thedrifter
09-25-06, 11:26 AM
Documentary maker to probe Haditha massacre
By Charles Masters
Reuters
Monday, September 25, 2006; 1:30 AM
SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain (Hollywood Reporter) - The massacre of 24 civilians in the Iraqi city of Haditha by U.S. Marines is the subject of Nick Broomfield's next movie, the British director said.
Broomfield, known for pop-culture documentaries like "Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam," "Kurt & Courtney" and "Biggie and Tupac," said here Friday that he will use dramatic reconstruction rather than traditional techniques to tell the story of the slayings.
In November, Marines allegedly shot dead 24 Iraqi men, women and children in Haditha, in western Iraq, in reprisal for the killing of a lance corporal by a roadside bomb. Witnesses said the Marines went from house to house killing members of three families, including a 1-year-old child. Military investigations into the incident are ongoing.
Broomfield said shooting on the film will begin in November in Jordan. "We met with some of the survivors of the massacre who had a lot of material that they filmed, which gave us a very detailed idea of what happened," he said. "We talked to members of the insurgency because I felt the insurgency is almost like a concrete wall. It's like, who are these insurgents?"
Broomfield also tracked down some of the Marines involved in the incident. "These are 18-year-old kids, a lot of whom are gang members, never even finished high school, went straight into the Marines, went through Fallujah and just got into that killing zone," he said. "They're not bad guys; they're just doing what they're trained to do."
It will be Broomfield's second incursion into dramatic reconstruction of real-life events after "Ghosts," which had its world premiere Thursday for the opening of the San Sebastian Film Festival, where it is in competition. That movie uses nonprofessional Chinese actors to recount the tale of illegal immigrants and the slave-labor conditions that led to the death of 23 shellfish gatherers in 2004 on a beach in the north of England. "
Broomfield is also known for documentaries about such controversial figures as South African white supremacist Eugene Terre'Blanche and serial killer Aileen Wuornos, who gave her last interview to the director before being executed.
Broomfield said his objective in "Ghosts" with narrative reconstruction using nonprofessional actors is to deliver an emotional experience for the audience.
"I think if I'd done it as a documentary, it either would have been very statistical and analytical or I would have had do to a lot of undercover stuff, which is hard to do and very distancing," he said. "That's what (narrative) film can do. You can take an audience into a deep emotional place that they will never get from a newspaper article or a more analytical documentary."
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
Ellie
By Charles Masters
Reuters
Monday, September 25, 2006; 1:30 AM
SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain (Hollywood Reporter) - The massacre of 24 civilians in the Iraqi city of Haditha by U.S. Marines is the subject of Nick Broomfield's next movie, the British director said.
Broomfield, known for pop-culture documentaries like "Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam," "Kurt & Courtney" and "Biggie and Tupac," said here Friday that he will use dramatic reconstruction rather than traditional techniques to tell the story of the slayings.
In November, Marines allegedly shot dead 24 Iraqi men, women and children in Haditha, in western Iraq, in reprisal for the killing of a lance corporal by a roadside bomb. Witnesses said the Marines went from house to house killing members of three families, including a 1-year-old child. Military investigations into the incident are ongoing.
Broomfield said shooting on the film will begin in November in Jordan. "We met with some of the survivors of the massacre who had a lot of material that they filmed, which gave us a very detailed idea of what happened," he said. "We talked to members of the insurgency because I felt the insurgency is almost like a concrete wall. It's like, who are these insurgents?"
Broomfield also tracked down some of the Marines involved in the incident. "These are 18-year-old kids, a lot of whom are gang members, never even finished high school, went straight into the Marines, went through Fallujah and just got into that killing zone," he said. "They're not bad guys; they're just doing what they're trained to do."
It will be Broomfield's second incursion into dramatic reconstruction of real-life events after "Ghosts," which had its world premiere Thursday for the opening of the San Sebastian Film Festival, where it is in competition. That movie uses nonprofessional Chinese actors to recount the tale of illegal immigrants and the slave-labor conditions that led to the death of 23 shellfish gatherers in 2004 on a beach in the north of England. "
Broomfield is also known for documentaries about such controversial figures as South African white supremacist Eugene Terre'Blanche and serial killer Aileen Wuornos, who gave her last interview to the director before being executed.
Broomfield said his objective in "Ghosts" with narrative reconstruction using nonprofessional actors is to deliver an emotional experience for the audience.
"I think if I'd done it as a documentary, it either would have been very statistical and analytical or I would have had do to a lot of undercover stuff, which is hard to do and very distancing," he said. "That's what (narrative) film can do. You can take an audience into a deep emotional place that they will never get from a newspaper article or a more analytical documentary."
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
Ellie