To My Daughter

A mother's letter to her daughter comes to life, taking us on a glorious journey of self-belief, discovery and hope.

Animation adapted from the non-fiction book ‘This Thread of Gold’

Team

Catherine Joy White, Writer/Director

Catherine is an award-winning actor, author, filmmaker, UN gender advisor and founder of Kusini Productions. She is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honouree, was long-listed for AllBright’s Innovative Trailblazer Award, heralded as one of 'Five Activists Who Should Be On Your Radar’ by the Trouble Club, is a BAFTA connect member and We Are Parable/Channel 4 Momentum alumni. She can be seen in Amazon Prime’s Ten Percent,  Viaplay/Channel 4’s Threesome and Netflix’s Black Mirror. Her debut film, Fifty-Four Days, which she wrote, directed, produced and starred in was selected for over 50 film festivals worldwide, garnering awards at BAFTA/Oscar/BIFA qualifiers and the African Oscars before being sold to American Airlines. Her debut book This Thread of Gold, named by the New Statesman as “essential”, the i's non-fiction book of the month and "extraordinary" by Afua Hirsch, was published in the UK to critical acclaim and will be published in America in 2024 by Penguin Random House. Catherine recently worked as Director's Mentee on Black Mirror, is developing multiple long-form projects as writer/director and is writing her second non-fiction book and debut novel. She is a proud ambassador for PAPYRUS, the UK's national charity for young suicide prevention.

Vanessa Wheeler, Producer

Vanessa is an experienced multi-lingual producer with specialist knowledge in animation, European co-productions and book-to-screen adaptations. She has spent much of her career at BAFTA and International Emmy©-Award winning studio Lupus Films, where she heads up their development slate of animated and live action films and shows, alongside managing directors Ruth Fielding and Camilla Deakin. Vanessa has worked with some of the UK’s leading authors and illustrators and animation, music and voice talent. With four languages under her belt, she also has connections with many European studios as Lupus Films’ representative at major markets overseas. In 2023, she joined Spanish studio SPA Studios as Story Supervisor on a hybrid animated feature for Netflix. Vanessa’s credits include the feature film adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s novel Kensuke’s Kingdom, starring Sally Hawkins and Cillian Murphy; The Tiger Who Came To Tea, Channel 4’s second most watched show all year in 2019, and Sky One’s RTS Award-winning CG-animated special The Ghastly Ghoul. Most recently, Vanessa was a producer on BAFTA-winning writer-director Paloma Baeza’s short film Three Hares, a hand-crafted ecology-themed creation myth. Narrated by Oscar-nominee Jessie Buckley and scored by two-time Oscar winner Gustavo Santaoalla and co-composer Juan Luqui, it was an Archer Gray production in association with Lupus Films.