MEET THE FILMMAKERS

Cathy Stevulak

Cathy Stevulak

Director / Producer

Cathy was born in a small coal-mining town in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. She
works internationally as a public affairs and international development consultant and is now based in Washington State, USA. Twenty years ago, while living in Bangladesh and working as a senior adviser with United Nations Development Programme, she met many women who were quietly revolutionizing their own lives through art and craft, looking to their own culture and resources to do so. Their resilience reminds her of the struggles in the stories of her ancestors, their inspiration a glow that needs to be shared.
THREADS is her debut as a documentary director.

Leonard Hill

Leonard Hill

Producer

Leonard was a U.S. diplomat posted to Bangladesh when he first met Surayia Rahman and became fascinated by her art. He has worked with Director Cathy Stevulak to assemble a multinational team of award-winning film makers and to participate in outreach events and discussions of THREADS worldwide.

Catherine Masud

Catherine Masud

Co-Producer

Catherine Masud is an award-winning filmmaker with over 30 years of experience in producing, directing and editing. She has worked in both documentary and fictional genres. Much of that time was spent living and working in Bangladesh, where in partnership with her late husband Tareque Masud she produced (among other films) The Clay Bird (producer and editor), which won the Critics’ Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Ontorjatra (co-director and editor), A Kind of
Childhood (co-director and
editor), Song of Freedom (co-director/producer and editor), and Runway (producer and editor). Since 2015 she has been based in the US. Her latest film is the documentary feature A Double Life (director/co-producer), which premiered in 2023 at the Mill Valley Film Festival and won the Audience Favorite Award. Her films have screened at major
festivals, been theatrically released in many countries, and broadcast on such outlets as Turner Classic Movies (US), Channel 4 (UK), ARTE (France), TV Ontario, Telequebec, and SBS (Australia). She is also an Assistant Professor of film and human rights at the University of Connecticut.

Rita Meher

Rita Meher

Editor

Rita Meher has been working in the video industry for over 20 years, making her debut in television career as a producer in Japan. Born and brought up in India, Rita made her first short film Citizenship 101 in 2002 based on her own immigrant experience. She was also the production manager and assistant editor for Nazrah, a Muslim Woman’s Perspective that won many festival awards. Currently she works as freelance video producer, editor and instructor in Seattle. She is the founder and director of Tasveer, a South Asian film organization. Every year she directs two major festivals called Aaina: South Asian Women Focus and Seattle’s Independent South Asian Film Festival.

OUR TEAM

Dina Hossain has spent the last 25 years creating award-winning current affairs and
social issues documentaries. She started her career as an assistant editor on Tareque
and Catherine Masud’s documentary, Muktir Gaan (Song of Freedom). Before returning
to Bangladesh in 2010, she worked for many years in the USA, at PBS flagship station
Thirteen/WNET. She has co-produced films for New York Times Television, BBC,
Discovery, Frontline (PBS) and Nightline (ABC). Her work has taken her around the
world to Afghanistan, India, Iran, Nigeria, Malaysia, Kenya and Palestine.  She currently
produces advocacy and educational videos for international and national NGOs on
issues of gender, economic development and the environment. She also teaches
documentary film at BRAC University.

The late Mishuk Munier was a news and documentary cameraman specializing in assignments in Asia. He had over 25 years of experience working in a variety of formats, both film and video. He worked as a cameraman for BBC World Service, WTN, ARD1, Channel 4, ETV, CBC, and Discovery Health – in Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan, Singapore, Malaysia, and Canada. In addition to his camera work, Mishuk designed and set the newsroom for Ekushey Television, Bangladesh’s first private terrestrial channel, as Director News Operations. He also taught broadcast journalism at the University of Dhaka, and received a Master’s degree in Journalism. At the time of his untimely death in 2011 Mishuk was CEO and Director of News Operations for ATN’s 24-hour news channel in Dhaka.

Tobie Caplette is a graduate of Capilano University, Indigenous Independent Digital Filmmaking Diploma Program. She is the producer/director/cinematographer for several student films as well as a current production entitled Beyond Grief.

Tanveer Alam Shawjeeb is a singer/musician/composer/arranger with over 25 years of
experience in performance producing, directing and editing. He has worked in both
documentary and fictional genres. His major credits include “Bari kothay bolo” and “Mon
Uchaton,” solo albums that won the best debut album award and best Nazrul Album by
popular choice at the Citycell-Channel i Music awards in Dhaka; Runway (background
score), a film by the late Tareque Masud; Rajputtur (background score, foley, and sound
designing), a children’s film. Shawjeeb is also known for creating the first acapella choir
in Bangladesh named, “Choir Bangla.” Shawjeeb graduated as a sound engineer from
Toronto Film School and is now the owner of his own audiovisual studio, “Music Jungle,”
situated in Maghbazar, Dhaka.

One of the earliest supporters of the Threads project, Anil contributed hundreds of iconic photos of Surayia, the women and the art.

Paul Miller, a graduate of The Seattle Art Institute, is a freelance sound editor, and an editor at Bad Animals.

Steve Barsotti is a sound artist and educator. He has taught at Columbia College in
Chicago, the Art Institute of Seattle, Cornish College of the Arts, The Seattle Film
Institute, Shoreline Community College and the San Diego Community College District.
He owns Ragmatic Audio.

Tom Schlesinger was the story consultant on Nowhere in Africa, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, and Beyond Silence nominated for an Academy Award. Tom was also the story consultant on the HBO documentaries Prom Night in Mississippi, with Morgan Freeman, and the Emmy nominated A Small Act. Tom has taught screenwriting seminars for Pixar Animation Studios, Lucasfilm Ltd., the American Film Institute, the Writers Guild of America, the Directors Guild of America, and the National Film Schools in Berlin and Munich.

ADVISERS

Dr. Niaz Zaman

Niaz is a well-known expert on nakshi kantha and the author of The Art of Kantha Embroidery.

Lesley Armstrong, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design

Frances Dorsey, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design

Tom Jones, Halo Group

Natasha Lili Klauss, Worldview Productions

Tim McMahon, Educator

Robin Muller, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design

Mary Ann Peters, former US Ambassador to Bangladesh

Oren Rudavsky, Oren Rudavsky Films

Polly Wells, Producer, Writer and Story Editor

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