James Broughton the Father of West Coast Independant Film has died

FATHER GEEK has drawn the sad duty of informing fans of Short Cinema the world over of the death of one of the genre's giants, JAMES BROUGHTON. He died of heart failure at his home in Port Townsend, Washington. The Avant-garde poet/filmmaker influenced 100's of young film students for over 5 decades. Father Geek 1st met this experimental filmmaker at a screening of his landmark short PLEASURE GARDEN in the late 1960's and I've been a fan ever since.

Broughton leaped onto the short film scene in 1948 with his POTTED PSALM. In 1950 he gave the world a look at himself as an actor as well as an avant-garde director in the wonderfully strange ADVENTURES OF JIMMY. 1953's PLEASURE GARDEN would become his most aclaimed film though when it was nominated for a special British Academy Award in 54 and received a Cannes award for Best Fantastic/Poetic film that year. This 38 minute experimental opus was beautifully framed against London's Crystal Palace. It inspired me and I know many young filmmakers took up the often overlooked short film banner as a result of this film's success.

The output of this all but unknown director/writer/actor/poet singlehandedly gave rise to the West Coast Independant film movement with works like 68's BED, 72's DREAMWOOD and 1979's HERMES BIRD leading the way. In 1981 he gave us THE GARDENER OF EDEN and in 88 what would become one of his more famous works SCATTERED REMAINS would showcase the poet reading his works against a montage of various images. James has left us now after 85 years, but his soul, his work is still here to inspire and lead new filmmakers down the path to find their own PLEASURE GARDEN.