Colin Hill was born in Geneva of Irish parents, both of whom came from Cork.  He grew up in the US but he spent his childhood summers with his maternal grandparents, well-to-do members of the Protestant Anglo-Irish gentry, at their home Annes Grove, Castletownroche (which would serve as location for Duhallow Home). While working as a Trainee Assistant Film Editor in the BBC Colin honed his filmmaking craft through the production of two short films Dark Moon Hollow (1971) and Duhallow Home (1973). Both were made on a shoestring (under 1000 pounds) and, Colin notes, “they both show evidence of budgetary constraints: main character’s think voice, natural lighting, non-synchronous clockwork Bolex camerawork, all wild sound post-synchronized audio, script, camera, audio, editing by myself and, except for the narrators, singer and musicians, non-professional, ordinary people as the actors”. 

The young woman appearing in both films is Margaret “Maggie” Hill (née Purdon Coote) to whom Colin was happily wed for 56 years and the mother of their 4 children.  

Colin continued his career as film editor in the BBC and later at ABC News where he received EMMY achievement awards and a Cine Golden Eagle for his work on long-form documentaries for ABC.