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This thesis is a revisionist project that uses Scottish writer-director, Bill Douglas,
as a case study, to make an original contribution to British film history scholarship
on the 1970s and 1980s, and independent British cinema more broadly. This
research takes a production-centred approach to uncover extensive new detail
on the production of Douglas’s films My Childhood (1972), My Ain Folk (1973),
My Way Home (1978) (collectively titled The Bill Douglas Trilogy), and Comrades
(1987). It contributes to the existing scholarship on Douglas and works to go
beyond the narratives that exist so far of the productions.
The field of production studies has largely been dominated by the American film
and television industry; this thesis examines the interplay between creativity and
constraint during the 1970s and 1980s with a distinctly British focus. This project
engages in micro, mid and macro-level analyses, examining mid-level
negotiations, decision-making, and reanimates traces of work during the
production of Douglas’s films of both above and below-the-line workers. It also
situates the films within the institutional frameworks of film funders, which enabled
their production, including the BFI, the National Film Finance Corporation, and
Channel 4 and it examines the involvement in the productions of key individuals
who worked there.
This thesis is built upon extensive and original archival scholarship drawing upon
largely unresearched materials including Bill Douglas’s Working Papers housed
at the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum at the University of Exeter, the Simon Relph
Collection at the BFI Special Collections Archive, materials pertaining to the
production of Comrades at Film Finances Archive and the Lindsay Anderson
Archive at the University of Stirling. |
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