Documentary filmmaker Nick Broomfield. NICK BROOMFIELD:
A CAMERA, A QUESTION & A MISSION
By
Alex Simon
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the May 1997 issue of Venice Magazine.
Nick Broomfield was born in London. After studying law and political science as an undergraduate, he went on to graduate studies at the National Film School. There he discovered his talent as a director and began his career as one of the most prolific and influential documentary filmmakers working today. While his name might not yet be a familiar one in households the world over, he has tackled subjects which certainly are, most recently Aileen Wournos: The Selling of a Serial Killer (1993) about one of the most notorious murderers of the 20th century; Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madame (1995) showing the underbelly of Tinseltown and a finely etched portrait of a woman many Angelenos would like to forget. Nick has directed two feature films as well, Dark Obsession (1988) starring his girlfriend Amanda Donohoe and Garbriel Byrne, and Monster In a Box (1991), a record of performance artist Spalding Grey's monologue on the trials and tribulations of completing a screenplay. Nick's latest effort is Fetishes, a study of the most luxurious S & M parlor in New York, its clients and its proprietors. Produced by HBO, Fetishes is Nick's 20th film in 19 years of filmmaking.
At a seaside restaurant in Santa Monica, Nick sat down recently to talk about his impressive body of work, his attraction to dark subject matter and the aesthetic beauty of '55 Chevy Bel-Airs.
Were you always interested in film and filmmaking?
Nick Broomfield: I started doing still photographs when I was about 15 or 16. I remember I got sent once to France on one of those exchange programs. The guy I was visiting had his exams so he wasn't really able to spend any time with me. And they had a motorbike and I had a camera. So I spent the entire summer taking pictures, because there really wasn't anything else to do. So I think that's where it really began.
How were you drawn to documentaries as opposed to feature films?
It probably started with the still camera. I was always interested in reality and people's lives. I don't really know why...I think especially when I left boarding school, I felt as if I didn't know much about the world at all, which was extremely accurate. I was very sort of sheltered. I guess making documentaries was a way of finding out first hand the way things were in a very detailed way. Even more than journalism in a way. I have three or four months sometimes to find out about something, which is a real luxury.
Tell me what drew you to make Fetishes.
I was approached to do it by HBO, and I was initially a bit hesitant, because I think in a way, Fetishes is a very difficult subject for a film. People have very strong opinions. They're either completely disgusted and revolted or they're kind of interested in it, but they're ashamed to be interested in it. And if they're part of the scene, you have a very good chance of not putting over their point of view strongly enough. So you kind of alternate in reactions of "Why didn't you get psychiatrists in to analyze all the people," or "Why didn't you ask all of them why they hadn't been to psychiatrists instead (of going to an S & M parlor)." Or, the other extreme is "Why don't you celebrate submissives in that this is their sexuality and this is what they enjoy," that kind of thing. In a way, it's really a very simple film that's trying to open up a subject that I think has been pretty inaccessible. So what I really wanted to achieve with Fetishes was to take the audience into a kind of area that I'd never been into before and try to use that to make it more accessible to them and to let the people that do go there speak for themselves in a very understated way. I think it's one of those films that will be much more acceptable in about five years time.
Why is that?
I know there was Madonna's book recently, but I don't know how wide that really went. I think it's something that for a lot of people, they haven't started asking any real questions pertaining to what it's really about or taking it seriously other than just being revolted about it. I think until that sort of public attitude moves a bit and it becomes something people get talking about wider, I think reactions are going to be all over the place about (Fetishes).
