FILMS
AN HBO & SKY ATLANTIC FILM
•• Shortlisted for the Academy Awards •• "The Los Angeles Police Department famed motto, "to protect and to serve," has rarely sounded as hollow as it does during Nick Broomfield's "Tales of the Grim Sleeper," an eye-opening account of alleged serial killer Lonnie Franklin, accused of murdering 10 women (and possibly many more) in South Central LA between 1985 and his arrest in 2010. As its pluralistic title suggests, "Tales" is less a portrait of Franklin himself than a panoramic survey for eh sociological forced that aided and abetted his killing spree. What emerges, finally, is an urgent distress call from one of America's many, predominantly black inner cities cast adrift by decades of municipal neglect and institutional racism. While the gruesome subject matter will make this tough going for some, the film should enjoy extensive fest and art house play following its Telluride and Toronto premieres..." -- Variety
"Behind the camera, Barney Broomfield's cinematography conveys a dignity to street characters subsisting in an underground economy..." -- Thom Powers
A NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC & CHANNEL FOUR FILM
Teams on away games often face a hostile home crowd, but none so blood-chilling as those braved by Albino United, a Tanzanian football team whose members all have the condition that affects skin pigmentation. In recent years, many albinos have been killed or maimed so that their body parts can be used by witchdoctors in potions and remedies. As World Cup fever sweeps Africa, Albino United head from Dar es Salaam to tour dangerous territories around Tanzania. They hope to convince the crowds that attitudes towards albinism must change.
"Impeccably researched, sensitively handled and engagingly peopled...Albino United is much more than your standard tale of triumph over adversity." -- TimeOut Critic's Choice
A CRASH COURSE PRODUCTION
"Best friends, Stephen and Boniface, are two Congolese refugees who have escaped their war-ravaged country with their lives. Barely, Escaping to Meheba Refugee Settlement, Zambia, the two must face new challenges, not least of which is trying not to fall in love. Life in the camp is supposed to make life better for refugees and to deliver self-determination. The reality is far from inspiring, as their lives splinter and converge and Stephen is offered a chance to resettle in Europe, while Boniface must watch as the departure draws near." -- Variety
"It's not often that such intelligent and warm characters are found in a war zone, but Barney Broomfield displays a storytelling acumen that goes beyond his years by letting the footage speak for itself and by a uniquely humanist angle on conflict that has been all but forgotten." -- Sheffield Doc Fest
A CHANNEL FOUR & MORE4 FILM
"...this documentary traces the historical timeline and aftermath of an unintelligible revenge rampage triggered by an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) in 2005, planted by Iraqi insurgents and successfully ending one occupants life. With access to the bulk of audiovisual evidence and testaments used in an inescapable but to some degree predetermined trial, the study of one massacre becomes the awful truth of a nation..." -- TimeOut Critic's Choice Review
"Barney Broomfield and Marc Hoeferlin have created a bold, plain-speaking and damning film weaving together the stories of the two Iraqis responsible for exposing the massacre, the testimonies of some of the marines responsible and details of the subsequent military investigation, which concluded that none of those involved would be charged with murder." -- The Telegraph
A BRITDOC & ARTE CO-PRODUCTION
A screwball true story about two gonzo political activists who, posing as top executives of giant corporation, lie their way into big business conferences and pull of the world's most outrageous pranks. From New Orleans to India to New York City, armed with little more than cheap thrift-store suits, the Yes Men squeeze comedy out of all the ways that corporate greed is destroying the planet. Bruno meets Michael Moore in this gut-busting wake-up call the proves a little imagination can go a long way towards vanquishing the Cult of Greed.
"An entertaining and hilarious swipe at corporate irresponsibility..." -- Hollywood Reporter
A POV & PBS FILM
"Rigorously intimate and disarmingly affectionate, “Rain in a Dry Land” is a docu that illuminates a stratum of U.S. life as much as it does the plight of the African emigre. In following two subject families in their transition from Somalian refugee camp to underclass America, the film never reduces them to devices or symbols or anything less than human beings caught in the cross-hairs of global politics. The film’s honesty and grit should give it wide appeal and a healthy embrace from festivals." -- Variety
"Gorgeously, purposefully shot by Barney Broomfield, and edited a with sure and sympathetic hand by Mary Lampson..." -- Variety
A NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC AND YLE FILM
Welcome to the Real world was my first film. For food and rent, I managed to wangle my way as camera on a motorbike trip from Calcutta to London, a journey undertaken to raise money for an Indian orphanage. Following a rather shambolic, motley crew of charity workers (one Indian, one Brit), the film is a portrayal not only of the inevitably disastrous 12,000 mile adventure but the equally chaotic process of just how in the world you go about making your first-ever film.
A BBC WORLD, ARTE & CANAL + FILM
•• Winner of the Sundance Special Jury Prize and Berlinale Peace Prize •• "A masterfully composed and suitably outraged look at the neocolonialist exploitation of South Sudan, “We Come as Friends” is, after “Darwin’s Nightmare,” the second part of Austrian documentarian Hubert Sauper’s proposed trilogy about the contemporary plight of African countries. Six years in the making, the film observes South Sudan becoming independent, politely pillaged for its resources, and devastated by war; according to Sauper, a number of the villages seen in the docu no longer exist. Amazingly, the filmmakers helped design a homemade airplane with which to travel the country at will; the film, too, is a purposeful vehicle, lofty in its aims." -- Variety
"Cinematography by Barney Broomfield is almost constantly mesmerizing..." -- The Hollywood Reporter