Nick Broomfield
Nick Broomfield was one of the first intake of students at the NFTS, and one of the most successful documentary makers to graduate. It was at the School that he was introduced to Joan Churchill, and together they made several films, Juvenile Liason, Tattooed Tears, Soldier Girls, Lily Tomlin and more recently Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer.
However, it was while making Driving Me Crazy that Nick’s trademark appearances in front of the camera began. He decided to place himself and the producer of the film in the story, in order to save it from disaster. It worked. A more investigative and experimental type of filmmaking developed, and he became an intrinsic part of the stories he was documenting. With international successes such as Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam, Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer, Kurt and Courtney and Biggie and Tupac, he became a household name, and made the documentary investigation genre popular to a whole new contemporary audience.
Most recently, Nick has been applying his documentary experience to fiction, first with the docu-drama Ghosts, (2006), inspired by the Morecambe Bay tragedy where 21 Chinese immigrant cockle pickers drowned after being cut off by the tides. His next work, Battle for Haditha (2007), continues in this mode, reconstructing the massacre of 24 people by US Marines in Western Iraq in retaliation for the death of a Marine in a roadside bombing.
Nick Broomfield is the recipient of many awards, amongst others, the Sundance first prize, British Academy Award, Prix Italia, Dupont Peabody Award, Grierson Award, Hague Peace Prize, and the Amnesty International Doen award.
In May 2009, Nick released his latest film, A Time Comes - about the Kingsnorth Six climate change protestors - on the internet for anyone to view free of charge. Watch it now on YouTube
Nick Broomfield's official website
Nick Broomfield on the making of Battle for Haditha
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