More about our founder

KATHY WOLFE
Biography - January, 2003

To those who know her, Kathy Wolfe is an anachronism: a successful business woman, as comfortable with Twenty-first Century DVD technology as she is among the artifacts of the Historic West that is her passion. Kathy Wolfe is also a woman with a vision — the earliest expression of which was a childhood fascination with her mother’s 8mm movie camera, landing her the role of Wolfe Family documentarian. These early experiences behind the camera fed Kathy’s growing enthusiasm and aptitude for the visual arts. She holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in art and spent eight years teaching art at the collegiate level.

Kathy and Bill Plate founded Arrow Graphics, a speciality graphics services company, in 1970. As Executive Vice President and Co-owner, Kathy expanded Arrow Graphics to thirteen offices, employing 150 workers in five states.

In 1981, intrigued by the availability of public access television programming, Kathy produced and directed a twelve-part video series, Fix it Now, featuring women contractors demonstrating the basics of home repair. She honed her skill as a videographer, chronicling events of social and political interest (among them, 1986 California NOW Conference) while producing and directing documentaries on a broad range of topics of interest to women.

Wolfe Video began in 1985 as a small mail order distribution outlet for these and other independent video products. Kathy recognized a largely untapped audience of lesbians and gay men eager for films that spoke to their own lives. Wolfe Video now enjoys a strong presence in the marketplace as the most successful distributor of independent, studio-produced and “self-authored” gay and lesbian themed video and DVD products.

Wolfe Video is a strong, socially responsible and commercially successful business that reflects Kathy’s belief that the value of a company lies, not in its “bottom line,” but in the extent to which all of its practices, activities and relationships affirm and enhance the quality of life for its workers, customers, investors, suppliers and the community-at-large.

As an agent for social change, Wolfe Video makes visible the lives of an entire subculture that has, until recently, been largely invisible in film and other “mainstream” media. As a financially successful enterprise, it demonstrates to film studios, television programmers and others the presence and viability of the lesbian and gay audience as consumers of their products.

Outside of her work in the film and video arena, Kathy is an avid restorer of historic buildings; an adventurous traveler; and a collector of almost everything.