Set in the 1950s, the film follows Jamie from a children’s home in Scotland to Egypt where he is billeted after being conscripted to the RAF. There he meets Robert, a self-sufficient type surrounded by books and an uneasy friendship develops. It is, however, through this friendship, and the confidence that it gives him, that his artistic talents begin to emerge.Read More »
Stephen Archibald
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Bill Douglas – My Way Home (1978)
1971-1980ArthouseBill DouglasDramaUnited Kingdom -
Bill Douglas – My Ain Folk (1973)
1971-1980ArthouseBill DouglasDramaUnited KingdomWhen Jamie’s maternal grandmother dies, he and his brother Tommy are separated – Tommy is taken off to a welfare home and Jamie goes to live with his other grandmother and uncle. His life is far from happy, filled with silence, rejection and bouts of violence.
My Ain Folk (1973) was made immediately after Bill Douglas’ My Childhood (1972), again with the support of the BFI Production Board. An increased budget of £12,000 allowed a 55 minute running time, and an opening Technicolor extract from Lassie Comes Home (US, d. Fred M. Wilcox, 1943). This quickly gives way to black-and-white shots of Newcraighall at its bleakest.Read More » -
Bill Douglas – My Childhood (1972)
1971-1980ArthouseBill DouglasDramaUnited KingdomStoryline
The first part of Bill Douglas’ influential trilogy harks back to his impoverished upbringing in early-’40s Scotland. Cinema was his only escape – he paid for it with the money he made from returning empty jam jars – and this escape is reflected most closely at this time of his life as an eight-year-old living on the breadline with his half-brother and sick grandmother in a poor mining village.Read More »