My Childhood/My Ain Folk/My Way Home

Bill Douglas' trilogy succeeds in evoking a genuine sense of compassion for the characters in these harsh tales of his childhood in the Scottish mining village of Newcraighall in the '40s, without tipping the scales into mawkishness. Pared to essentials, the stark b/w images restore some freshness to a tired, unfashionable aesthetic. And shot over eight years, the cruelty and compulsiveness of the 'memories' still haunt the finished work. DMacp.