THE HOT 100 74
Emma Davie and Morag McKinnon DEEPLY MOVING DOCUMENTARIANS
Emma Davie and Morag McKinnon’s documentary I Am Breathing is deeply moving, utterly devastating, surprisingly uplifting and occasionally very funny. It documents the i nal months in the life and death of Neil Platt, a thirtysomething Yorkshire lad suffering from the increasingly debilitating effects of motor neurone disease. Despite being paralysed from the neck down, Platt is very much an active participant in the i lm, which he envisioned as a means by which his (at the time) unborn son would get to know him. Produced through the Scottish Documentary Institute and nominated for three awards at the Scottish BAFTAs, I Am Breathing has been seen in 46 countries around the world. ‘In an age of so much self-promotion on social media, Neil dared to
share something much more vulnerable,’ says Davie, who teaches i lm and television at Edinburgh College of Art. ‘By incorporating his own words from his blog as text, we tried to i nd a way to bring an audience into direct communication with him and also to give him a kind of power. His body was failing, but his mind and spirit were so strong. It was a long and difi cult task to do justice to his bravery, but we are glad his words have touched people in so many places.’
‘I Am Breathing is ultimately a universal i lm,’ says McKinnon, who’s currently working on an adaptation of Luke Sutherland’s novel Venus as a Boy. ‘It deals with life just as much as it deals with death, and Neil’s untimely death brings this sharply into focus. Motor neurone disease is a condition that robs a person of their basic freedoms of movement, choice and the ability to communicate. It reminds us of those basic freedoms that we take for granted every day.’ (Miles Fielder)
26 THE LIST 12 Dec 2013–23 Jan 2014
turning it from an annual festival into a series of events throughout the year, before selecting the Scottish Book Trust’s controversial 50 Best Scottish Books of the Last 50 Years. (KL)
63 GOOD PRESS
INDEPENDENT SPIRITS The Mono-based gallery slash bookstore continued its good work, providing a physical space for local artists to tout oddball and beautiful wares, and a treasure trove for zine fans. In their installations and exhibitions programme, The History Of was a 2013 highlight, featuring cassettes tracing the history of recorded sound. (CS)
62 BUZZCUT LIVE ARTISTS
A collaborative festival from two artists who ‘want to make space for more artists’, Buzzcut’s model has gone viral, appearing at Manipulate and the Hunt & Darton Café, and became a i xture in the Glasgow calendar. Live art for the masses. (LI)
69 6 LIMMY L SHOW MAN S
Brian ‘Limond’ Limmy, former ‘internet sensation’ and now bona i de telly star, won the Comedy / Entertainment Programme award at the E Scottish BAFTAs for series three of S Limmy’s Show. The southern media L even dived onto the bandwagon at the e start of the year demanding that his s show be let loose south of the border. s (BD) (
68 6 THEATRE UNCUT T PLAYS FOR TODAY P
Leading the resurgence of political drama, Theatre Uncut, co-founded by Emma Callender, emerged
at the right time to catch the austerity a zeitgeist. Sourcing plays for free z performance, Uncut showed how the p political can be more than just p fashionable subject matter. (LI) f
67 6 VOX MOTUS V SILENT BUT DEADLY S
Completely ditching words for full-on visual theatre, Vox Motus’ strongest production to date, Dragon, was an all-ages delight. Their D design skills complemented the d dynamic physical theatre of the d international cast, proving that theatre i does not need words to be eloquent. d (GKV) (
66 6 AJ TAUDEVIN A THEATRE QUEEN
Before curating the Tron’s F-Word week of feminist theatre, AJ Taudevin showed her ability to
engage with serious political issues in Some Other Mother. Her collaboration with Kieran Hurley, Chalk Hill, debuted at A Play, a Pie and a Pint and was produced by Thick Skin as a multimedia extravaganza in the Fringe this yearw. (GKV)
65 RED NOTE ENSEMBLE MODERN SOUNDS
One of Scotland’s i nest contemporary classical groups, Red Note has broadened its horizons ever further, creating reels and ragas with tabla player Kuljit Bhamra, and singing its way through French composer François Sarhan’s surrealist Enough Already. They also encouraged everyone to compose in regular Noisy Nights. (DK)
64 STUART KELLY
MR WRITE The literary editor and Man Booker Prize judge took the helm of Aye Write!,