth Klink, and Connie Field at the Art of Documentary workshop (Praxis Centre for Screenwriters/NFB) in Vancouver, and was selected to participate in the Talent Lab at the 2009 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival. She is currently developing a number of different documentary, fiction and interactive projects for Catbird, including Under the City, a cross-platform documentary for Radio-Canada, and Last Days of Vaudeville, a feature documentary for Super Channel. She holds an MA in Media Studies from Concordia University, Montreal.