Kath Pick
(she/her)
Kath has always been fascinated by that meeting point between words and pictures (hello, filmmaking!) – and started out by doing an Art Foundation course at Middlesex University in her hometown of London where she grew her passion for photography and video making, but switched back to books doing her BA in English Lit with Cinema and Philosophy from University of Sussex.
Momentarily sidetracked by a fascination for all things South American, and the desire to learn Spanish (with salsa, merengue and mambo dance classes on the side), Kath followed her wanderlust to live and work in Nicaragua, first teaching TEFL then immersing herself in local culture and activism working as an arts volunteer and photographer for a womens’ rights NGO (which she later went back to make a film about..)
Back in London, in the early 2000s she launched her career in documentary television working for a few indies before her big break when she moved to Glasgow to work on BBC2’s flagship topical arts magazine programme, The Culture Show. Within a couple of years she was directing short films for the show, on anything from the late Beryl Cook’s (nudge nudge wink wink) popular paintings, to Martin Scorsese’s film influences, and many stand out shows at the Edinburgh festivals…including smallpetitklein’s supremely moving, 2011 hot dance ticket, Falling Man (Within this Dust). While at BBC Studios she went on to make many arts, music and social history documentaries – on everything from Glasgow’s iconic Citizens Theatre (RTS Scotland – arts documentary nomination, 2015), to a quirky look at our family photo albums, and – her personal favourite - Nina Simone’s musical roots. Passionate about the arts, intimate histories, and community, Kath was often chosen to make programmes about Scottish culture – from a mural celebrating Glasgow’s East End (and characters) for the Commonwealth Games, and the city’s Burrell Collection, to the re-crafting of Mackintosh’s Willow Tea Rooms, and The Opening of the V&A Dundee (which first sparked her interest in the city…)
In 2018 she was tasked with making the first English language documentary about the Iolaire disaster in the Hebrides, which won her BAFTA Scotland and Celtic Media Award nominations.
In the last few years she has balanced her biggest production yet- raising her son- with working as a freelance Producer Director, Edit Producer, and Senior Content Producer, moving into digital content.
From 2022- 2024 she was job sharing Senior Content Producer of BBC Scotland Productions' award- winning, digital- first, arts, culture and community strand, The Culture Scene, (as well as music strand TUNE) representing diverse arts makers across the length and breadth of Scotland, from Aberdonian drag costumier Ryan Cowie fitting out performer Demi Pointe for a Dundee drag night; to elder dance company Prime putting on a show at Edinburgh's Dancebase during the Fringe 2023. Under her leadership the team won Runner Up in the Broadcast category at Refugee Festival Scotland Media Awards in 2023 and 2024. She loved working with and leading a small but perfectly formed team, and is really proud of the stories they were able to tell- and the range of creative Scots they got onto people's screens- both digital and TV broadcast.
She is also currently developing her passion project: a creative feature doc about an extraordinary female musician and spiritual leader, and hopes to get this into funded development in 2025!
Since moving to Dundee in 2024, Kath has thrown herself into Dundonian arts and culture, and made social reels for V&A Dundee before starting work for Shaper/Caper. Kath is passionate about telling intimate, moving and visually captivating stories for all platforms, and is excited to immerse herself in the Shaper/ Caper world, shine a light on all their projects, and draw in new audiences.
Oh and talking of making shapes, Kath’s side hustle is being a (very) part time seasonal yoga teacher for hire. To paraphrase a feminist comedian she likes, Namaste Motherf*&^$£s!
#IWannaDanceWithSomebody
Who would Kath like to dance with?
‘Kate Bush, Nina Simone and…John Travolta’