Image: MamboNick Broomfield occupies a rather unique place in the filmmaking community, fitting somewhere between a serious documentary directors and middle-finger-waving pranksters. He specializes in taking on famous figures and cultural icons for completely unauthorized documentaries. Armed with only with a boom mic and his longtime directing partner Joan Churchill holding a camera, Broomfield sets about knocking on doors and showing up at public events to capture his subjects without sweating little details like asking for permission.
In the past, he’s taken a look at such diverse subjects as serial killer Aileen Wuornos (Aileen: Life And Death Of A Serial Killer), prostitute of the stars, Heidi Fleiss (Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam), Kurt Cobain’s suicide (Kurt & Courtney) and the twin murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls (Biggie & Tupac). Working as he does, Broomfield rarely gets interviews with his famous subjects, but manages to create more revealing portraits by poking around in their worlds, interviewing family members, sycophants, and hangers-on (he famously uncovered new evidence tying the police into the murder of Biggie Smalls, which curiously was never taken up by the supposed ongoing investigation).
Most recently Broomfield set his satirical, inquisitive sights on Alaska’s perkiest politician in Sarah Palin: You Betcha! Mulling around Palin’s hometown of Wasilla, Broomfield discovered a vindictive, gum-smacking side to the failed vice-presidential candidate. His film presents a politician who has abused her power since her time as a mayor and now lives in a community allegedly terrified to speak ill of the Palin family for fear of ostracization. It’s an equally chilling and hilarious look at the powerful figure, filled with hysterical archival footage of Sarah’s greatest hits and a few awkward encounters with the confrontational British filmmaker.
Why Sarah Palin?
I think I’ve done a lot of films about iconic people and Sarah Palin seemed to fit in perfectly. Like so many people, when she burst onto the stage at that convention and was presented to the public I thought, “wow who is this incredible person? Why haven’t we heard about her before? How does she operate and think? What’s her family background like?” and so on. I still had a lot of those questions and thought it would be an amazing experience to go to Wasilla and find out more about her form the people who know her.
How did you find living in Wasilla during? It seems like a strange place: it’s the meth capital of Alaska.
The meth issues weren’t immediately relevant to Sarah Palin, but it’s an extreme community and very, very evangelical. I think that’s what made life very difficult for people who didn’t fit into that mold. I think it’s very difficult for a lot of the young kids growing up in that environment. At the same time there are a lot of wonderful, caring people who you would want in a flourishing democracy. A lot of them initially worked with Sarah Palin and then had a falling out with her.
Were you surprised by the number of people who had fallen out with her?
Yeah, I was because it seemed to be a recurring theme that included nearly everybody, which is why I think she’s hasn’t got a strong group of people around her that would help her run for president. She doesn’t really have anyone left around her, other than Todd who has been with her for any number of years, that she can rely on. I think she’s suffering from that.
Do you think her change of church was a political move because of the radical nature of The Assembly Of God?
I think so. When the family converted from Catholicism to the Assembly Of God and were re-baptized. That was a pretty big statement. Sally Heath [Sarah’s mother] was very involved in the church’s book banning. There was also a record banning, you know that old thing about playing records backwards and hearing Satanic messages. So yeah, I think her childhood was very influenced by all of those things and I think that’s kind of where her heart and soul is in a way. I think she’s a very, very fundamentalist Christian. And think there’s also a connection there politically with why she flip-flops all over the place. I think those are her fundamental beliefs and the rest of her politics in a way are that of a populist.
Have Palin or any of her supporters seen the film yet?
I don't think they've seen it yet, but I would fascinated to hear their reaction.
Have you ever gotten a reaction from one of the subjects of your film who you weren’t able to contact directly while shooting?
Well, I remember hearing from Margaret Thatcher’s people what they thought of the film. They were very amused by it although I know that Margaret Thatcher would deny having seen it even though she watched it several times.
When you set out to make a documentary like this, does it make a big difference to you whether or not you get to interview the main subject you’re after or are you more interested in the journey?
I think Sarah Palin has sort of made a statement out of her unavailability and her unaccountability. She uses facebook and twitter and I don’t think she trusts herself to do unscripted interviews where she’s fielding spontaneous questions, partly because she had so many disastrous experiences as a VP candidate. And things like the turkey news clip just finished her off. That was sort of the last straw. So other than taking questions from Fox News, she doesn’t do very much.
Have you ever had to abandon a documentary because it was just too difficult to crack into the bubble of the subject you were exploring?
Kind of. I once years and years ago when I was just starting out, tried to make a film in a tax office. It was just so boring that I stopped. But that’s the only one.
I always enjoy the humor in your documentaries as well, is that something you’re actively seeking out or just take as it comes?
It naturally happens. Maybe you accentuate it somewhat, but I think life is inherently amusing. Also, I think because the underlying subject matter is so heavy in this film dealing with issues like abortion and also all the big current issues of taxation and health care, welfare benefits and immigration, you want to tackle it in such way in which people will actually want to watch it too. So humor certainly helps there.
What did you film the book signings with Sarah Palin on because it obviously wasn’t a normal camera?
Yeah, we filmed that on our iPhones.
Are you finding new technology like that makes it much easier to make these kinds of documentaries? I noticed you’re also using those digital SLR cameras so that it looks like you’re just taking stills when you are actually capturing video.
Yes, I think it is advantageous particularly if you don’t want people to realize what you’re up to. You have to use anything, I think. But, I think phones are the biggest advantage because people are so used to seeing phones used for video and pictures that I think you can get a way with a lot and I plan on taking advantage of that.
What would you have asked Sarah Palin had you actually been able to get to her?
Well, I think it would have been asking her questions based on people I met in the film, going over certain statements they had made, asking her why she did certain things. And also I was interested in just getting to hang out with her a little bit and get a sense of who she is. I mean, obviously she’s done lots of those interviews, but normally she just blithers and blathers. She doesn’t really say anything that you feel has much to do with her. I often feel when she talks she’s just coming out with rehearsed lines and often she sounds like she doesn’t really understand from her sentence construction what she’s actually even saying. So it would be interesting to get to know who that person is behind the whole façade.
Lastly, why do you think no action has been taken as a result of what you uncovered with Biggie & Tupac?
Well, I know that Biggie’s mother Voletta Wallace started a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department and I was involved with that. But the authorities have been very reluctant to do anything. They just released FBI reports which were largely redacted and I think there’s been such a big cover up that to admit there were police officers involved with the shooting is something they aren’t prepared to do, even though those police officers are in prison at the moment for various other things.
____
Phil Brown writes about classic films for Toronto Standard’s Essential Cinema column.
For more, follow us on Twitter at @TorontoStandard, or subscribe to our newsletter.
Social