by Jian Farhoumand.
The name Nick Broomfield is today synonymous
with highbrow documentary filmmaking. A graduate
of the National Film and Television School,
Broomfield (now 64) has carved a niche for himself
as the adventurous, offbeat, quasi-impromptu
celebrity hunter-cum-interviewer known for a
brazen boldness in the face of adversity.
Broomfield’s films span an unabashedly broad and
eclectic range of subject matter from the high
profile, including Margaret Thatcher, Eugene Terre
Blanche and Sarah Palin, to the tabloid, including
Courtney Love, Tupac Shakur and Heidi Fleiss.
Broomfield has even made two full-length
documentaries about the life and death of notorious
American serial killer, Aileen Wuornos.
Where Broomfield differs from other
documentarians is both in his mock-casual
insistence on appearing in the films himself
(however accidental and nonchalant this might
appear) and in his subtle use of humour (often
disarming his prey into surprisingly off-guard
admissions). Broomfield is on record as having said
that his own appearance in these films is more a
result of accident and necessity, especially in those
such as Tracking Down Maggie (1994) and Kurt And
Courtney (1998) in which his intended subjects
proved so elusive that the very act of Broomfield’s
disastrously-thwarted attempts to make films about
them became the actual subject of the finished
works.
Of course, Broomfield is shrewder than he is given credit for and embraces his faux-cameo identity
with relish, as was made clear when he starred in a
series of five Volkswagen commercials (1999) in
which he appears on-screen brandishing his
trademark boom microphone and tape recorder. 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. Broomfield is also
a clear forerunner to Louis Theroux in that both
documentarians use a clever mix of sneakiness and
humour to outwit their subjects.
Nick Broomfield with Bugle editor Jian Farhoumand
I was lucky enough to meet Nick Broomfield at his
Q&A screening of Sarah Palin: You Betcha! (2011)
at the Duke of York Picture House in Brighton a year
ago, and asked him about this. I pointed out that
documentaries are often thought of as serious
things but that he somehow manages to inject them
with humour, often at the very moments when he
appears on screen. I asked if this was deliberate
and if he thought that humour was important in
getting across a serious message, and if he believed
that his films would be as successful if he didn’t
actually appear in them. 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. Broomfield was referring to his
Hobbit-like mission through the snows of Alaska to
track down Sarah Palin and interview her, resulting
in the usual Broomfield-esque comedy of errors. He continued: “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.”
Of course, as much as Broomfield might enjoy the
limelight, he is still a serious filmmaker whose work
often affects actual, genuine change. His film about
Sarah Palin was widely credited as a reason that the
Republican Party refused openly to endorse or
encourage her to run against Obama in 2012. His
film Kurt And Courtney revealed mistakes and
oversights in the police’s detective work conducted
after Kobain’s presumed suicide, heavily implying
that Courtney Love was behind her husband’s
death. Broomfield’s Aileen Wuornos: The Selling Of
A Serial Killer (1992) and Aileen: Life And Death Of
A Serial Killer (2003) also reveal many examples of
serious negligence by many figures of authority
ranging from the state itself to Wuornos’ parents
and even her own attorney. Broomfield’s work suggests that the state ultimately put to death a
raped woman who had decided to plead guilty and
face execution rather than continue to suffer the
political circus surrounding her case.
As well as his documentaries, Broomfield has begun
to make feature films in a style that he refers to as
‘Direct Cinema’ – a documentary-inspired style of
filmmaking which employs non-actors and
encourages improvisation. Ghosts (2006) revolves
around the 2004 Morecambe Bay disaster in which
23 Chinese immigrant cockle pickers were drowned
by suddenly-rising high tides. The film has raised
half a million pounds for the victims’ families. Battle
For Haditha (2007) is concerned with the Haditha
massacre in Iraq of 2005 and counts both ex-
marines and Iraqi refugees among its cast.
Broomfield’s legacy as a serious filmmaker,
therefore, is safe. Furthermore, Broomfield is a
founder member of the Morecambe Bay Victims
Fund, has received the California State Bar Award
for contribution to legal reform, and been awarded
several honorary doctorates. Most fittingly, perhaps,
Broomfield has been awarded the BAFTA Lifetime
Achievement Award for Contribution to
Documentary. His films are informative, insightful
and – more often than not – entirely gripping. I look
forward to the next one.
[This article was first published in Sabotage Times (now defunct) on 14 Jan, 2013]

[This article was first published in Sabotage Times (now defunct) on 14 Jan, 2013]
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