Dispatch 01
Dear Friends,
Welcome to The Strata.
I am an independent documentary filmmaker. I’ve worked as a producer and a cameraperson on a lot of movies, including an Oscar winner. I recently finished Flood, my first feature film as a director. It tells a moving and funny story about a family — my own — which is closely knit and deeply divided by religion. The film will premiere theatrically in NYC and on PBS Independent Lens in Summer 2026. Right now, it’s playing film festivals around the world. I’m excited to grow our audience, which I hope will include you!
This newsletter, published bi-weekly, will include:
A serialized story that gives insight into my filmmaking and storytelling methods
Updates on and opportunities to join the Flood Impact Campaign
Resources + plugs for independent artists
Thank you for joining me!
Katy
Lost Worlds and Fresh Finds
There’s a reason western Kansas has a lot of rolling hills. It is an ancient seabed. 80 million years ago, the prairie was submerged under a shallow inland sea. Over time, its fanged sea monsters and giant fishes compressed into fossils.
It all looks like dirt to me, but the paleontologists I’m filming with have trained their eyes to spot the tiniest edges of fossils that, when patiently unearthed, could be as tiny as a shark’s tooth or massive as a fully articulated Xiphactinus.
Like filmmakers, fossil hunters start early, trek miles with gear, stop to save stranded turtles, and negotiate with landowners to gain access to stunning locations. Both practices require persistence and technical mastery. While I’m weighing whether to stop down on my f-stop to increase a lens’s depth of field, they’re contemplating the double-hinged nature of mosasaur jaws.1
I keep one eye glued to my monitor and the other on the slippery chalk as I follow the fossil collectors into shallow canyons. Each step down in the stratigraphy — the layers — takes us 10,000 years back in time.
I am moved by their rigor and determination.
I am grateful for their openness.
There’s just one thing with the fossil collectors that I am not thrilled about.
After hearing my story, they agree, unanimously, that I must call my dad.
To be continued in the next dispatch.
Film Screenings
Since October 2025, Flood has played IDFA (WINNER “Special Mention”), Tallgrass Film Festival (WINNER Jury + Audience Awards for Best Kansas Feature), New Orleans Film Festival, and Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. Some of our upcoming screenings include:
One World Film Festival - Prague - March 12, 2026
DCTV - NYC theatrical run - June 19-25, 2026
Independent Lens - PBS premiere - July 13, 2026
Impact Launch
Festival screenings have inspired audiences from Wichita to Amsterdam to share stories about divisions in their own families. Our Impact Campaign will build on this by using screenings, workshops, and events to bridge divides and to hold space for survivors of religious trauma.
We are actively seeking to partner with organizations working on:
Family estrangement
Religious divides, including faith-based v. scientific worldviews
the Bridging Community, which targets political polarization
To inquire, please email us here.
How You Can Help Us in 5 Minutes
Share this newsletter with your network to help us grow
Check out the Flood poster with original artwork by Ray Troll and Erik Peterson
Follow @flooddoc on IG
Seen Flood at a festival? Leave a Letterboxd review
Other Current Docs on Which I Filmed
Adam’s Apple (dir. Amy Jenkins, prod. Brit Fryer) is premiering at SXSW + CPH:DOX. I filmed intermittently with Amy, her trans son Adam, and their loving family for years. My camerawork forms a small part of this intimate, fiercely independent, and courageous film about an American family.
Who Moves America (dir. Yael Bridge, prod. Yoni Golijov, Mars Verrone, and Jeremy Flood) premiered at True/False. I filmed with this team as they worked tirelessly to capture the stories of organizing UPS workers. They need your support.
See you next time!
Mosasaurs were swimming reptiles with expanding jaws that enabled them to swallow prey whole, like a snake engulfing a mouse with a single chomp.