Women to Watch: Catherine Tait

What a difference a year makes.  Last year at TIFF I attended the reception for the launch of the Hollywood Suite Broadcasting by Catherine Tait, Jeff Sackman, Jay Switzer, Michael McLaughlin and David Kines.  Hollywood Suite is four Canadian wide new HD channels featuring commercial free HD movies 24/7, uncut and unedited.  Both Warner Bros. and MGM launched last year.  One year later they are announcing that Sony Movie Channel and AXN Movies are also moving into residence on the channels (replacing Hollywood Storm and Hollywood Festival.)  450 different movies are available every month on TV on demand, online and on mobile for one low monthly fee.  The cost of $4.99 per month stands in stark contrast to HBO and Showtime costs of $18 per month.

Catherine is widely known on the international circuit.  She was responsible for getting the New York Independent Feature Project up to the level that it has maintained throughout the tenure of Michelle Byrd and currently by Joane Vicente, who is taking it upwards once again to new heights.

Catherine's career in the film and television business spans two decades and includes leadership in the American independent film industry as well as in film and television financing and public company management. She is President of Duopoly, an independent production company that also provides business strategy services to the film and television industry. At Duopoly, she has executive produced a number of television programs including PURE PWNAGE (a comedy based on Internet phenomenon www.purepwnage.com for Showcase), CHILLY BEACH (65 episodes of comedy animation for CBC), YAM ROLL (39 episodes for CBC and Cartoon Network), as well as LUCKY, a Sundance documentary which sold to HBO. Prior to founding Duopoly, Catherine was President and Chief Operating Officer of Salter Street Films, a publicly-traded television production & distribution company which produced hit programming such as THIS HOUR HAS 22 MINUTES and Michael Moore's BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE. Catherine serves on the Boards of March Entertainment and Paperny Films; she is a past Director of eOne Entertainment's Canadian Board, of Aliant, of CHUM Ltd, and was Chair of the Independent Feature Project in New York.

Catherine is also the founder of iThenic, an online and mobile video destination site, launched in 2006, that aggregates, produces and distributes web series and short-form video content. The company is headquartered in Toronto with offices in New York City and backed by three engaged and prominent shareholders: eOne Entertainment, Canada's largest entertainment company, the founders of iThentic LLC (led by Catherine Tait), and Smiley Guy Studios, an award winning animation and new media studio. Smiley Guy Studios is the operating partner with Jonas Diamond as CEO and Catherine Tait as Chair of the company.

iThentic strives to unite communities that include the creators, curators and viewers. The management team has a depth of experience in global production, distribution and marketing and is connected to a powerful international network of writers, directors, producers, animators and artists. This ensures that iThentic showcases the very best new work. iThentic's creative network is rooted in the independent film and television industry and has generated some of the most groundbreaking entertainment of the last two decades.

This year, iThentic launched its highly successful interactive web-series Guidestones on Hulu. Guidestones won a 2012 Rockie Award for Best Web Fiction Series and is now in production on season two. In addition, Catherine represented the Canadian comedy hit Roller Town (Slamdance 2012) written by and starring Picnicface's Mark Little, Scott Vrooman and Andy Bush and directed by Andy Bush. Roller Town has been sold to VOD leader Gravitas Ventures and is available now.