Nick Broomfield- Early Works

martin

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Just out, 4DVD documentary set (misleading title as 'Soldier Girls' is missing, and some of the stuff's not so old). Going back to the 'Grim Britannia' thread which I can't find now, in terms of sheer grimness, it's hard to suggest much that matches 'Behind the Rent Strike' or 'Juvenile Liaison' - 70s Britain at its ugliest, cloying horrific drabness that no amount of retro re-touches can ever recapture, they really strip away the glam nostalgia like a blowtorch on damp, peeling wallpaper. I first saw 'Juvenile Liaison 2' when I was a teenager (the police took out a successful injunction to ban the original) and was nauseated back then, my reaction was pretty much the same seeing it 15 years on.

The set also has the '78 doc 'Tattooed Tears', filmed in a soul-destroying young offenders' institution in California, exposing the roots of Abu Ghraib-style humiliation tactics and enforced vegetation on the inmates. Seriously harrowing stuff, guaranteed to suck the sunshine out of your day...
 

Diggedy Derek

Stray Dog
He's pretty brilliant, Broomfield I reckon. Provocative yet often incredibly funny, too. I remember how he got under the skin of a particularly narcisstic South African neo-nazi- after keeping him waiting for an interview and asked for a reason why, he said the crew were having a cup of tea. Oh man, that was brilliant.
 
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