Event Archive

Wednesday, May 10th 2006
His Big White Self with Nick Broomfield


Nick and Jason Wood	Nick Broomfield

The screening of Nick Broomfield’s latest documentary, His Big White Self, attracted a good audience to the Duke of York’s. Introducing the film, Nick welcomed the opportunity to show his film on the big screen and to engage in a discussion with the audience. The room was full to capacity for the discussion, a testimony to the quality of His Big White Self and the pulling power of the Director! Film critic and author of Nick Broomfield: Documenting Icons, Jason Wood, ably chaired the discussion, and stimulated a vibrant Q&A covering a range of issues.

The audience included ex-pats from South Africa, who complimented Nick Broomfield for his accurate depiction of the post-Apartheid Afrikaaner mentality. In response to questions that his film was too sympathetic to white supremacists, Nick explained that his concern was to capture the complexity and contradictory nature of racist individuals. The discussion broadened out with Nick explaining how he developed his philosophy of documentary making - a distinctive personal style of narration, the subtle treatment of politics, and the importance of humour. He commented that following the success of the The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife, the prequel to His Big White Self, there is an expectation that he as filmmaker will feature prominently in his films. Nick is currently putting the finishing touches to his first foray into fiction: a feature film about the ill-fated Morecambe Bay Chinese cockle picklers.


Full House	After the discussion

Film Notes

Director: Nick Broomfield. UK 2006. with guest speaker Nick Broomfield

Duke Of York's PictureHouse, 6.30pm.

Fifteen years ago, an unknown filmmaker shot to fame with a riveting documentary on TerreBlanche, the White supremacist leader, his driver and the driver’s wife. Nick Broomfield has since been hailed for his witty style of filming his own difficulties in filming difficult subjects and of drawing out the character traits of his difficult subjects. The Leader, the Driver and the Driver’s Wife cut the leader to look quite ludicrous even while spewing hatred.

In His Big White Self, the filmmaker revisits the leader who has just been released from prison and the two characters who enlivened the earlier film. South Africa has changed, apartheid is no more, but the characters continue to be incredulous and continue to provide Nick Broomfield with enough and more opportunities to bring his own stamp of not-to-be-missed docu-filmmaking to the fore.

The screening will be introduced by Nick Broomfield who will also lead the post-film discussion in conversation with Jason Wood, the author of Nick Broomfield.