An array of the most acclaimed documentaries of the last 50 years bear the stamp of one singular talent: Joan Churchill, filmmaker and cinematographer.
Her first credit, in 1970, came as a camera operator on Gimme Shelter, the classic documentary about the Rolling Stones at Altamont directed by the Maysles Brothers and Charlotte Zwerin. She’s been shooting films ever since, including Jimi at Berkeley (1971); Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll (1987); Kurt & Courtney (1998); Biggie & Tupac (2002); Shut Up & Sing, the 2006 doc about the Dixie Chicks, and the Oscar-nominated Last Days in Vietnam (2014).
She also co-directed a number of award-winning films with her former husband Nick Broomfield, including Soldier Girls (1981); Lily Tomlin (1986); Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer (2003), and 2011’s Sarah Palin: You Betcha!
In honor of her career in cinema, Churchill is being recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award at Doc NYC, the country’s largest all-documentary festival, which opens today.
Her first credit, in 1970, came as a camera operator on Gimme Shelter, the classic documentary about the Rolling Stones at Altamont directed by the Maysles Brothers and Charlotte Zwerin. She’s been shooting films ever since, including Jimi at Berkeley (1971); Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll (1987); Kurt & Courtney (1998); Biggie & Tupac (2002); Shut Up & Sing, the 2006 doc about the Dixie Chicks, and the Oscar-nominated Last Days in Vietnam (2014).
She also co-directed a number of award-winning films with her former husband Nick Broomfield, including Soldier Girls (1981); Lily Tomlin (1986); Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer (2003), and 2011’s Sarah Palin: You Betcha!
In honor of her career in cinema, Churchill is being recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award at Doc NYC, the country’s largest all-documentary festival, which opens today.
- 11/11/2021
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
It was 19 years ago that Nick Broomfield, that spiky and compelling one-man band of documentary filmmakers, released “Biggie & Tupac” (2002), his chilling, no-frills, down-the-mean-streets-of-Compton investigative look into the murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls.
The movie arrived at a moment when Broomfield had begun to style himself as a kind of high-end tabloid detective, plumbing the mysteries behind such sensational stories as the rise of Heidi Fleiss (“Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam”), the suicide of Kurt Cobain (“Kurt & Courtney”), and the life and death of the serial killer Aileen Wuornos (Broomfield made not one but two films about her). “Biggie & Tupac” didn’t present definitive evidence of anything, but it offered what was at the time a groundbreaking portrait of life at Death Row Records, the underworld music empire presided over by the gangsta entrepreneur Suge Knight. It was a movie that dove into key questions and pushed them further and further,...
The movie arrived at a moment when Broomfield had begun to style himself as a kind of high-end tabloid detective, plumbing the mysteries behind such sensational stories as the rise of Heidi Fleiss (“Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam”), the suicide of Kurt Cobain (“Kurt & Courtney”), and the life and death of the serial killer Aileen Wuornos (Broomfield made not one but two films about her). “Biggie & Tupac” didn’t present definitive evidence of anything, but it offered what was at the time a groundbreaking portrait of life at Death Row Records, the underworld music empire presided over by the gangsta entrepreneur Suge Knight. It was a movie that dove into key questions and pushed them further and further,...
- 8/21/2021
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Featuring: Leonard Cohen, Judy Collins, Ron Cornelius, Helle Goldman, Marianne Ihlen, Richard Vick | Directed by Nick Broomfield
Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love is an eye-opening account of a doomed love affair on an international stage. Directed by documentarian auteur Nick Broomfield, the film follows Leonard Cohen and his Norwegian muse Marianne. A relationship that starts during the 1960s on a small Greek island named Hydra and ends fifty years later, three months and two continents apart at the ripe old ages of 82 and 81 respectively. Broomfield’s documentary is arguably the best work from the director in almost two decades. An extraordinary piece of heartfelt cinema that explores the melancholic intricacy of poets alike. Exploring an unrequited doomed fascination in the opposite sex.
Broomfield’s latest feature is undoubtedly his best work since the late 90s and early 2000s. It is in no way a greater exploration of human character found...
Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love is an eye-opening account of a doomed love affair on an international stage. Directed by documentarian auteur Nick Broomfield, the film follows Leonard Cohen and his Norwegian muse Marianne. A relationship that starts during the 1960s on a small Greek island named Hydra and ends fifty years later, three months and two continents apart at the ripe old ages of 82 and 81 respectively. Broomfield’s documentary is arguably the best work from the director in almost two decades. An extraordinary piece of heartfelt cinema that explores the melancholic intricacy of poets alike. Exploring an unrequited doomed fascination in the opposite sex.
Broomfield’s latest feature is undoubtedly his best work since the late 90s and early 2000s. It is in no way a greater exploration of human character found...
- 7/26/2019
- by Jak-Luke Sharp
- Nerdly
Two romances anchor Nick Broomfield’s documentary “Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love.” Both bloomed on the sparkling Greek island Hydra, many years apart. One was the great love and muse of singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen’s life, Marianne Ihlen, the subject of at least five of his songs, including “So Long Marianne” and “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye.” The other was Broomfield’s own, more brief affair at age 20 with Ihlen, who was 12 years his senior.
Ihlen stayed friends with both men through the years. As she battled leukemia at the end of her life in 2016, her friend Jan Christian Mollestad reached out to Cohen to let him know she was near the end. Cohen wrote an email back that Mollestand reads to Ihlen on video in “Marianne & Leonard”:
Dearest Marianne,
I’m just a little behind you, close enough to take your hand. This old body has given up,...
Ihlen stayed friends with both men through the years. As she battled leukemia at the end of her life in 2016, her friend Jan Christian Mollestad reached out to Cohen to let him know she was near the end. Cohen wrote an email back that Mollestand reads to Ihlen on video in “Marianne & Leonard”:
Dearest Marianne,
I’m just a little behind you, close enough to take your hand. This old body has given up,...
- 7/5/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Two romances anchor Nick Broomfield’s documentary “Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love.” Both bloomed on the sparkling Greek island Hydra, many years apart. One was the great love and muse of singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen’s life, Marianne Ihlen, the subject of at least five of his songs, including “So Long Marianne” and “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye.” The other was Broomfield’s own, more brief affair at age 20 with Ihlen, who was 12 years his senior.
Ihlen stayed friends with both men through the years. As she battled leukemia at the end of her life in 2016, her friend Jan Christian Mollestad reached out to Cohen to let him know she was near the end. Cohen wrote an email back that Mollestand reads to Ihlen on video in “Marianne & Leonard”:
Dearest Marianne,
I’m just a little behind you, close enough to take your hand. This old body has given up,...
Ihlen stayed friends with both men through the years. As she battled leukemia at the end of her life in 2016, her friend Jan Christian Mollestad reached out to Cohen to let him know she was near the end. Cohen wrote an email back that Mollestand reads to Ihlen on video in “Marianne & Leonard”:
Dearest Marianne,
I’m just a little behind you, close enough to take your hand. This old body has given up,...
- 7/5/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday..
This past weekend saw the release of “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda,” the latest in a recent string of impressively strong and commercially successful biographical documentaries (other recent standouts include “Rbg” and “Won’t You Be my Neighbor?”).
This week’s question: What is the best biographical documentary ever made?
Siddhant Adlakha (@SidizenKane), Freelance for The Village Voice, /Film
The best and arguably most important documentaries ever made are complimentary pieces by Joshua Oppenheimer, “The Act of Killing” (2013) and “The Look of Silence (2015). They’re set against the backdrop of Indonesia’s 1965-66 genocide, believed to be sponsored by the C.I.A., but they’re each rooted in the lives of singular subjects and their diametrically opposed journeys.
The cleansing, of an estimated three million ethnic Chinese, changed the face of the nation in terrifying ways,...
This past weekend saw the release of “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda,” the latest in a recent string of impressively strong and commercially successful biographical documentaries (other recent standouts include “Rbg” and “Won’t You Be my Neighbor?”).
This week’s question: What is the best biographical documentary ever made?
Siddhant Adlakha (@SidizenKane), Freelance for The Village Voice, /Film
The best and arguably most important documentaries ever made are complimentary pieces by Joshua Oppenheimer, “The Act of Killing” (2013) and “The Look of Silence (2015). They’re set against the backdrop of Indonesia’s 1965-66 genocide, believed to be sponsored by the C.I.A., but they’re each rooted in the lives of singular subjects and their diametrically opposed journeys.
The cleansing, of an estimated three million ethnic Chinese, changed the face of the nation in terrifying ways,...
- 7/9/2018
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Last year BBC One's Charlotte Moore made promises that would define the network over the coming years: a commitment to risk taking, guaranteed investment in innovation, and a promise that she would challenge every new commission to break the mold. And with that reminder, speaking yesterday at an event for writers, actors, industry and media, Moore announced a lineup of new productions currently in development by the BBC. Or note is "Whitney," a feature-length documentary on the late singer, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Nick Broomfield ("Aileen: Life And Death of a Serial Killer," "Kurt & Courtney" and "Biggie and Tupac") which will, according...
- 3/8/2016
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Filmmaker Nick Broomfield does something completely astonishing (though it shouldn’t be): he listens to people the cops utterly ignored. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
Is there any room left for your outage meter to go higher, or is it already at the top of the scale? Mine’s been jumping past 11 for years, and now I’m just gonna add a 12 and call that “one madder.”
Cuz I’ve just seenTales of the Grim Sleeper.
If the serial killer known as the Grim Sleeper had been haunting upscale neighborhoods of Los Angeles such as Coldwater Canyon or Silver Lake for a quarter of a century, it’s a safe bet we’d have heard about him before now. He’d be infamous, like San Francisco’s Zodiac Killer. But the Grim Sleeper...
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
Is there any room left for your outage meter to go higher, or is it already at the top of the scale? Mine’s been jumping past 11 for years, and now I’m just gonna add a 12 and call that “one madder.”
Cuz I’ve just seenTales of the Grim Sleeper.
If the serial killer known as the Grim Sleeper had been haunting upscale neighborhoods of Los Angeles such as Coldwater Canyon or Silver Lake for a quarter of a century, it’s a safe bet we’d have heard about him before now. He’d be infamous, like San Francisco’s Zodiac Killer. But the Grim Sleeper...
- 2/3/2015
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
Director Broomfield ("Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer") exploits his charmingly klutzy persona as the fish-out-of-water Brit to get close to the African American community in South Central La where he investigates a serial killer who ran amuck for two decades before his arrest in 2010. But en route to the truth, Broomfield pokes holes in the case, and the prosecution, revealing a sordid history of municipal neglect and police discrimination happening in Los Angeles. Read More: "Tales of the Grim Sleeper Provokes with Irritating Honesty" Sure to push buttons, this bracing film premiered at Tiff and opens in La December 11 and NYC December 18 via HBO Films ahead of its April premiere on HBO. Alongside more widely regarded contenders "Citizenfour," "The Overnighters," "Keep on Keepin' On" and more, "Tales of the Grim Sleeper" is on the Academy's shortlist of 15 films vying for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar. It's...
- 12/11/2014
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Thompson on Hollywood
HBO Documentary Films has acquired U.S. rights to Nick Broomfield‘s serial killer documentary “Tales of the Grim Sleeper,” sales agent Submarine announced Wednesday from the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. The film marks Broomfield's fifth documentary for HBO, which was also behind “Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer,” “Kurt & Courtney” and “Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam.” “Tales of the Grim Sleeper” will debut on HBO in 2015. It is the only documentary that was invited to the Telluride, Toronto and New York film festivals this year. Also read: Mick Jagger's James Brown Documentary ‘Mr. Dynamite’ to Air on...
- 9/10/2014
- by Jeff Sneider
- The Wrap
HBO Documentary Films closes first deal with Sky Atlantic following Toronto screening.
HBO Documentary Films has acquired Us rights to Nick Broomfield’s Tales of the Grim Sleeper, currently screening at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Review: Tales of the Grim Sleeper
HBO will broadcast the film in 2015. The doc explores the case of a notorious serial killer known as the Grim Sleeper, who terrorized South Central Los Angeles over a span of 25 years.
The deal was negotiated by Josh Braun and David Koh of New York-based distributor Submarine on behalf of UK broadcaster Sky Atlantic, which originally commissioned the film.
It marks Broomfield’s latest documentary for HBO, following Aileen: Life And Death Of A Serial Killer, Kurt & Courtney, and Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam.
The film was produced by Marc Hoeferlin in association with BSkyB, which is handling international sales. Celia Taylor is executive producer.
Taylor, Sky’s head of non-scripted commissioning, said: “I’m delighted...
HBO Documentary Films has acquired Us rights to Nick Broomfield’s Tales of the Grim Sleeper, currently screening at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Review: Tales of the Grim Sleeper
HBO will broadcast the film in 2015. The doc explores the case of a notorious serial killer known as the Grim Sleeper, who terrorized South Central Los Angeles over a span of 25 years.
The deal was negotiated by Josh Braun and David Koh of New York-based distributor Submarine on behalf of UK broadcaster Sky Atlantic, which originally commissioned the film.
It marks Broomfield’s latest documentary for HBO, following Aileen: Life And Death Of A Serial Killer, Kurt & Courtney, and Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam.
The film was produced by Marc Hoeferlin in association with BSkyB, which is handling international sales. Celia Taylor is executive producer.
Taylor, Sky’s head of non-scripted commissioning, said: “I’m delighted...
- 9/10/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
HBO Documentary Films has acquired Us rights to vet Nick Broomfield's chilling true crime document "Tales of the Grim Sleeper" out of Toronto. Broomfield has directed "Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer," "Kurt & Courtney" and "Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam," to name a few. "Tales of the Grim Sleeper" is his fifth doc for HBO. It will air on HBO in 2015. Here's the synopsis: When Lonnie Franklin Jr. was arrested in South Central Los Angeles in 2010 as the suspected murderer of a string of young black women, police hailed it as the culmination of 20 years of investigations. Four years later, documentary filmmaker Nick Broomfield visited the alleged killer's neighborhood to find out if the police had earned their self-given kudos. There, he finds a world of people who suspected for decades that there might be some connection between their odd neighbor and the dozens of women who had gone missing from the street.
- 9/10/2014
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Thompson on Hollywood
The phrase "serial killer" is most often attributed to the late FBI agent Robert Ressler, who coined the term along with fellow agent John Douglas as they began profiling and researching murder cases in the 1970s. His work led him to have direct contact with serial killers, with Ressler apparently receiving a painting from killer John Wayne Gacy with an inscription that apparently read: "Dear Bob Ressler, you cannot hope to enjoy the harvest without first laboring in the fields. Best wishes and good luck. Sincerely, John Wayne Gacy, June 1988."
The inscription sounds like it came out of a movie, which perhaps isn't so surprising since Hollywood has been making movies about serial killers since the silent era. Sometimes these movies are about real-life killers, other times they are based on real-life killers or events, or, and perhaps even more disturbing, they are based on nothing but imagination. Either way,...
The inscription sounds like it came out of a movie, which perhaps isn't so surprising since Hollywood has been making movies about serial killers since the silent era. Sometimes these movies are about real-life killers, other times they are based on real-life killers or events, or, and perhaps even more disturbing, they are based on nothing but imagination. Either way,...
- 5/21/2014
- by Ryan Gowland
- Reelzchannel.com
Hunger Games DoP Tom Stern and 12 Years a Slave cinematographer Sean Bobbitt among those chosen for jury duty.
The 21st Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography (Nov 16-23), has revealed the competition jurors who will judge entries at this year’s event in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Jury members of the main competition jury are:
Tom Stern, cinematographer (Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino, The Hunger Games);Ed Lachman, cinematographer (Erin Brockovich, The Virgin Suicides, I’m Not There);Todd McCarthy, journalist and film critic;Denis Lenoir, cinematographer (Paris, je t’aime, Righteous Kill, 88 Minutes);Adam Holender, cinematographer (Midnight Cowboy, Smoke, Fresh);Timo Salminen, cinematographer (The Man Without a Past, La Havre, The Match Factory Girl);Franz Lustig, cinematographer (Don’t Come Knocking, Land of Plenty, Palermo Shooting);Jeffrey Kimball, cinematographer (Top Gun, Mission: Impossible II, The Expendables).Polish Films Competition
Jost Vacano, the cinematographer behind several Paul Verhoeven films including Total Recall, RoboCop and [link...
The 21st Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography (Nov 16-23), has revealed the competition jurors who will judge entries at this year’s event in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Jury members of the main competition jury are:
Tom Stern, cinematographer (Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino, The Hunger Games);Ed Lachman, cinematographer (Erin Brockovich, The Virgin Suicides, I’m Not There);Todd McCarthy, journalist and film critic;Denis Lenoir, cinematographer (Paris, je t’aime, Righteous Kill, 88 Minutes);Adam Holender, cinematographer (Midnight Cowboy, Smoke, Fresh);Timo Salminen, cinematographer (The Man Without a Past, La Havre, The Match Factory Girl);Franz Lustig, cinematographer (Don’t Come Knocking, Land of Plenty, Palermo Shooting);Jeffrey Kimball, cinematographer (Top Gun, Mission: Impossible II, The Expendables).Polish Films Competition
Jost Vacano, the cinematographer behind several Paul Verhoeven films including Total Recall, RoboCop and [link...
- 11/8/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Cinematography festival will also honour Avatar production designer Rick Carter and documentary cinematographer Joan Churchill.
Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography (Nov 16-23), is to hand honourary awards to John Turturro, Rick Carter and Joan Churchill.
Turturro, best known for roles in O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the Transformers franchise, will be presented with the festival’s Special Award to Actor-Director at a ceremony in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
A regular collaborator with the Coen brothers, Turturro most recently wrote and directed comedy Fading Gigolo, which will receive its Polish premiere at the festival.
Carter, who won Oscars for his work on Lincoln and Avatar and received nominations for Forrest Gump and War Horse, will receive Camerimage’s Production Designer with Unique Visual Sensitivity Award.
The production designer and art director also boasts credits including Amistad,A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Cast Away, War of the Worlds, What Lies Beneath, Jurassic Park, and Back to the Future Part II...
Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography (Nov 16-23), is to hand honourary awards to John Turturro, Rick Carter and Joan Churchill.
Turturro, best known for roles in O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the Transformers franchise, will be presented with the festival’s Special Award to Actor-Director at a ceremony in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
A regular collaborator with the Coen brothers, Turturro most recently wrote and directed comedy Fading Gigolo, which will receive its Polish premiere at the festival.
Carter, who won Oscars for his work on Lincoln and Avatar and received nominations for Forrest Gump and War Horse, will receive Camerimage’s Production Designer with Unique Visual Sensitivity Award.
The production designer and art director also boasts credits including Amistad,A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Cast Away, War of the Worlds, What Lies Beneath, Jurassic Park, and Back to the Future Part II...
- 10/16/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Tags: Morning BrewThe DinahDinah Shore WeekendEmmy RossumPat SummittMiracle TempleAudre LordeIMDbI Killed My Lesbian WifeHung Her On a Meathook and Now I Have a Three-Picture Deal at DisneyPatricia CornwellJoan RiversKelly McGillisJodie Foster
Good morning!
Audre Lorde's Sister Outside is on Flavorwire's list of 10 Essential Feminist Texts.
This NPR list of graphic novels with Lgbt characters is very dude-heavy, but there's one with lesbians you might have not read yet. (Although I could think of many others. Perhaps we'll have to create our own list!)
Mount Moriah's Miracle Temple is streaming on Pitchfork and I think you'll love it. We'll have an interview with out frontwoman Heather McEntire up next week in conjunction with the release next Tuesday.
Espn has announced their next round of documentary films for their 30 for 30 series and this time they are focused on Title IX. Among the nine films are about Swoopes and Pat Xo, including interviews...
Good morning!
Audre Lorde's Sister Outside is on Flavorwire's list of 10 Essential Feminist Texts.
This NPR list of graphic novels with Lgbt characters is very dude-heavy, but there's one with lesbians you might have not read yet. (Although I could think of many others. Perhaps we'll have to create our own list!)
Mount Moriah's Miracle Temple is streaming on Pitchfork and I think you'll love it. We'll have an interview with out frontwoman Heather McEntire up next week in conjunction with the release next Tuesday.
Espn has announced their next round of documentary films for their 30 for 30 series and this time they are focused on Title IX. Among the nine films are about Swoopes and Pat Xo, including interviews...
- 2/20/2013
- by trishbendix
- AfterEllen.com
Hubert Sauper's Darwin's Nightmare Head-on, Javier Bardem, Imelda Staunton: European Film Awards 2004 European Film Academy Documentary – Prix Arte Aileen: Life And Death Of A Serial Killer by Nick Broomfield & Joan Churchill / UK * Darwin's Nightmare by Hubert Sauper / Austria / France / Belgium Die SPIELWÜTIGEN (Addicted to Acting) by Andres Veiel / Germany La Pelota Vasca, La Piel Contra La Piedra (Basque Ball, Skin Against Stone) by Julio Medem / Spain Le Monde Selon Bush (The World According to Bush) by William Karel / France Mahssomim (Checkpoint) by Yoav Shamir / Israel The Last Victory by John Appel / The Netherlands Touch The Sound by Thomas Riedelsheimer / Germany / UK / Finland European Film Academy Short Film – Prix Uip * Prix Uip Ghent: J'attendrai le suivant… by Philippe Orreindy / France Prix Uip Valladolid: Les Baisers des Autres by Carine Tardieu / France Prix Uip Angers: Poveste La Scara "C" by Cristian Nemescu / Romania Prix Uip Berlin: Un Cartus De Kent Si Un Pachet De Cafea...
- 11/26/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
When I heard that Morgan Spurlock had a documentary at Toronto called Comic-Con: Episode IV — A Fan’s Hope, I knew I wanted to go, and I thought I had a good idea of what I was in for: Spurlock, with his Gen X Michael Moore wisenheimer prankishness, showing up at Comic-Con to interview droolers in shiny white Star Wars stormtrooper armor with an affectionate camera- ready wink of “Can you believe this?” condescension.
The first surprise of Comic-Con: Episode IV is that it’s the first Morgan Spurlock movie that Spurlock isn’t in. The second surprise is that it’s the most entertaining,...
The first surprise of Comic-Con: Episode IV is that it’s the first Morgan Spurlock movie that Spurlock isn’t in. The second surprise is that it’s the most entertaining,...
- 9/13/2011
- by Owen Gleiberman
- EW - Inside Movies
Toronto - No one over the past three years has been a more polarizing figure in American politics than Sarah Palin. The former Vice Presidential candidate and Alaska Governor has transformed herself from a self-proclaimed "Hockey Mom" to a major media and political figure while alienating most of the country in the process. There have been many investigative and in-depth pieces on Palin during that time, but that didn't stop British filmmaker Nick Broomfield ("Kurt and Courtney") and his partner Joan Churchill ("Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer") from trying to find out the "truth" about the "real" Sarah...
- 9/10/2011
- Hitfix
Variety brings us one of the more oddball pieces of casting news in at least a day or so: British comedian Steve Coogan, Sofia Coppola‘s Somewhere star Stephen Dorff, and Canadian rapper K’naan will be headlining documentary filmmaker Nick Broomfield‘s adaptation of Ronan Bennett‘s novel, The Catastrophist.
What’s so weird about this? Well, the novel is described as “a love story set against the Belgian Congo’s decolonization in the 1960s.” Beyond that, Broomfield apparently wants to shoot this in the Tanzanian mining town of Mwanza. If they can pull this off, it will mark the first foreign production in that part of Africa since Howard Hawks directed John Wayne in the jungle adventure flick Hatari! in 1962. (Don’t feel bad if you haven’t seen it — it’s not exactly The African Queen.)
Broomfield is famous for his controversial documentaries, most notably Kurt & Courtney,...
What’s so weird about this? Well, the novel is described as “a love story set against the Belgian Congo’s decolonization in the 1960s.” Beyond that, Broomfield apparently wants to shoot this in the Tanzanian mining town of Mwanza. If they can pull this off, it will mark the first foreign production in that part of Africa since Howard Hawks directed John Wayne in the jungle adventure flick Hatari! in 1962. (Don’t feel bad if you haven’t seen it — it’s not exactly The African Queen.)
Broomfield is famous for his controversial documentaries, most notably Kurt & Courtney,...
- 9/5/2011
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
Darling of American right finds new adversary as award-winning director puts finishing touches to Sarah Palin – You Betcha!
She is the self-styled hockey mom and "mama grizzly" who once said she was prepared to rise up up on her hind legs to protect her cubs.
But darling of the American right Sarah Palin has found a new adversary – award-winning British director Nick Broomfield, who claims to have uncovered dark suspicions and feuding within her coterie and likens her Alaskan home of Wasilla to David Lynch's dystopian fictional mountain town Twin Peaks.
The documentary maker, who has previously tackled Kurt Cobain, Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur, and Heidi Fleiss, is currently putting the finishing touches to his film Sarah Palin – You Betcha!.
But he is understood to have found what he calls his quest to find the "real" Sarah Palin something of an ordeal.
During filming for the project, which...
She is the self-styled hockey mom and "mama grizzly" who once said she was prepared to rise up up on her hind legs to protect her cubs.
But darling of the American right Sarah Palin has found a new adversary – award-winning British director Nick Broomfield, who claims to have uncovered dark suspicions and feuding within her coterie and likens her Alaskan home of Wasilla to David Lynch's dystopian fictional mountain town Twin Peaks.
The documentary maker, who has previously tackled Kurt Cobain, Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur, and Heidi Fleiss, is currently putting the finishing touches to his film Sarah Palin – You Betcha!.
But he is understood to have found what he calls his quest to find the "real" Sarah Palin something of an ordeal.
During filming for the project, which...
- 8/5/2011
- by Ben Dowell
- The Guardian - Film News
Content caught Sarah Palin fever. The distributor has nabbed the international rights to Nick Broomfield’s documentary "Sarah Palin: You Betcha!" on the former Alaska governor. Channel 4 has TV rights in the United Kingdom, while Cassian Elwes has locked up the Us rights. Unlike "The Undefeated," a documentary wet kiss to the rightwing politician currently in theaters, "You Betcha!" is a more critical look at Palin. In it, Broomfield interviews Palin's school friends, family, and Republican colleagues about the Wasilla wonder. Broomfield is best known for "Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer"...
- 8/3/2011
- by Brent Lang
- The Wrap
Nick Broomfield has completed his documentary about former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The film is being screened for buyers this week in Los Angeles, The Hollywood Reporter says, and could also be screened at September's Toronto Film Festival. Broomfield is known for a number of documentaries about high-profile figures, including Biggie & Tupac, Kurt & Courtney, 1992 film Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer and its 2003 follow-up Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer. (more)...
- 6/27/2011
- by By Mayer Nissim
- Digital Spy
London -- Online digital broadcast network Babelgum has signed a deal with ContentFilm International to make 10 feature-length documentaries by British filmmaker Nick Broomfield available across its online and mobile platforms.
The deal was negotiated by Babelgum director of acquisitions Andreas Lemos and Jonathan Ford, exec vp of digital acquisitions and distribution for ContentFilm.
Titles include "Kurt & Courtney," "Biggie and Tupac," "Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam" and "Aileen -- Life and Death of a Serial Killer."
Babelgum has set up a dedicated Nick Broomfield "superpage" available from July 19 as well as putting up free video streaming of the titles.
The deal was negotiated by Babelgum director of acquisitions Andreas Lemos and Jonathan Ford, exec vp of digital acquisitions and distribution for ContentFilm.
Titles include "Kurt & Courtney," "Biggie and Tupac," "Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam" and "Aileen -- Life and Death of a Serial Killer."
Babelgum has set up a dedicated Nick Broomfield "superpage" available from July 19 as well as putting up free video streaming of the titles.
- 7/19/2010
- by By Stuart Kemp
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Rushes Soho Short Festival, London
London's film-making quarter becomes a giant screening room, and a level playing field for creatives from around the world or around the corner. Veterans of the event, now in its 12th year, will know what to expect: short films of all descriptions, professional and amateur, in various categories. Except this time there's even more of it: 170 films from 23 countries. For the classiest stuff, head for the competition screenings to see quality mini-dramas starring the likes of Robert Pattinson (The Summer House) and Jenny Agutter (Koda), plus documentaries, music videos and animation. Plenty of free stuff includes the Straight 8 challenge (shoot a short straight on to a single reel of Super 8, then view the results with an audience), a street party, and sessions on how to get into film-making.
Various venues, Wed to 31 Jul, visit sohoshorts.com
Natural Born Killers, Belfast
It's not the most original of seasons,...
London's film-making quarter becomes a giant screening room, and a level playing field for creatives from around the world or around the corner. Veterans of the event, now in its 12th year, will know what to expect: short films of all descriptions, professional and amateur, in various categories. Except this time there's even more of it: 170 films from 23 countries. For the classiest stuff, head for the competition screenings to see quality mini-dramas starring the likes of Robert Pattinson (The Summer House) and Jenny Agutter (Koda), plus documentaries, music videos and animation. Plenty of free stuff includes the Straight 8 challenge (shoot a short straight on to a single reel of Super 8, then view the results with an audience), a street party, and sessions on how to get into film-making.
Various venues, Wed to 31 Jul, visit sohoshorts.com
Natural Born Killers, Belfast
It's not the most original of seasons,...
- 7/16/2010
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
This is an exclusive interview with Jez Lewis, director of Shed Your Tears And Walk Away on which Nick Broomfield (Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer, Biggie and Tupac, Kurt & Courtney) was an Executive Producer. Jez Lewis, first time director of the emotionally bruising, excellent new documentary Shed Your Tears and Walk Away, this week held a special preview screening at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts on The Mall. A selection of family, friends, esteemed filmmakers, theatre bigwigs and paying guests attended the evening with fine British actress Diana Quick chairing a Q&A session after. Having already seen the film, I was lucky enough to sit down and talk to Jez during the screening to begin to deconstruct this intensely personal film of which the director has so clearly invested so much of himself.
- 6/13/2010
- by Dan Hollis
- Pure Movies
She was previously set to play a teen lesbian werewolf in Jack and Diane, but Ellen Page is apparently now looking at more grown-up projects. Like playing an adult lesbian auto mechanic in Freeheld. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the tearjerker is being adapted from Cynthia Wade's Oscar-winning short documentary of the same title by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia). Page has been cast as Stacie Andree (pictured, right), the girlfriend of dying New Jersey police officer Laurel Hester. In addition to fighting cancer, Hester fought the county to get her pension benefits passed on to Stacie. Such privileges were of course reserved solely for (heterosexual) married couples, not (gay) domestic partners. The remake will be produced by acclaimed documentarian James D. Stern (Every Little Step) along with Erin Brockovich's Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher.
I don't want to give away the ending, but let's say whatever the...
I don't want to give away the ending, but let's say whatever the...
- 5/18/2010
- by Christopher Campbell
- Cinematical
Battle for Haditha
TORONTO -- After directing documentaries for the past quarter-century, Nick Broomfield (Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer, Kurt & Courtney, Biggie and Tupac) has taken on his first dramatic narrative with Battle for Haditha.
Portraying the events leading to the Nov. 19, 2005 massacre of 24 Iraqi noncombatants at the hands of U.S. Marines, the film retains many of the cinema verite qualities of Broomfield's previous works, lending it a powerful, devastating immediacy.
Part recreation, part speculation, formulated from hundreds of interviews, the docudrama has set out to put a personal face on the war in Iraq, and no matter the vantage point, that human cost on both sides is inexorably tragic.
One of the most affecting of the recent rash of similarly themed films, the British production should have no trouble courting North American distributors following its Toronto International Film Festival premiere.
Shot in Jordan, Battle for Haditha makes an effort to spend as much time with those young American soldiers (several of whom are played here by actual ex-Marines) as it does with the Iraqi families living in constant fear of terrorists, and a middle-aged man and another not much younger than those Marines, who would at first appear to be a father and son, but turn out to be insurgents.
After establishing the parallel day-to-day existence, Broomfield then ratchets up the tension as those insurgents patiently for a Marine convoy to pass over a roadside IED (Improvised Explosive Device).
When the moment arrives, one of the men activates the bomb with his cell phone, literally blowing one Marine apart and badly injuring two others.
Seeking vengeance and hopped up on a diet of caffeine and death metal, the surviving Marines retaliate by conducting a violent house-to-house search for the perpetrators.
By the time the smoke clears, two dozen Iraqis civilians, many of them women and children, are dead.
With its dialogue largely improvised by many who had seen extensive combat in Iraq, Battle for Haditha has a gripping authenticity lacking in other similarly themed dramas.
One of those individuals is Elliot Ruiz, a former U.S. Marine Corporal who had been told by doctors that he may never be able to walk unassisted again after badly damaging his leg during an insurgent attack in Tikrit.
Having since taking up acting, his performance, as the conflicted Cpl. Ramirez, lends the film a particular poignancy.
Back in the real world, the Haditha trials are about to get underway at Camp Pendleton, almost two full years after the incident.
BATTLE FOR HADITHA
Lafayette Film Ltd./Channel 4 UK
Credits:
Director: Nick Broomfield
Writers: Nick Broomfield, Marc Hoeferlin, Anna Telford
Producer: Nick Broomfield
Executive producers: Peter Dale, Charles Finch
Director of photography: Mark Wolf
Production designer: David Bryan
Music: Nick Laid-Clowes
Co-producer: Anna Telford
Editors: Ash Jenkins, Stuart Gazzard
Cast:
Cpl. Ramirez: Elliot Ruiz
Ahmad: Falah Flayeh
Hiba: Yasmine Hanani
Capt. Sampson: Andrew McClaren
Sgt. Ross: Eric Mehalacopoulos
Rashied: Duraid A Ghaieb
Jafar: Oliver Bytrus
Safa: Aya Abbas
Running time -- 93 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Portraying the events leading to the Nov. 19, 2005 massacre of 24 Iraqi noncombatants at the hands of U.S. Marines, the film retains many of the cinema verite qualities of Broomfield's previous works, lending it a powerful, devastating immediacy.
Part recreation, part speculation, formulated from hundreds of interviews, the docudrama has set out to put a personal face on the war in Iraq, and no matter the vantage point, that human cost on both sides is inexorably tragic.
One of the most affecting of the recent rash of similarly themed films, the British production should have no trouble courting North American distributors following its Toronto International Film Festival premiere.
Shot in Jordan, Battle for Haditha makes an effort to spend as much time with those young American soldiers (several of whom are played here by actual ex-Marines) as it does with the Iraqi families living in constant fear of terrorists, and a middle-aged man and another not much younger than those Marines, who would at first appear to be a father and son, but turn out to be insurgents.
After establishing the parallel day-to-day existence, Broomfield then ratchets up the tension as those insurgents patiently for a Marine convoy to pass over a roadside IED (Improvised Explosive Device).
When the moment arrives, one of the men activates the bomb with his cell phone, literally blowing one Marine apart and badly injuring two others.
Seeking vengeance and hopped up on a diet of caffeine and death metal, the surviving Marines retaliate by conducting a violent house-to-house search for the perpetrators.
By the time the smoke clears, two dozen Iraqis civilians, many of them women and children, are dead.
With its dialogue largely improvised by many who had seen extensive combat in Iraq, Battle for Haditha has a gripping authenticity lacking in other similarly themed dramas.
One of those individuals is Elliot Ruiz, a former U.S. Marine Corporal who had been told by doctors that he may never be able to walk unassisted again after badly damaging his leg during an insurgent attack in Tikrit.
Having since taking up acting, his performance, as the conflicted Cpl. Ramirez, lends the film a particular poignancy.
Back in the real world, the Haditha trials are about to get underway at Camp Pendleton, almost two full years after the incident.
BATTLE FOR HADITHA
Lafayette Film Ltd./Channel 4 UK
Credits:
Director: Nick Broomfield
Writers: Nick Broomfield, Marc Hoeferlin, Anna Telford
Producer: Nick Broomfield
Executive producers: Peter Dale, Charles Finch
Director of photography: Mark Wolf
Production designer: David Bryan
Music: Nick Laid-Clowes
Co-producer: Anna Telford
Editors: Ash Jenkins, Stuart Gazzard
Cast:
Cpl. Ramirez: Elliot Ruiz
Ahmad: Falah Flayeh
Hiba: Yasmine Hanani
Capt. Sampson: Andrew McClaren
Sgt. Ross: Eric Mehalacopoulos
Rashied: Duraid A Ghaieb
Jafar: Oliver Bytrus
Safa: Aya Abbas
Running time -- 93 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 9/11/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Churchill nabs inaugural DP nod from IDA
The International Documentary Assn. has created an award this year to recognize cinematographers. The first docu DP to earn the IDA's honor is Joan Churchill, who has compiled about 50 cinematography credits since the early 1970s. Churchill has shot such projects as Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer, Soldier Girls and, more recently, Bearing Witness, a feature-length docu directed by Barbara Kopple and Bob Eisenhardt about female journalists working in combat zones in Iraq. "Joan Churchill is a complete filmmaker who has earned the respect of her peers and made a difference in the world," IDA president Richard Propper said. "She exemplifies the values and spirit of nonfiction filmmakers around the world."...
- 9/9/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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