Bill Douglas is arguably the most celebrated Scottish filmmaker, an internationally recognised art-house darling ‘up there with Tarkovsky’ as interviewee Lynne Ramsay notes. Producer John Archer’s documentary, directed by his son Jack and narrated by Brian Cox, features life-long friend Peter Jewell tracing Douglas’ development via archive footage, shorts and films.

Jewell is an insightful primary resource, reflecting on shared experiences cannily utilised in Douglas’ own work. Archer’s film mimics Douglas’ short ‘Still Life’, offering a portrait via collected ephemera including home movies. There are few revelations about Douglas’ class, sexuality or even career: as with Archer’s similarly evasive My Old School, sentiment replaces pertinent questions. A clip of Barry Norman rubbishing Comrades on Film 87 is produced as evidence that an uncaring UK establishment neglected this talent, yet overall, he seems better supported than most: Douglas had a regular teaching job at the BFI and Comrades had the largest budget (£3m) ever afforded by the UK funding body National Film Finance Corporation.

One archive clip features Kirsty Wark standing outside a 1991 multiplex showing Terminator 2, complaining that ‘sadly’ his work wouldn’t be shown there. But why feel sad about Bill Douglas? His deeply personal cinema proved a narrative of breakout success, not mainstream failure, yet this film re-treads a tired Scottish ‘nearly man’ narrative that jars with Jewell’s more positive reflections. Douglas’ autobiographical triptych reached millions on BBC2 in 1981, a unique achievement somehow unmentioned because it doesn’t fit this rather dour argument.

Bill Douglas: My Best Friend screened at Glasgow Film Festival.