About us
Cathartic Pictures was launched by founder and producer Cathy Rodda in 2020. The business builds on her expertise in genre storytelling and in environmental documentary, disciplines that are not as disparate as may once have seemed. Cathartic Pictures works with world class storytellers, filmmakers, audience and community builders and partners to tell stories for the screen that entertain, inform and inspire.
Cathy Rodda
Founder and Producer
Cathy grew up in the wilds of far north Queensland, studied zoology and journalism, and worked as a writer/producer in advertising, marketing and video in Australia and the UK.
Yet it’s in fiction features that Cathy made her mark, starting with the multi award winning Unfinished Sky, which premiered at Toronto International Film Festival and was the 4th highest grossing Australian film of 2008.
She is highly experienced in international co-productions, including Finnish/German/Australian cult sci-fi hit Iron Sky (premiered Berlinale 2012, sold worldwide), and Danish/German/Australian action comedy Ved Verdens Ende (2009). Her most recent film was talent accelerator zombie western Bullets for the Dead (2015). She was also executive producer on Cathy Henkel’s feature documentary Rise of the Eco-Warriors (2014).
Cathy took a sabbatical in 2015-19 as Senior Manager of Production Investment at Film Victoria, and returned to producing in late 2019 as Cathartic Pictures.
Geskeva Komba
Producer Placement
Geskeva (Maz) Komba is a trans-disciplinary creative of Comorian and Tanzanian heritage. A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts' Master of Producing course, she is also an alum of the Cinespace Story Lab, Story Lab 2.0, and the Compton School 3-2-1 Workshop taught by Andrea Buck and David Court. Geskeva is currently working with Cathartic Pictures on a Producer Placement supported by Film Victoria, and she is passionate about combining her skills of working with community, and writing stories that build platforms of multiplicity and authentic representation.
Clea Frost
Consultant Story Developer
A graduate of VCA (Victoria College of the Arts), Clea has worked in Australia and the US as a writer, producer and story developer. She was Executive Director of the LA-based screenwriting non-profit, The CineStory Foundation for five years before returning to Australia in 2013 as Film Victoria’s Manager, Script Development. More recently she has worked across games, online, VR, podcasting, television and feature film, including the fiction podcast Hovering and The Division a multi-platform, sci-fi story experience. Clea is passionate about nurturing emerging, diverse talent and continues to run workshops and labs to support exciting new voices in games, VR and other screen content.