by Jian Farhoumand.
Sussex-based director Nick Broomfield with Bugle editor Jian Farhoumand
Nick Broomfield, 65, is known for documentaries that are both
highbrow and humorous. A graduate of the National Film and Television School,
Broomfield has carved a niche for himself as a globe-trotting, celebrity-hunting
adventurer. His brazen boldness in the face of adversity often gets a laugh,
even if it doesn’t quite get him an interview with his intended target.
Broomfield’s work boasts a broad range of dramatis personae
including Margaret Thatcher, Eugene Terre Blanche, Courtney Love, Tupac Shakur
and Sarah Palin. A notable idiosyncrasy of Broomfield’s oeuvre is his
mock-casual insistence on appearing on-screen himself (however accidental and
nonchalant these cameos might look). His subtle humour, mixed with a sort of faux-boyish
innocence, often disarms his prey into making surprisingly off-guard
admissions. (Something for which Louis Theroux and other recent imitators owe
credit.)
Broomfield claims that his cameos were originally borne of
accidents and necessity, especially in situations where his potential subjects
proved so elusive that his thwarted attempts at filming them became the actual
stories on screen. This is especially the case in Tracking Down Maggie (1994),
Kurt and Courtney (1998) and Sarah Palin: You Betcha (2011), in which Broomfield
is often out-foxed by prey whom he had clearly underestimated.
Broomfield is shrewder than he appears, however, and embraces
his comi-cameo identity with relish. This is clear from the series of Volkswagen
commercials (1999) in which he wanders around like a lost Clouseau, brandishing
trademark boom and tape recorder, in an effort to solve a vehicular mystery. In
a sense, Broomfield’s personal brand is now so well-recognised that he has
effectively turned himself into the equivalent to anthropology as to what David
Attenborough is to wildlife. His mere presence on screen now implies erudition
and intrigue.
Despite his humour, Broomfield is a serious filmmaker
whose work affects actual, genuine change. His film about Palin is
credited with having thwarted her plans for a 2012 US presidential bid and is
regarded as a reason why the Republican Party refused to endorse her to run
against Obama. Broomfield’s film about Kurt Kobain’s death reveals oversights
in police work conducted after the singer’s presumed suicide, and heavily implies
that Courtney Love was somehow involved.
Broomfield has made two films about a notorious American
serial killer whose execution, he suggests, might have been misguided. Aileen
Wuornos: The Selling Of A Serial Killer (1992) and Aileen: Life And Death Of A
Serial Killer (2003) both cite many examples of serious negligence by numerous figures
of authority including Wuornos’ own attorney and even the state itself.
Broomfield ultimately suggests that the state put to death a rape victim who
had decided to plead guilty and face execution rather than suffer the political
circus around her.
I was once lucky enough to meet Nick Broomfield at a
Q&A screening of Sarah Palin: You Betcha at the Duke of York Picture House,
Brighton. I suggested that documentaries are often regarded as serious but that
his are somehow surprisingly funny, and asked if he regarded humour as an important
tool for conveying a serious message. Broomfield replied: “Well, it’s one way
of surviving three months in Alaska in the middle of winter,” which got a big
laugh from the audience. He was referring to his Hobbit-like mission through
the snowy state to track down Palin, which resulted in an entertaining Chaplin-esque
comedy of errors, replete with director slipping around on icy streets and
being ejected from buildings by security staff.
Broomfield said of the making of the film: “It was
unbearable. And so we would crack as many jokes as we could during the day just
to get through it. But I think it [humour] is important. I mean, I think one or
two of the first films I made were very serious and I realised that the
audience were only reacting with one emotion, and that it got very tiring after
a while. I think you tend to say the same thing over and over and over, if
you’re hitting an audience with the same tone and the same emotion. And I think
if you can get a wider reaction, which is pretty much how real life is… I think
there’s gallows humour, and I think tragedy and comedy are very closely
related. And I think if you can get that into a documentary and still keep it
being accurate, it’s great. It’s certainly more fun to make.”
Broomfield has received the California State Bar Award for
contribution to legal reform, and been awarded several honorary doctorates as
well as the BAFTA Lifetime Achievement Award for Contribution to Documentary.
His films are informative, insightful and gripping. I look forward to the next
one.
No comments:
Post a comment