Nick Broomfield

Nicholas "Nick" Broomfield (born 1948) is an English documentary filmmaker. His self-reflexive style has been highly influential, and was adapted by many later filmmakers. In the early 21st century, he began to use non-actors in scripted works, which he calls "Direct Cinema". His output ranges from studies of entertainers to political works such as examinations of South Africa before and after the end of apartheid and the rise of the black-majority government of Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress party.

Broomfield generally 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.

Early life and education

Nicholas Broomfield, called "Nick", was born in 1948. He is the son of photographer Maurice Broomfield and Sonja Lagusova.

Education

From 1959 to 1965, Broomfield was educated at Sidcot School, a boarding independent school for boys (now co-educational), near the village of Winscombe in Somerset in south west England. He gained higher-level education at University College Cardiff (which became Cardiff University in 1999), where he studied Law, and the University of Essex, where he studied Political Science. Subsequently, he studied film at the National Film and Television School in London. Broomfield's early style was conventional cinéma vérité: the juxtaposition of observed scenes, with little use of voice-over or text.