Nick
Broomfield talks to Samantha Hamilton about his new film
Ghosts that recounts the story of the 23 Chinese cockle pickers
who died on Morecambe bay in 2004.
Ghosts is a move to
a ‘dramatic realism’ format,
was it subject matter driven or a prior conscious decision
that you wanted to use a different format
Yeah, I wanted to try to work in a different style, I made a feature film a
few years ago and it was a traditional way with a massive crew and make up
and a big art department and all on a pannovsion camera with a dolly and all
the rest of it and I was unable to make the film I wanted to. The film didn’t
work and I blame myself , not only conceptually did it not work, I think just
visually it didn’t work, I couldn’t get the camera to do what I
wanted to do and I noticed that I was bored when I was directing which is not
a good sign when its your film. I think everything just took so long, and it
was so un-spontaneous, I love the spontaneity of documentary and that you can
catch little gems, and you can work really quickly and also I think using non
actors it gives you the opportunity to learn from them in the same way that
you do from documentary, and to have a very interesting relationship with the
people you work with.
You traveled to China but ended up casting
your lead in the UK
Ai Qin was an illegal immigrant and she had been over here for about 8 years
and she had had a child here and then sent him back to China, and I think Ai
Qin was emotionally the character we had been looking for and it was possible
to draw on her experiences to get this performance.
With a Chinese speaking lead and supporting
cast did it prevent a barrier in directing, particularly
with the need for spontaneity and improvisation?
I think Ai Qin always thinks her English is much worse than it Is. I think
the languages are so different that the Chinese just always think their languages
are terrible, and you know I cant speak any Chinese so I know what they feel
in a reverse way, but I always actually found it quite easy to communicate
with Ai Qin, and I had an interpreter as well,
In the final scene of the film Ai Qin is
reunited with her son for real, having not seen him for 8
years, its an emotionally charged moment. Was she comfortable
with the prospect of that moment being used in the final
film ?
Yes, this was an experience we had all gone through together, the producer
Jazz and I had worked for months literally to get her a passport from the Chinese
embassy and in China and through the Home Office so that she could actually
come back to England .Ai Qin was in a fortunate place of being one of the few
Chinese who could actually get back home. So we had obviously worked very closely
with Ai Qin to, to enable this to happen, we had been through a lot together.
Were the angry scenes with the UK cocklers
based on experiences, do you think the animosity comes from
a case of a fight for survival from their point of view?
We were threatened pretty much, they were going to beat us up if we didn’t
get off the beach. In the film they were real cocklers and we based the fight
scene very much on what was happening to us. I think they get around £12
per bag, significantly more than the Chinese, so they are doing ok. The conditions
are very rough and you are right out there and battling with the elements obviously,
but its better paid than a lot of the other jobs, obviously for women its very
tough and you have to be very physically fit. You get some very tough characters
who are cocklers, you don’t have to have papers, you get guys who have
been in and our of prison doing it, you just get a rough crowd. In the end
we had to move to a different part of the beach.
Do you think the film will be seen in China
and reach those thinking of travelling to the UK for work?
Yeah, I think if it’s received in the positive way that’s its intended
to be. I think it would be a great learning thing for the Chinese just to see
what its like over here. It's pretty awful, I mean they all have their friends
and they go dancing and they have an interesting social life in China and they
come over here and they are stuck in some awful house in the middle of nowhere
and they don’t go out, all they do is work and all the money gets sent
home, it's a gigantic sacrifice to make for their children and their families,
Is it conceivable that the need to leave
will change?
Well II think that China was much more of a sort of state subsidized economy
and people living in rural areas could get by growing rice and having a few
animals, and their medical expenses and schooling and that sort of thing were
all subsidized by the state, and since China, well before China even joined
the World Trade organization the economy was changing very much to a sort of
capitalist economy and they now don't subsidize anything. The average, well
if your lucky enough to have a job in a rural area you are probably earning £30
to £40 a month, so people just cant live off it if you have kids and
stuff. You have whole communities where you have only the very young or the
very old and all the kids are being bought up by the grandparents, and the
parents are all here or Germany or Australia or something. It's just really
sad in those villages to like where we were filming where Ai Qin grew up its
just very old or the very young, and the young are very sweet sweet kids but
their mother and their fathers have gone, and you just wonder if they will
ever get to see them again.
Its the condition of the poor, we are living
in a world where the rich are so rich now and the poor are
so poor, we are going back to a Victorian Industrial society.
Your next film explores the American Army
massacre of Iraqi civilians, do you consider yourself a political
filmmaker?
Yeah, I suppose so, I think most subjects are interesting when you can hit
that political parameter, everything ultimately is political, even the way
people look or how they are, and it becomes much more interesting if you can
make those connections as well. It makes it a more interesting subject.
Ever thought of going into politics?
I don’t think so! I think what I do is by far more interesting
A documentary - The Making of Ghosts was
shot simultaneously. How was it for the watchman to be watched?
Yeah, this was the first time that happened, the other films were ‘the
making of’. I wanted the camera off me as much as possible, I said it’s
going to be a really boring film if all you can do is film me!
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