Nick Broomfield on Battle For Haditha

Nick Broomfield talks about his latest project Battle For Haditha and his revolutionary approach to filmmaking.

Nick Broomfield is the filmmaker behind the documentaries Biggie & Tupac, Kurt And Courtney and Aileen: Life And Death Of A Serial Killer. As the genre of documentary gains popularity, Broomfield has turned to a very different kind of filmmaking. He has directed his latest projects, Ghosts and Battle For Haditha, with a revolutionary approach that is growing in influence.

Looking back at your documentary work, Kurt And Courtney or Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madame, there are times when you put yourself in dangerous situations when tracking down some of the more difficult characters. Your films draw excitement and authenticity from this spontaneity, but from where do you draw your fearlessness?

I think you have to be intrepid to be an independent filmmaker. Certainly, if you want an easy life you don't become an independent filmmaker. Once you have chosen a path you have to go wherever the film is taking you. You can't suddenly decide to play it safe.

Part of being a director is that you go on a voyage with each film and you never really know where it will take you. You have to promise your audience and yourself that you are going to complete that voyage and confront whatever obstacles, mountains, monsters that you meet on your way.

Your documentaries unearth stories organically, often through accidental revelations. There never seems to be an agenda or viewpoint that you need to push. How do you feel about controlled documentaries such as An Inconvenient Truth or Fahrenheit 9/11?

The exciting thing about making documentaries is that they are about real life. They are spontaneous and out of control. As a filmmaker, you are trying to bring some sense of understanding to very out of control situations. Your ability is to record it all and make sense of it.

An Inconvenient Truth, I think, is a lecture. We are always trying to put labels on things that don't fit. An Inconvenient Truth is not my idea of a documentary. But, I think Michael Moore's films are very out of control. The only similarities between those two films to me, is that Al Gore is a star and Michael Moore is a star.

Next page • "I would say Battle For Haditha and Ghosts are 'real cinema' rather than docudramas"