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Bill Douglas Centre

Bill Douglas, 1934 - 1991, spent his poverty stricken childhood in Newcraighall near Edinburgh. He sold jam jars to raise money to buy cinema tickets. Using the resourcefulness he demonstrated selling those jam jars, Bill eventually went into the film business himself and directed an acclaimed trilogy based on his early life, My Childhood, My Ain Folk and My Way Home. In 1987 he made his last film, Comrades, about the Tolpuddle Martyrs."I hate reality" he once wrote. The cinema was his only escape from the rigours of life in Newcraighall.

The Bill Douglas Centre was opened in 1997 as part of the British celebration of the centenary of cinema. It is both a public museum and an academic research centre. The centre commemorates Bill Douglas who donated his personal collection of approximately 50 000 items. Other collections have since been added to this original donation. There are now 8000 books on cinema at the Centre, the largest collection in the country. About 1000 of the most important books are on display in the Centre's two galleries. The remaining thousands of books are all available for study in the reading rooms. There are also thousands of film posters and items of film merchandising.

The two public galleries, which I visited in 2007, are arranged over two floors. The first gallery is devoted to the history of British and American cinema in the twentieth century. The lower gallery has items relating to optical entertainment from the seventeenth century onwards, up until the very earliest days of film. Here you will find, amongst other things, magic lanterns, zograscopes - which allow two dimensional images to be seen in perspective, and stanhopes - microscopic photographic views inserted into paper knives, lace bobbins and the like. You will also find items relating to the Lumiere brothers, who turned film from a curiosity into one of the most hugely influential cultural forms in history. The Lumieres realised the limitations of Thomas Edison's kinetophonograph, which was intended to show images to one person as an accompaniment to the phonograph. Understanding that this wasn't an efficient way of reaching large audiences the Lumieres developed the cinematograph. This turned film into a collective experience, and film as we know it came into being. In the lower gallery there is a framed copy of the original Lumiere programme at the Royal Polytechnic in 1895.

If you can't get to Exeter the Bill Douglas Centre has an online catalogue and exhibition space at www.billdouglas.org/eve

Opening Times: Entry and guided tours are free. Opening times are 10am to 4pm Monday to Friday, with closures at Easter,on bank holidays and from 24th December to 2nd January.

Directions:The Centre can be found at the University of Exeter, Prince of Wales Road, Exeter. Look for the Old Library. Car parking can be difficult but there are regular buses from the city centre. St David's Station and Central Station are only a short walk from the Bill Douglas Centre. Click here for an interactive map centred over the Bill Douglas Centre.

Access: there is a designated parking space by the entrance, and a lift is available for wheelchair users.

Contact: +44 1392264321, e-mail info@billdouglas.org