Critical popcorn

Hopscotch Films have shared with us the release date, trailer and new poster for Jack Archer’s documentary feature film Bill Douglas My Best Friend, which will be released in cinemas in the UK on 27 September!

Bill Douglas My Best Friend premiered to acclaim at Venice Film Festival, followed by Glasgow Film Festival and tells the story of the extraordinary friendship between Scottish filmmaker Bill Douglas and his lifelong companion and collaborator Peter Jewell. The film was supported by Screen Scotland’s Film Development and Production Fund.

Douglas is one of Scotland’s finest directors, celebrated by other great filmmakers including Lynne Ramsay, Lenny Abrahamson, Satajit Ray and Yuliya Solntseva – and check out the Bill Douglas Museum in Exeter as well!

In his short career he made four films, an autobiographical trilogy My Childhood, My Ain Folk and My Way Home about his appalling childhood and Comrades, an epic about a momentous moment in English history. Every shot in these films is an art work and every sequence a poem.

Bill’s life was transformed when he was on National Service in the Egyptian desert and met the man who would become his lifelong friend, Peter Jewell. The two men had very different backgrounds but they formed a unique bond that channelled a tremendous creative energy.

In this film Peter reminisces about the life he shared with Bill in their tiny Soho flat filled with cinema memorabilia. Their love of the movies led them to start experimenting with an 8mm camera. Peter’s memories and musings about the legacy Bill left behind are illustrated with these never-before-seen short films, here’s your trailer:

Released on 27 September, Bill Douglas My Best Friend will also screen at Craigmillar Now, the arts centre in Newcraighall where Bill grew up and shot his films.