Entertainment Zone: Interview: Nick Broomfield

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When Love's lawyers blocked Broomfield from showing his film at Sundance '98, he hastily set up a screening at an Elk's Lodge outside the festival proper  which became <b>the</b> must-see film at this year's event. After more wrangling with threats from Love's attorneys, the film was eventually nabbed for distribution by Roxie Releasing. Independent filmmaker Sarah Jacobson interviewed Broomfield at Sundance, and the two directors found themselves talking about a lot of issues that had been lost in the media blitz.</blockquote><br><hr><br> <b>TRIPOD: What gave you the idea to start something like Kurt and Courtney?</b><br><br> <b>NICK BROOMFIELD:</b> I've always have been interested in the restrictions that surround any reporting on major figures in the media  rock stars, actors, anyone who is an entertainment "personality." What they say is almost completely censored. When I started to try and get the funding for this film, I approached the people who normally are phoning me and asking me if I want to work for them. They were like, "Oh God, we don't want to do it with that. We don't want MTV to come in." They were frightened of upsetting Courtney or Nirvana or whatever. It is like you either have official sanction or this whole area is off-limits. I just thought, "This is the core of the film. Why is this area off-limits? Why should it be? What factors have enabled this to happen?" I think this is very much the subtext of the film.<br><br> <b>TRIPOD: Were you aware of Courtney's past attempts to silence journalists?</b><br><br> <b>NB:</b> I heard about it, but I've always been attracted by bullies. I made a film about Margaret Thatcher. I made a film about the head of the Nazi Party in South Africa, who was threatening to cause civil war if Mandela took over as president. I didn't realize quite how extreme it was until I got quite into the story. I actually set out to like Courtney in the beginning. I thought I was going to make a film a bit like the Aileen Warnos film or the Heidi Fleiss film, where the central character would be revealed as the protagonist. Heidi got a lot of bad press as obviously did Aileen Warnos, who's a serial killer. I think one likes and kind of understands them both by the end of the film.<br><br> If I had any preconception for this project, it was that I was going to do the same thing in this film with Courtney. I only later realized, when I got towards the end of the shooting, this was not going to happen. For a lot of the film I think I really stick up for her. I think I stick up for her against her father. I wasn't really starting out to catalogue her terrible behavior. I wanted to make a more complicated profile but I couldn't find anyone who would say anything really nice about her. I couldn't find anyone who sort of said, She's a great person. The thing I really come down on her for is bullying, terrorizing, intimidating, and physically assaulting people.<br><br> <b>TRIPOD: What was it like when you were filming Courtney's father and he started to say all those terrible things about her?</b><br><br> <b>NB:</b> The first time I met him, I was just trying to get as much out of him as I could. It didn't feel like the right time to start beating him around the head, you know. I knew I was going to go back and give him a clobbering later on, which I think I did. But with Ross, for example, I was amazed. Occasionally you have those moments of truth in film. The guy wasn't talking to me. He was talking to Courtney through that camera, wasn't he? What did he say about the twelve disciples?<br><br> <b>TRIPOD: "I'm Satan, and I don't care if you're Jesus and your lawyers are the twelve disciples!" That was amazing. It seems a lot of people you talk to are kind of fringe characters. Everyone is so down on her but also very removed from her. How did you go about doing your research?</b><br><br> <b>NB:</b> I pretty much do it on film. I just followed who was around. In the afternoon you do one interview with one person, and they'd say something that leads you to the next person. So you just follow a line. I read a couple of books about Kurt and then contacted the writers. And then I contacted a writer who had written a book about Courtney (<b>Queen of Noize</b>), Melissa Rossi. She introduced me to a couple of people. In fact, she introduced me to Russ Rossback (Courtney's former boyfriend). At the same time we got in touch with (Kurt's) Aunt Mary up in Aberdeen. We spent a long time prowling around the streets of Aberdeen trying to find people. Then we got a hold of the school teacher. We contacted a photographer called Alice Wheeler, who I think is a remarkable human being. I would say Alice Wheeler and Aunt Mary and Tracy Miranda are really wonderful people. They are so positive and full of light. And then there's a real dark side, too. They were like the two sides of Kurt.<br><br> <b>TRIPOD: It was really nice to see the background on Kurt, which we never really got to see before  even in his post-death media frenzy. All that early footage is incredible.</b><br><br> <b>NB:</b> I really liked that part of the film; I found myself liking him. People really loved him. They knew he had a really good soul and that his music came from that. He got into drugs and he probably came a little unhinged with all the fame, but I think there was something in him that drew these really positive people who really believed in him. When I showed the film to Tracy and Alice and Aunt Mary in Seattle, they were really upset to be faced with the incredible waste of a genius.<br><br> <b>TRIPOD: I was surprised there wasn't more biographical stuff on Courtney herself.</b><br><br> <b>NB:</b> I really thought it was more a film about Kurt. He is the one I'm interested in. He's the one I think is a genius. He is the one I think will last in time.<br><br> <b>TRIPOD: Do you think he wrote the last Hole album (Live Through This)?</b><br><br> <b>NB:</b> No comment.<br><br> <b>TRIPOD: When you started out, did you specifically plan to focus on this growing controversy about "who killed Kurt Cobain?"</b><br><br> <b>NB:</b> I think that was obviously an interesting topic. There have been a lot of rumors surrounding his death. Like I say in the film, even if you disprove a lot of the theories, they nonetheless dig up a lot of other stuff that leads you to a much better understanding of what went down.<br><br> <b>TRIPOD: What do you think about it now? The media attention has kind of shifted  from this mystery of whether Cobain committed suicide or not  to these issues of Courtney Love's bully tactics with her lawyers  but what do you think about Kurt Cobain's death?</b><br><br> <b>NB:</b> I sort of think Aunt Mary is right. She points out the time, when Kurt was fifteen or sixteen, that he did some recording in her room. She found the song "Seaside Suicide" among the tapes, and she has the feeling he had flirted with suicide before. She also mentioned the patterns of neglect that existed when he was a child, sleeping on the bridge and all that stuff, and felt the patterns really came back in his adult life. Even though he had millions of dollars, his relationship with Courtney was on the rocks. I think he was as alone in his big mansion as he was under the bridge.<br><br> <b>TRIPOD: I felt you really prepped the audience for the train-wreck of Kurt's relationship with Courtney by delving into the past of both of them.</b><br><br> <b>NB:</b> They both had pretty awful childhoods. Courtney's father was monstrous about not supporting her.<br><br> <b>TRIPOD: What do you think of Tom Grant (a private detective who claims that Courtney killed Kurt)?</b><br><br> <b>NB:</b> I think Tom Grant honestly believes in what he says. He's an ex-LAPD police officer. He certainly hasn't investigated this to make money, because he is completely bankrupt. I think he's just stayed with it because he is determined to prove something.<br><br> <b>TRIPOD: Do you think there is something about Courtney that freaks Grant out, or that maybe she has beome an obsession for him?</b><br><br> <b>NB:</b> I certainly wondered about that, yes.<br><br> <b>TRIPOD: This is the first movie of yours that I've seen where you are not a major "character." The film is like a circus. It is not your personal attempt to get to one person, as many of your films are. It's more like you're juggling all these crazy people that are coming to you through the course of the movie.</b><br><br> <b>NB:</b> It is probably darker than the others, too.<br><br> <b>TRIPOD: It is definitely more disturbing, and that is partly because you never do get to Courtney.</b><br><br> <b>NB:</b> But I felt that, by the time I got to her, I knew everything anyway.<br><br> <b>TRIPOD: I wish there was more of Courtney talking about herself. Did you try?</b><br><br> <b>NB:</b> I tried everything. I tried talking to her manager; her lawyer, Rosemary Caroll. Her makeup person. I tried really hard.<br><br> <b>TRIPOD: Let's talk about what's happening around the movie's release. Courtney's attempts to suppress it are actually adding to the public's awareness of the film...</b><br><br> <b>NB:</b> I kind of knew that was going to happen, which is why I put that stuff in about attempts to suppress the film.<br><br> <b>TRIPOD: And she is unintentionally giving credence to a lot of people who might otherwose have seemed a little flaky. When people go, "Oh, I'm terrified of her, I'm so afraid of her," it makes more sense now that you see her gutter tactics in trying to stop the film from getting out.</b><br><br> <b>NB:</b> I think the monopoly of media has made it really difficult for people to report on this whole area. Look at these idiots at the ACLU, who really think its okay to have her along as a special guest, presenting the Torch of Freedom Award. What signal are they giving to the rest of the world? It is so irresponsible and so depressing. That is why I had to go up and do that particular speech at the ACLU, because a lot or people put themselves on the line in this film, more than any other. If I really expected them to do it, then I had to do something as well. So I kind of staggered up there and did my bit. (<b>ED. NOTE:</b> Broomfield got up in front of the audience at the ACLU awards and denounced Love for trying to supress journalists  after she was a presenter!)<br><br> <b>TRIPOD: You just walked right up there?</b><br><br> <b>NB:</b> Yeah, (<b>The People vs Larry Flynt</b> director) Milos Forman had just received his award, and I just walked up.<br><br> <b>TRIPOD: Have you had any repercussions from that?</b><br><br> <b>NB:</b> No. What are they going to do? I've been doing this for twenty-five years. I made films about people a million times more powerful and influential and intimidating than Courtney Love. This is ridiculous. It requires people to stand up to it and say, I'm not taking this crap anymore. Courtney is only an illustration of how so many people behave in this culture  and are allowed to behave. Think of any movie star. They are encouraged to be monsters, to behave extremely badly. People are so sycophantic to the whole idea of celebrity.<br><br> <b>TRIPOD: I think they're protecting their investment, because there is money involved.</b><br><br> <b>NB:</b> And that is sick.<br><br> <b>TRIPOD: Sundance wouldn't show Kurt and Courtney, after it was advertised as part of the festival. It is the first time in the history of Sundance that such censorship has happened. How did you feel when that was going down? Did you expect it?</b><br><br> <b>NB:</b> I thought that, one way or another, she was going to manage to cause that to happen.<br><br> <b>TRIPOD: What did Sundance say after you showed the film elesewhere?</b><br><br> <b>NB:</b> Well... I think the decision happened at a high level. I think the people I was in contact with really wanted the film to be shown and were extremely embarrassed about what happened.<br><br> <b>TRIPOD: Love's camp made a big deal about the music rights. You then cut out the music in question, and they still tried to block the film...</b><br><br> <b>NB:</b> Which makes no sense if music permissions were the real issue.<br><br> <b>TRIPOD: Has it been tougher than usual for this film to find a distributor, now that there have been legal issues?</b><br><br> <b>NB:</b> It hasn't been particularly pleasant. I think [the controversy] has probably greatly increased the profile of the film. And I think, in a way, it has brought up a lot of these issues of free speech and censorship. There are some articles coming out that go into the fact that ICM (the talent agency that represents Courtney and her new boyfriend, Ed Norton) has been calling up film companies and saying, If you pick up this film we will not be doing XYZ with you. Which I think is something everyone has known has been going on.<br><br> <b>TRIPOD: I think she made it worse...</b><br><br> <b>NB:</b> By doing what she did, yes. It's been hard. I haven't enjoyed shopping this film around at all  until I did the screening the other night. I'd never seen a print of the film. I had never seen it with an audience.<br><br> <b>TRIPOD: What was that like?</b><br><br> <b>NB:</b> Seeing it that night? I found it very hard to sit still. The projectors were having such trouble with the changeovers, so it was pretty crazy. But there was a lot of excitement. That was a really special moment for me and I loved the moose in the Elk's Lodge. You know that is a room where Sundance started; that was their first screening room. So, the screening felt like the beginning of something big.<br><br> <hr><br> <a href="mailto:SWPchick@aol.com">Sarah Jacobson</a></b>, in addition to being the director of the indie film <b>Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore</b>, is a frequent contributor to Tripod whose previous writing for the site includes <a href="/">coverage of the Sundance Film Festival</a> and a series of profiles of <a href="../../../../www_subdomain/women/feature/columns/film.html">women directors</a>. For more on Sarah, check out the <a href="../../../../www_subdomain/women/feature/interviews/970313jacobsonfull.html">Women's Zone interview</a> with her and the Mary Jane Web site.<br><br> <center><font size="-1">© 1998 by Sarah Jacobson and Tripod, Inc. 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