My Childhood, directed by Bill Douglas, was made under the patronage of the British Film Institute Production Board, and is the first part of an intended trilogy. It was awarded the Silver Lion of St. Mark for the 'Best First Feature Film' at the 1972 Venice Film Festival. Its subject is Jamie, a Scottish youth, growing up in a mining village around the end of the Second World War. He lives with his older brother, Tommy, and their grandmother, in a poverty-stricken environment, where the fields are worked by German POWs. One of these is Jamie's only friend, who is taken from him by the end of the war.

The film captures the fears and confusion of the child as he is confronted by the hardships and fragile joys of living. According to Douglas, the account is an autobiographical one.