Nicholas "Nick" Broomfield (born 30 January 1948) is an English documentary filmmaker. He is the son of Maurice Broomfield, a photographer.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.
National Film and Television School, Sidcot School, University of Essex, Cardiff University
Children
Barney Broomfield
Parents
Maurice Broomfield
Star Sign
Aquarius
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Quote
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[on Tales of the Grim Sleeper (2014)] In LA, it's strange that there are actually two cities - the super wealthy one and the other city which you don't go into, where the poor people live - and there's a complete abandonment of that part of the city. They don't interact at all. Lonnie's case bizarrely shows what happens when you abandon a people and they're no longer a functional part of the community. You get these kind of situations where it is possible for someone in a 25 year period to kill probably over a 100 people and not be caught by a police force because those people are not a political priority. So I thought it was fascinating and I wanted to meet Lonnie's friends and the other people in the community because I wanted to put a human face on this situation.[2015]
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[on Tales of the Grim Sleeper (2014)] I think documentaries are so good at creating empathy between an audience and situations that they don't know anything about. There's this real belief that people in South Central are like the bogeymen, that if you go there you're going to get shot. And I think what I like about a film is that these people come across as charismatic likable people, you have empathy for them, and they deserve a better deal than what they've been getting. And I think that's first and foremost what the film does. I think what the documentary does in terms of finding information that the police should've done just sort of underlines the fact that the police force is completely inefficient.[2015]
My advice for first-time filmmakers: don't sit around waiting for the money to come your way; it's much easier to go out and start. Nowadays, you can go out and shoot very inexpensively and discover whether or not filmmaking is your thing.[2014]
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[on Soldier Girls (1981)] Joan [co-director Joan Churchill] and I went through Basic Training for 14 weeks. Frederick Wiseman lent us a tape recorder. D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus lent us a cutting room. We only got funding after it was shot. We both lost 20 pounds making it -- it was so hot.
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[on Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer (1992)] CH4, who financed it, at first hated it when it was filmed. Rieta Oord and I believed it mirrored our experience and refused to change it. They wanted experts in white coats giving their opinions, to make it more objective. It fortunately won the Royal Television Society Award.
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[on Driving Me Crazy (1988)] The first film I ever appeared in. I was so desperate in this out-of-control situation that it was the only way I could think of telling the story. Rob Levi was an enormous support. It's a miracle it ever got finished.
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[on Who Cares (1971)] The first film I ever made. Borrowed the camera, got 'short ends' of film for free and set out with my friend Pete Archard to Liverpool. Pete is a sociologist and knew the subject really well. Took three months to shoot. Bernice Rubens the novelist helped me to piece it together. It took me one and a half years working nights to cut this 18 minute film. Sir Arthur Elton and the director Bruce Beresford got me £200 to finish it at the British Film Institute.
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[on The Leader, His Driver, and the Driver's Wife (1991)] We lived in Ventersdorp in the Transvaal in a remote farmhouse. Barry's son was born while he was shooting the film. Barry [cinemtographer Barry Ackroyd] and Riete [producer Rieta Oord] are very charismatic and likable, I always think the people you work with have an enormous effect on the final film and the way your subjects respond to you.
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It's like watching a schoolboy's fantasy of violence and sex, which normally Quentin Tarantino would be wanking alone to in his bedroom while this mother is making his baked beans downstairs. Only this time he's got Harvey Weinstein behind him and it's on at a million screens.
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Chaos is a creative place to work from.
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Dennis Potter once said watching my films was like watching somebody on the toilet. Strangely enough, I think the same could be said about him.
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I'd never use "middle-class" as a term for describing someone. It's so meaningless. So bland.
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A film is a portrait of an aspect of society.
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I was taught by someone who loved observational films where people are made to feel completely adequate about the way they are. That is what makes an insightful film.
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Fact
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Went to France as an exchange student at the age of 15.
$1.3 Million
