Kate Thompson-Gorry is an award-winning documentary filmmaker known for treating delicate human stories from around the world, bringing to light diminishing cultures often linked to larger ecological issues. As a factual author for primetime television, Kate enjoys developing character-based stories with strong narrative arcs that resonate with viewers as both authentic and universal. Her latest documentaries, broadcast worldwide and screened in International Film Festivals, all follow that same philosophy:
A SHAMAN’S JOURNEY follows Kgonta Bo, 79, one of the last Bushmen traditional healers, on a quest to help a group of paleo-anthropologists solve the 44 000 year old mystery of our universal past. AMA DIVERS offers an intimate insight into the lives of the superwomen of Hegura Island, the last Japanese pearl freedivers. Set in the Karoo desert, in South Africa, KAROO COWBOY tells the story of Seun, 29, of Bushman descendant, working on a farm threatened by the menace of fracking. CHAOS IN THE KALAHARI, shot over a period of four years within the San-Bushmen, provides a rare insider’s perspective of the plight of the first people. Screened at a number of Human Rights Film Festivals, including the FIFDH, CHAOS IN THE KALAHARI was awarded an excellence award and the First Prize Documentary at the Human District International Human Rights Film Festival. And WOMEN IN SCIENCE IN AFRICA, A SILENT REVOLUTION an ode to women scientists from Africa but also from the world, offering here again a common insight into what is a global struggle of recognition of Women on the realm of Science.
As a natural continuity to her documentary work, KTG’s corporate work includes advocacy pieces and social impact films for International brands and world organisations such as LVMH, Danone, L’Oréal, Arkéma, Suez, Padding Africa, the World Innovation Summit for Education and the UNHCR.
Kate is currently working on ZIP ZAP CIRUCS, a feature length documentary for Canal+, following a group of young circus performers on a transformational journey from the tip of Africa to touring in Europe. And, as a natural continuity to her documentary work, KTG is also currently writing a narrative feature film in collaboration with the Ju|’hoansi Bushmen of the North-East fo Namibia.
Kate is English, working from Paris and Cape Town.