‘Bill Douglas Symposium’, Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture, University of Exeter, 23 September 2011

Abstract

The Scottish film-maker Bill Douglas died young – aged 57 – on 18 June 1991. He had been suffering from cancer. On the twentieth anniversary of his death, an event was held in his honour at the Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture, the research facility and museum at the University of Exeter which stands as a fitting and lasting memorial to this mercurial film-making talent and avid collector of books, memorabilia and artefacts related to cinema and pre-cinema. After a thought-provoking and at times emotional day, the Bill Douglas Centre curator, Phil Wickham, was warmly and deservedly thanked and congratulated for his organisation of this event by Peter Jewell, Bill’s lifelong friend, supporter and cocollector. Peter had first met Bill in 1955 while on National Service in Egypt and they remained close until Bill’s death. This was a day that allowed us to acknowledge the extraordinary talent of one film-maker, to reconsider his legacy for Scottish and British cinema, and to acknowledge his importance as a figure who – through his extraordinary collection – has left a wonderful legacy for anybody interested in the history of cinema and popular culture. Douglas’ films – the autobiographical trilogy My Childhood (1972), My Ain Folk (1973) and My Way Home (1978), and an epic film about the Tolpuddle Martyrs, Comrades (1987), were released by the British Film Institute on DVD and Blu-ray in 2008 and 2009, and it is pleasing to know that these extraordinary films will now reach a wider audience.