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Bill Douglas

Bill Douglas

Actor, Writer, Director

Born April 17, 1934 in Scotland, UK

Died June 18, 1991

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Biography

William Gerald Forbes (Bill) Douglas was a Scottish film director best known for the trilogy of films about his early life. Having been interested in film-making all his life, in 1968 Douglas enrolled at the London International Film School, where he wrote the screenplay for a short autobiographical film called Jamie. After initial difficulties in finding support for the project, he eventually found a champion at the British Film Institute in the newly appointed head of Production, Mamoun Hassan, who secured funding on the basis that Jamie should form part one of a trilogy – echoing the great childhood trilogies of Ray and Gorki. The film was renamed "My Childhood", and its success on the international festival circuit paved the way for the second and third instalments of the trilogy of Douglas's formative years: My Ain Folk (1973) and My Way Home (1978). The Bill Douglas Trilogy recounts the harrowing experiences of a young boy, Jamie, growing up in crippling poverty: material and emotional impoverishment; terrible privations at the hands of his paternal grandmother; incarceration in a children’s home; living in a hostel for down-and-outs. Eventually the call-up for national service allows Jamie to find freedom through his friendship with Robert, a young middle class Englishman who introduces him to books and the possibility of a more optimistic and fulfilling future. The austere black and white images of the films embody a stillness and intensity reminiscent of silent cinema and this visual style is augmented by the equally spare and precise use of sound. Just as the stillness of the image forces the audience to look, so the relative silence encourages greater attention to specific sounds – boots scraping on asphalt, the chirping of birds and the timbre of voices – granting an emotional power lost in the aural bombardment characterising much contemporary cinema. The Trilogy gained a wealth of critical plaudits but Douglas struggled to raise financing for his next project, and was forced to find other ways of earning a living. Mamoun Hassan, the former head of BFI Production, invited him to teach at the National Film and Television School from 1978 and he proved to be an inspiring presence. Hassan was also able, in his role as director of the National Film Finance Corporation to help realise the project of Comrades, Douglas's film about the 'Tolpuddle Martyrs', six Dorset farm labourers who in 1834 were arrested and tried for forming a trade union and subsequently transported to Australia. Even so, the film did not appear until 1986, six years after the screenplay had been completed. Dubbed a 'poor man's epic', Comrades continues Douglas's interest in the perseverance of the human spirit in the face of material adversity. It also brings to the fore his fascination with the world of optics and image-making, through a number of references to various forms of Victorian optical entertainments such as the magic lantern, thezoetrope, the peep show and the camera obscura. The story itself is mediated by the character of an itinerant magic lanternist who reappears in a number of roles. Comrades was to be Bill Douglas's last film. He died of cancer and is buried in the churchyard of Bishop's Tawton in Devon.

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4 wins and 3 nominations

Bill Douglas Photos

Filmography

Actor

11

Type

Year

Charlie Chaplin Lived Here Poster

Charlie Chaplin Lived Here Documentary2018Self

Lanterna Magicka: Bill Douglas and the Secret History of Cinema Poster

Lanterna Magicka: Bill Douglas and the Secret History of Cinema Documentary2009Self

Bill Douglas: Intent on Getting the Image Poster

Bill Douglas: Intent on Getting the Image Documentary2006Self

Sleepwalker Poster

Sleepwalker Feature Film1984Alex Britain

Working Surface: A Short Study (with Actors) in the 'Ways' of a Bourgeois Writer TV Short1979

Cinema Now TV Series1973Self

Western Short Film1970Sheriff

Carry on Cleo Poster

Carry on Cleo Feature Film1964Second companion

Theatre 625 Poster

Theatre 625 TV Series19641 episode, 1965

Dr. Finlay's Casebook Poster

Dr. Finlay's Casebook TV Series19621 episode, 1962

The Younger Generation TV Series1961Boyfriend

Writer

11

Type

Year

Come Dancing Poster

Come Dancing Short Film2024

The Ring of Truth Poster

The Ring of Truth TV Movie1996

Comrades Poster

Comrades Feature Film1986

My Way Home Poster

My Way Home Feature Film1978

Home and Away Poster

Home and Away Short Film1974

My Ain Folk Poster

My Ain Folk Feature Film1973

My Childhood Poster

My Childhood Feature Film1972

Globe Short Film1970

Charlie Chaplin's London Short Film1969

Striptease Short Film1969

Crackerjack! Poster

Crackerjack! TV Series1955

Director

8

Type

Year

Come Dancing Poster

Come Dancing Short Film2024

Comrades Poster

Comrades Feature Film1986

My Way Home Poster

My Way Home Feature Film1978

My Ain Folk Poster

My Ain Folk Feature Film1973

My Childhood Poster

My Childhood Feature Film1972

Globe Short Film1970

Charlie Chaplin's London Short Film1969

Striptease Short Film1969

Thanks

2

Type

Year

Contaminated Man Poster

Contaminated Man Feature Film2000

The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender Poster

The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender Documentary1997

Art Director

1

Western Short Film1970

Camera and Electrical Department

1

Charlie Chaplin Lived Here Poster

Charlie Chaplin Lived Here Documentary2018

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