awards
Best Historical Cultural Long Form Content | Capital Emmys | 2025
Finding Us | PBS REEL South and a SideXSide Studios Production | Director
Award of Excellence | IMPACT Docs | 2024
Finding US | PBS REEL South and a SideXSide Studios Production | Director
Best Cinematography for Documentary | American Advertising Awards | 2022
Jersey Mikes “Sub Abovers” Series | Director of Photography
Finalist | Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting | 2016
National Geographic Special Issue on Gender | Contributing Video Elements:
Hear Kids' Honest Opinions About Being A Boy or Girl Around the World & A Transgender Teen's Emotional Transition to Womanhood | Video Producer, Editor
Video of the Year | Society of Publication Designers | 2016
A Transgender Teen's Emotional Transition to Womanhood | Video Producer
Silver for Video Series | Society of Publication Designers | 2016
The New Europeans Video Interactive | Video Producer, Editor
Best Website | ASME | 2016
Contributing Video Elements: The New Europeans Video Interactive & He Left Gangs, Drugs, and Violence Behind To Mentor Kids in Juárez | Video Producer, Editor
Video of the Year | Society of Publication Designers | 2016
A Transgender Teen's Emotional Transition to Womanhood | Video Producer
Honorable Mention for Documentary Video | WHNPA | 2015
A Child Prodigy, A Painful Disease, A Life-Changing Treatment | Producer, Cinematographer, Editor
First Place for Multimedia | College Photographer of the Year | 2013
The Girl In Heels | Producer, Cinematographer, Editor
Kathryn Carlson
Kathryn is an Emmy Award–winning documentary filmmaker and cinematographer based in Washington, D.C. With 13 years of experience in digital filmmaking, she creates nonfiction work across documentary film, museum installation, and branded content. Clients include Hilton, LinkedIn, Starbucks, HIAS, Jesuit Refugee Service and the USO.
She is currently Creative Director at SideXSide Studios, where she works on feature-length and short-form documentary projects. Kathryn specializes in leading local crews around the world on client productions, bringing a collaborative approach, strong visual sensibility, and deep commitment to story.
Kathryn has directed four museum projects, including work for Holocaust Museum Houston and The Zekelman Holocaust Center. Her forthcoming museum projects explore immigration throughout American history and an immersive experience celebrating the beauty, culture, and traditions of the Midwest.
She directed the Emmy Award–winning short documentary Finding Us, part of PBS REEL South. The film follows four descendants of people enslaved by the Jesuits of Georgetown University as they use their unique talents to rebuild family trees shattered nearly two centuries ago, when a sale scattered their relatives across the South.
Kathryn was a Pulitzer Center grantee for crisis reporting for her work on widows’ rights in Uganda with National Geographic. Her work has screened at DC/DOX, Richmond International Film Festival, DC Black Film Festival, DC Shorts International Film Festival, the American Documentary and Animation Film Festival, and the Annapolis Film Festival.
Since 2017, she has been an organizer and director of the Washington, D.C., chapter of Video Consortium.
Whether working in the field, in museums, or across all digital platforms, Kathryn is drawn to stories that connect people, examine imbalances of power, and deepen understanding.
honors
Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting | 2016 Grantee
This Widow's Relatives Stole Everything...Now She's Fighting Back | Producer, Cinematographer, Editor
Free Spirit Media Workshop | 2017 Workshop Leader
With the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
FotoFilm DC Festival | 2016
This Intimate Look At A Woman's Last Days Will Touch Your Soul | Producer, Editor