PARIS/SEXY

This short, produced for Digicult, won writer / director Ruth Paxton and producer Rosie Crerar best UK short at the London Short Film Festival 2011. Lindy edited the film with Ruth in Cromarty and it was a hugely enjoyable experience!

The Winner Loser, Sighthill Stories and The Downhill Racer.

All three documentaries were directed by Darren Hercher and produced by Don Coutts.
The Downhill Racer won Darren the Grierson Award and the best documentary at the Celtic Film Festival amongst many accolades. His latest film, as below was screened this spring on BBC Scotland.

The Winner Loser

Directed by Darren Hercher

Produced by Don Coutts

I am not sure how long ago it was that Danny first appeared in our life.
But I know that we  met him first at a gallery opening in Inverness one night some years ago.

A  friendly looking man, with an incongruous plastic bag full of balls of wool.
He smiled. And knitted. Little colourful squares.
I later learned these were "friendly squares" which he gave to people as a gesture of friendship.
But I even later learned that this wasn't the whole picture and that in fact the act of knitting calms his whirring thoughts enough to be able to keep his very short short-term memory from failing him.

He  became very quickly part of our family life.

He has a book, a falling apart black book (one of thousands it seems) filled with tiny tiny intense writing and numbers.
And if, during the course of a conversation, you mention some number or some  date he will stop you,
take out his book and carefully, ineligibly to us, inscribe your words with tiny urgency.
This is especially significant if the words are a birthday.

From then on he may arrive, on your or a family member's birthday,
unannounced, unprepossessing,
with his plastic bag and a carefully chosen gift.

He is a birthday angel, bearing love and thoughtfulness
and whenever he arrives it is important,
no matter how pressing your present doings you perceive to be,
that you stop, sit and  just be.

He teaches you this, he teaches you that nothing is more important than human interaction. 

He relies for hospitality on his journeys across Scotland
on the kindness of strangers and friends that his open-ness has reaped.

He is a unique man with a unique outlook battling a unique set of challenges.


So it  seemed right to suggest to Darren Hercher, a profoundly gifted maker of films,
that Danny, so openly open about his  diverse life challenges,
would be a great subject for his next documentary.
  Like his previous films -  the award winning Downhill Racer and Sighthill Stories,
it would be intimate and beautiful and touching,
and so it is. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010q2w6

Newsnight Review

Don was asked by the BBC to guide the relocation  of Newsnight Review to its new Pacific Quay home in Glasgow. He studio directed the first 4 of the live programmes, and returns to direct from time to time. 

Celtic connections concerts

3 concerts filmed at the 2008 festival.
Director Don Coutts, Editor Lindy Cameron Mac TV for BBC Scotland

Dear Green Place

Two series of 6 episodes of this Scottish Bafta winning comedy drama.
(Director Don Coutts, Editor Lindy Cameron) F’n G for BBC Scotland

Mac Musical

3 x 1 hour documentaries following the competition to create a new musical, called Highland QuestEndemol for BBC Scotland
Director Don Coutts

Clarissa and the Countrymen

12 x 1 hour factual documentaries for BBC Scotland
Director Don Coutts, Editor Lindy Cameron (part)

Na Balaich ann an Ronaidh

Executive Producer  for Mac TV

Skillseekers

for Mac TV

World Debate

3 x  debates for TVE,  for BBC World
Studio Director Don Coutts

Ealtain Gardens

Mac TV for BBC Alba

Cast and Crew

4x 1 hour programmes looking at the making of features and drama serials, and reunited the cast and crew. IWC for BBC 4

Gayhurst Crescent Goes Surfing

Just as the internet was becoming more accessible a whole street in Sunderland was given computers with internet access for a few weeks to see how it would change their lives. If at all! Fulcrum for C4
Director Don Coutts Editor Lindy Cameron