About Kathy Leichter

Kathy Leichter is a documentary film producer and director, fundraising and outreach consultant, media activist and the founder of Two Suns Media. Kathy is currently in production on HERE ONE DAY, a documentary which follows Kathy’s quest to understand how living with her mother’s mental illness and losing her to suicide have impacted her as a woman, artist and ultimately as a mother.

Kathy recently completed the film, PASSING ON, about her tell-it-like-it-is grandmother, Elsa Leichter, an Austrian Jewish immigrant who lived to be ninety-one. With Jonathan Skurnik, Kathy produced and directed the award-winning PBS documentary, A DAY’S WORK, A DAY’S PAY about three welfare recipients who become leaders in the fight against workfare in New York City. The film received the Harry Chapin Media Award for excellence in projects addressing issues of hunger and poverty, was broadcast nationally on PBS and in Europe and has screened in classrooms and film festivals throughout the world.

Kathy is the Project Director of THE WORKFARE MEDIA INITIATIVE, a media activism project which trains current and former welfare recipients to show A DAY’S WORK, A DAY’S PAY and lead facilitated discussions. Kathy recently was the co-producer of SPIT IT OUT, a documentary about a man who stutters and his journey towards self-acceptance. Prior, she produced the film, MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS: MIRRORS THAT BIND, about the impact of the mother/daughter relationship on a woman’s body, sexuality, and self-esteem, which is being used by women’s and girls organizations and universities across the country.

Formerly Kathy worked at WQED, the Pittsburgh PBS station, where she associate produced a national series on health care reform and worked for MISTER ROGERS NEIGHBORHOOD.

For more about Kathy's previous film and media activism work, go to MINT LEAF PRODUCTIONS, the production company Kathy founded with Jonathan Skurnik in 1998.