23-446: Juvenile Liaison is a series of two documentary films by award winning film director Nick Broomfield and his wife Joan Churchill about a juvenile liaison project in Blackburn , Lancashire , England. The first film examines a series of pre-teen children and their run-ins with the law, over minor wrongdoings such as theft, truancy, and short-term bullying. The second film revisits some of
46-457: A goodness out there, and I think there's goodness in everybody. We should probably all try and have a good dig around and find out where it is." The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (film) The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (1985) is a one-woman stage show written by Jane Wagner . The original Broadway production starred Lily Tomlin , won
69-431: A screenplay. He completed a drama called Ghosts for Channel 4 ; this was inspired by the 2004 Morecambe Bay cockling disaster , when 23 Chinese immigrant cockle pickers drowned after being cut off by the tides. Ghosts won an award and helped raise nearly £500,000 to help the victims' families. In Battle for Haditha (2007), Broomfield worked with ex-Marines and Iraqi refugees, as well as known actors. The film
92-539: Is often praised or considered controversial for its feminist material, most notably the compressed history of the feminist movement offered in Act 2. For her stage performance, Tomlin won a Tony , Drama Desk , and Outer Critics' Circle awards. A film version was directed by John Bailey and edited by Sally Menke , and stays true to the original stage performance. The film earned the Golden Space Needle Award at
115-464: Is often seen in the finished film, usually holding the sound boom and wearing the Nagra tape recorder. Nicholas Broomfield was born in 1948. He is the son of photographer Maurice Broomfield (1916-2010) and Sonja Lagusova (1922-1982). His mother was a Czech Jew . From 1959 to 1965, Broomfield was educated at Sidcot School , a Quaker boarding independent school for boys (now co-educational), near
138-449: Is why they made Juvenile Liaison II in 1990. In 1999, Broomfield made a series of five commercials for Volkswagen . Each of these featured Broomfield with his trademark sound boom "investigating" rumours about the soon-to-be released Volkswagen Passat . He has two sons: Barney and Charlie Broomfield. Broomfield told the BBC that he professes irreligion . He said, "I believe that there's
161-489: The Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience , and was turned into a film in 1991. The show, Tomlin's second Broadway billing as a solo performer, follows Tomlin as she performs various characters or personae, all while wearing simple black pants and a white blouse. The show appears disparate at first, but becomes unified under the sensibility of the opening "bag lady" persona as the performance progresses. The show
184-526: The Seattle International Film Festival . For her efforts on the film, Tomlin received a Funniest Actress in a Motion Picture American Comedy Awards , amongst other notable accolades. In the fall of 2021, The Shed announced plans for a revival starring Saturday Night Live cast member Cecily Strong and directed by Tony nominee Leigh Silverman . It would run from January to February 2022. This production with Cecily Strong played at
207-472: The 21st century: according to The Guardian , Michael Moore , Louis Theroux and Morgan Spurlock each demonstrated similar styles in their recent box-office hits. Such filmmakers have been classified as Les Nouvelles Egotistes ; others have likened Broomfield's work to the Gonzo journalism of American Hunter S. Thompson . Kurt & Courtney , about American musicians Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love ,
230-571: The BFI executive taking the decision to effectively ban the film except for screenings for specialized groups, such as social workers. Broomfield (and Joan Churchill)'s next film, Tattooed Tears , was shot in California in 1978. It won the California State Bar Award among other awards for promoting justice. Broomfield and Churchill continued the struggle to get Juvenile Liaison released, which
253-536: 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
SECTION 10
#1732855332175276-472: The film to be shown publicly until 1990. This led some commentators to call Juvenile Liaison 1 "The Film the Police Arrested". Juvenile Liaison 1 revolved mainly around the activities of Sergeant George Ray; one of the force's most accomplished liaison officers, whose preventive measures when dealing with young troublemakers fell mainly in the strong-arm category of approach. In Juvenile Liaison 2 , Ray
299-504: The film—the arguments, the failed interviews and the dead-ends. This shift in film-making style was strongly influenced by Broomfield's struggles in trying to gain distribution for his earlier documentary, Lily Tomlin , which chronicled the American comedian's one-woman show The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe . Tomlin claimed the film was a spoiler for her show and filed suit for $ 7 million in damages. The documentary
322-468: The juxtaposition of observed scenes, with little use of voice-over or text. After more than a decade of working as a filmmaker, Broomfield altered his film style, appearing on-screen for the first time in Chicken Ranch (1983). After several arguments regarding the budget and nature of the film, he decided that he would make the documentary only if he could experiment by filming the very process of making
345-511: The massacre, and the six-thousand page NCIS government report. Battle for Haditha won two international awards. The first of the two Juvenile Liaison films was withdrawn from circulation by the BFI executive. Broomfield explains in Juvenile Liaison 2 , shot fifteen years after the original, that many of the original film's participants withdrew their consent following an early screening in Blackburn library. In interviews, some of
368-459: The original participants claim to have been persuaded to withdraw their consent by Blackburn police. This lack of consent resulted in the BFI (the film's financial backers) withdrawing the film from circulation. Both films have been widely available since at least 1990, including via mainstream streaming services. The BFI production board who originally voted to finance the film, all resigned in disgust at
391-465: The residents from the first, in an attempt to measure the success of the scheme. The original film was funded by the British Film Institute , who controlled its distribution. When the subject matter became known, Lancashire Constabulary , the police force featured, put pressure on the families of the participants to withdraw their consent, and after taking legal advice, the BFI would not allow
414-612: 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 :
437-458: Was contacted by phone but declined to appear, hinting at misrepresentation and possible damage to his career. Broomfield and Churchill later discovered that Sergeant Ray was officially cleared in the internal police inquiry following the original film's production. He resigned soon afterwards, following disagreement with his superiors over the force's corrective and investigative measures for dealing with young troublemakers. The juvenile liaison scheme
460-537: Was selected for the 1998 Sundance Film Festival . Its screening was cancelled by the festival after Love threatened to sue, as the film was released after Cobain's death. A previous film, Soldier Girls , which Broomfield co-directed with Joan Churchill, won first prize at the BAFTA Film Awards a few years previously. In 2006, Broomfield changed his style again, adopting techniques of what he calls 'Direct Cinema': using non-actors to play themselves in dramas with
483-453: Was shot sequentially, enabling the cast to build their characters as the story progressed. It also used real locations, and a very small documentary-style film crew. Although working from a detailed script, Broomfield allowed the actors to improvise and add dialogue. Broomfield based his script on research with the Marines of Kilo Company who took part in the fighting on that day, the survivors of
SECTION 20
#1732855332175506-412: Was shown on public television but not widely released. Eventually Broomfield's documentary was incorporated into the video release of the one-woman show. Broomfield became known for this self-reflective film-making style: making films that were also about the making itself as well as the ostensible subject. His influence on documentary could be seen in the work of younger filmmakers of the first decade of
529-498: Was still in effect in Blackburn by the time the second film was released in 1990, although it had recently changed its name to Juvenile Bureau. This article about a British documentary film is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Nick Broomfield Nicholas Broomfield (born 1948) is an English documentary film director. His self-reflective style has been regarded as influential to many later filmmakers. In
#174825