About
Write truth. Inspire love.
A story can change the person who tells it and the person who finds it. Catalystory exists to make films that do that, and to help writers tell theirs.
Storytelling is human connection. Letting my imagination run wild has become one of the most fulfilling parts of my life. I'm drawn to the human experience, in worlds far beyond our own, where characters are pushed into situations that make them discover their own strength.
And I'm drawn to the truth that we're all broken, and that being broken is what makes us beautiful.
J. Penberth Rabold, Writer & Director
15+
Years as a UPM & 1st AD
22
Festival placements & awards
2×
Austin Film Festival second round
1,000+
Readers of The Writer's Table
People first
Plot is what happens. Story is who it happens to, and what it costs them.
Imagination, with a pulse
Worlds far beyond our own, or long ago, where the people feel real.
Built to be made
Fifteen years on set taught us that a great script is also one you can shoot, schedule and finance.
The Team
The people behind it
Writer · Director · Story Consultant
J. Penberth Rabold
J. Penberth Rabold moved to Los Angeles in 2000 to make movies, and spent fifteen years as a unit production manager and first assistant director learning what a story costs once it has to stand up on a set.
In 2015 he made writing the job. Since then his series bibles, pilots and features have landed on desks at Netflix, Apple, Starz and HBO. He knows what “almost” feels like, and he knows it isn't the end of the story.
He directed the short Connected, a Runner-Up for the Jury Prize and Best Visuals at the 2019 Filmmakers Collaboration Challenge, and developed the series Ghosts of War, a second-round selection at the Austin Film Festival. He's now directing Dallas & Allegra and writes The Writer's Table, a newsletter for screenwriters who are trying to finish what they start.
Producer
Shannon Geary
Shannon Geary spent 21 years as a music educator and theater director, teaching young artists how to turn a page into a performance.
She brought that instinct for people and process to producing and set photography, and was mentored by the late Stephen Emery.
Producing a film means putting together a thousand puzzle pieces, and she loves that part of it, on films of any type.