The Garden That You've Planted

Born and raised in a theatre family throughout western Canada, Kathleen Mann grew up around the dialogue that happens between directors, writers, and actors, inspiring her to join the conversation. She had many experiences acting on stage as a child but always found herself drawn to the concept of creating worlds. Her love of film was solidified when, at age 12, she enrolled in a summer program at the Gulf Islands Film and Television School. She wrote, directed and edited her first short film, and a seed was planted. Kathleen went on to graduate from an ACE-IT Film and Broadcasting program in High School. After school, she took a bit of a detour into the world of Retail Management, but even there she created training videos for her staff and continued to make shorts on her own. She enrolled at the Langara College Film Arts program in the directing stream in January 2016, where she directed two short films, one of which has been screened at multiple international film festivals. In June 2017, Kathleen traveled to Lanzhou, China to direct a short documentary with the Looking China program. Kathleen continues to collaborate with a network of local filmmakers, using grassroots filmmaking to help tell each other's stories.