Nick Broomfield

Nick Broomfield
Nick Broomfield in February 1990.
Born	1948 London, England
Education	Sidcot School, Somerset University of Cardiff University of Essex
Alma mater	National Film and Television School
Occupation	Film-maker
Website
www.nickbroomfield.com

Nicholas "Nick" Broomfield (born 1948) is an English documentary film-maker. He is the son of Maurice Broomfield, a photographer.^[1]

Broomfield works with a minimal crew, recording sound himself and using one or two camera operators. He is often seen in the finished film, usually holding the sound boom and wearing the Nagra tape recorder.

Education

From 1959 to 1965, Broomfield was educated at Sidcot School,^[2] a boarding independent school for boys (now co-educational), near the village of Winscombe in Somerset in south west England, followed by the University College Cardiff (renamed several times, eventually becoming 'Cardiff University' in 2004), where he studied Law, and the University of Essex, where he studied Political Science. Subsequently, he studied film at the National Film and Television School, in London.^[3] Broomfield's early style was conventional cinéma vérité: the juxtaposition of observed scenes, with little use of voice-over or text.

Honorary Awards

Broomfield was awarded the BAFTA Lifetime Achievement Award for Contribution to Documentary, and was given honorary doctorates from Essex^[4] and Surrey Institute of Art & Design, University College.^[5] He was awarded the Californian State Bar Award^[6] for his contribution to Legal Reform and is a founder member of the Morecambe Bay Victims Fund.

Documentaries

It was not until Driving Me Crazy (1988) that Broomfield appeared on-screen for the first time. After several arguments regarding the budget and nature of the film, he decided that he would only make the documentary if he was able to conduct a sort of experiment by filming the process of making the film—the arguments, the failed interviews and the dead-ends.^{[citation needed]}

This shift in film-making style was also heavily influenced by Broomfield's experience in attempting to release his earlier film Lily Tomlin, which chronicled Tomlin's one-woman show The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe. Tomlin claimed that the film was a spoiler for the actual show and filed suit for $7 million against Broomfield. The documentary was shown on public television but not widely released. Eventually the footage shot by Broomfield was used in the video release of the one-woman show.^{[citation needed]}

It is for this self-reflexive film-making style—a film being about the making of itself as much as about its subject—that Broomfield is best known. His influence on documentary is clear: Michael Moore, Louis Theroux and Morgan Spurlock have all adopted a similar style for their recent box-office hits.^[7] Film-makers who use this style have been referred to as Les Nouvelles Egotistes; others have likened his work to the gonzo reporting of Hunter S. Thompson.^[8]

Broomfield's best known work is probably Kurt and Courtney about Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, one of the few films selected then banned at the Sundance Film Festival.^[9] A previous film, Soldier Girls, that he co-directed with Joan Churchill won 1st prize at Sundance a few years previously.^[10]

Direct Cinema

In 2006, Broomfield changed his style again into what he calls 'Direct Cinema', using non-actors to play themselves. He completed a drama called Ghosts for Channel 4 inspired by the 2004 Morecambe Bay cockling disaster when 23 Chinese immigrant cockle pickers drowned after being cut off by the tides. Ghosts won numerous awards and helped raise nearly half a million pounds to help the victims' families.

Battle for Haditha (2007) worked with ex-Marines and Iraqi refugees, as well as known actors. The film was shot sequentially, enabling the cast to build their characters as the story progressed. It also used real locations, and a very small documentary-style film crew. Although they worked from a detailed script,^[11][12] the actors also improvised and added dialogue. The script was based on research with the Marines of Kilo Company who took part on that day, the survivors of the massacre, and the six thousand page NCIS government report.^[13] Battle for Haditha won numerous international awards.^[14]

Films

• Who Cares? (1971) - Broomfield's first film, made as a student using a borrowed camera.
• Proud to be British (1973)
• Behind the Rent Strike (1974)
• Juvenile Liaison (1975)
• Whittingham (1980)
• Fort Augustus (1981)
• Soldier Girls (1981)
• Tattooed Tears (1982)
• Chicken Ranch (1983)
• Lily Tomlin (1986)
• Driving me Crazy (1988)
• Diamond Skulls (1989)
• Juvenile Liaison II (1990)
• The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife (1991)
• Too White For Me (1992)
• Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer (1992)
• Monster in a Box (1992)
• Tracking Down Maggie (1994)
• Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam (1995)
• Fetishes (1996)
• Kurt and Courtney (1998)
• Biggie & Tupac (2002)
• Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer (2003)
• His Big White Self (2006)
• Ghosts (2006)
• Battle for Haditha (2007)
• A Time Comes (2009)^[15]
• Sarah Palin: You Betcha! (2011)

Other work

In 1999, Broomfield made a series of five commercials for Volkswagen. Each of these featured Broomfield with his trademark sound boom "investigating" rumours about the soon-to-be released Volkswagen Passat.

Awards

Interview with Nick Broomfield (Director) of Ghosts (UK) dramatic feature film during world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival

• British Academy Award (BAFTA)
• Prix Italia
• The Dupont Columbia Award for Outstanding Journalism
• The Peabody
• The Royal Television Society Award
• First Prize, Sundance Film Festival
• John Grierson Award
• Robert Flaherty Award
• The Hague Peace Prize
• The Chris Award
• The Blue Ribbon
• The California State Bar Award
• First Prize, Chicago Film Festival
• First Prize, US Film Festival
• First Prize, Festival of Mannheim
• First Prize, Festival di Popoli
• Special Jury Award, Melbourne Film Festival

Broomfield was also given a BAFTA tribute evening on March 8, 2005.

See also

• Documentary film
• Cinéma vérité

References

1. ^ Jon Levy Obituary: Maurice Broomfield, The Guardian, 13 October 2010
2. ^ Alumni of Sidcot School Sidcot School, Somerset. Access date: 20 September, 2011
3. ^ Barnett, Laura (2007-09-11). "Portrait of the artist: Nick Broomfield, documentary-maker". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/sep/11/1. Retrieved 2010-05-20. 
4. ^ http://www.essex.ac.uk/honorary_graduates/or/2006/nick-broomfield-oration.aspx
5. ^ http://www.ucreative.ac.uk/index.cfm?articleid=5092
6. ^ http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/nick_broomfield/biography.php
7. ^ Hoggart, Paul (21 February 2006). "Following the leader". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2006/feb/21/southafrica.television?gusrc=rss&feed=film2. Retrieved 2009-04-28. 
8. ^ Byrnes, Paul (13 February 2003). "Review: Biggie And Tupac". Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/cgi-bin/common/popupPrintArticle.pl?path=/articles/2003/02/12/1044927659454.html. Retrieved 2009-04-28. 
9. ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/hole/biography
10. ^ http://www.allmovie.com/work/soldier-girls-45508/awards
11. ^ http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=44570
12. ^ http://www.channel4.com/programmes/battle-for-haditha/articles/nick-broomfield-discusses-battle-for-haditha
13. ^ http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90506549
14. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0870211/awards
15. ^ Broomfield, Nick (2009-05-31). "A Time Comes: The story of the Kingsnorth Six". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2009/may/31/nick-broomfield-kingsnorth/. Retrieved 2010-05-20. 

• Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film, ed. Ian Aitken. London: Routledge (2005)
• Nick Broomfield: Documenting Icons, Jason Wood

External links

• Official website
• Nick Broomfield at the Internet Movie Database
• Nick Broomfield on meeting Aileen Wuornos (Video interview from Capturing Reality: The Art of Documentary)
• 2011 radio interview at The Bat Segundo Show

Persondata
Name	Broomfield, Nick
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1948
Place of birth	London, England
Date of death
Place of death