Bill Douglas’ Trilogy – The limits of social realism. Cover Image

Trylogia Billa douglasa i granice realizmu społecznego
Bill Douglas’ Trilogy – The limits of social realism.

Author(s): Karolina Kosińska
Subject(s): Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts
Published by: Instytut Sztuki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: Kosińska; Karolina; Bill Douglas; My Childhood; My Ain Folk; My Way Home; memory of a traumatic childhood; social realism; subjectivity of narrative;

Summary/Abstract: Bill Douglas’ film trilogy ("My Childhood"," My Ain Folk", "My Way Home") tells the story of the director, and is a film version of his memory of a traumatic childhood. By returning to the places, people and events of his childhood, Douglas creates a documentary transfer – each shot documents a scene that is engraved in his memory. The work is deeply personal, and combines a highly subjective narrative with elements associated with social realism. The trilogy is both a story of a boy from a poor mining town and an accusation of an unjust social order that condemned this boy to a life that took one form rather than another. The author attempts to find an answer to the question whether the formula of social realism and extreme subjectivity of narrative are not mutually exclusive. The answer may lie in the artistic take on social cinema, that manages to reconcile these apparent contradictions.

  • Issue Year: 2011
  • Issue No: 75-76
  • Page Range: 149-163
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: Polish