Bill Douglas Trilogy, Part 1: My Childhood

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Synopsis

"The narrative is largely autobiographical, following Jamie (played with heart-breaking conviction by Stephen Archibald) as he grows up in a poverty-stricken mining village in post-war Scotland. In these brutal surroundings, and subject to hardship and rejection, Jamie learns to fend for himself. We see him grow from child to adolescent - angry and bewildered, but playful, creative and affectionate. In My Childhood (1972), eight-year old Jamie lives with his granny and elder brother in a Scots mining village in 1945. With his mother in a mental home, and his father absent, he is subject to the hardships of poverty.

Movie info:

Release:

1972

Running Time:

46 min

Certificate:

Contains very strong language

Availability:

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Download: Unavailable

Genre:

Drama

Showing 1 - 4 of 4

Edward Hutchings
Our town
07 December 2011
It would be easy to dismiss ‘My Childhood’ (1972), ‘My Ain Folk’ (1973) and ‘My Way Home’ (1978) – the trilogy of short-ish films made by the late Scottish director Bill Douglas – as textbook examples of the glum social realism that so often besmirches the name of British cinema. These films capture a rare poetry in their depiction of wayward youth, the death of industry and the small, diligent ways in which the downtrodden are able to retain hope and ward off constant darkness. Set during the 1940s in Douglas’s own birthplace (the dead-end mining town of Newcraighall) the emotional focal point of these films is Jamie (Stephen Archibald), an inquisitive, defensive young scamp whose day-to-day existence is a fight for survival and friendship. Filmed with great care and precision in piercing monochrome and with barely any dialogue to drown out the intense expressiveness of the people and the landscapes captured on camera, Douglas has often been cited as Britain’s answer to France’s Robert Bresson. It’s an accolade that makes total sense.
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mary nortcliff
bill douglas
15 June 2011
i happend to chance upon this film and i am so glad i did . brilliant can not wait to watch part 2 and 3
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Robert Young
A touching portrayal
30 November 2009
Bill Douglas has produced a Trilogy of arguably three of the most important British films of the 1970s. They are convincing and autobiographical social studies and this first examines his childhood, growing up in the bleak surroundings of the working class Scottish mining town of Newcraighall in the years after the Second World War. Douglas uses a patient minimal approach to give the film a powerful, gritty and almost chilling feel. There are some intensely heartfelt moments that make the viewer strongly empathise with the plight of the two young boys living in poverty with their grandma, in particular a scene showing the young Douglas warming his sleeping grandma’s hands with a hot teacup as she sleeps in her ever-present rocking chair. My first experience of Bill Douglas and I can now see why is held in such high regard.
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- frances travers
  RE: A touching portrayal
  06 January 2010
  must find out more
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