Nick Broomfield - Documentary Director

English director Nick Broomfield is a documentary film maker. With other 30 controversial documentaries on his resume, Broomfield is an innovator in his own right for leading the reflexive documentary mode into the modern film industry. I chose to watch "Aileen: The Life and Death of a Serial Killer" and was struck by how extremely personal Broomfield's take on the subject was. Having previously met Aileen whilst making "Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer" 12 years before, Broomfield had remained in contact with her before finally being given "a subpoena to appear at Aileens's final state appeal before execution." He then decided to create the second film about Wuornos who was born in Troy, Michigan. During the film he explored her slow descent into losing her mind, from an abusive childhood to the prostitution of her body. He fully involved himself in her case, and therefore was able to give a very personal and hard-hitting account of the path that Aileen had chosen.
 I think that "personal" is an attribute that Nick Broomfiled brings to a number of documentary he has made and this is an aspect that I would like to explore in my own documentary.
 Broomfields films fall into the self-reflexive genre purely because he spends almost 50% of the time documenting how the film is being made, and the moments that happen that change the course and nature of the film.
 Even when Broomfield ventured into the television industry for a short period to create a series of adverts for the volkswagen passat, he included himself. Asking comical questions to important people about how " the visitors" had chosen important materials for the use of a car. He implies that volkswagen have used the bullet proof glass ment for the president for their headlights, and the ejector seat technology from a fighter jet for their seatbelt ejectors. Each advert lasts around 1 minute, and includes Broomfield in his usual manner with his ever-present boom microphone. These adverts were created with the intention of being a 'teaser trailer' for the car and I think that Broomfield really captured the idea well.
 Broomfield has a very particular way of presenting his subject, by showing the viewer the background story of each character alongside the moment that he is documenting, he allows the viewers to feel sympathetic towards his protaginist no matter what their current situation. For example in "Aileen: life and death of a serial killer", Broomfield shows the naive and vulnerable moments of a woman on death row, and yet he manages to bring out the forgiving side of his audience with some viewers calling Aileen "heartbreakingly human". 
I think that Nick Broomfield is a big inspiration for my project because he was the leading film-maker of this style.  I really want to make my project personal and therefore well recieved. I think that I can use this research to create my documentary.