BIG JOY: THE ADVENTURES OF JAMES BROUGHTON

Associate Producer

PBS

SELECT FESTIVALS

• SXSW Film Festival

• Tribeca Film Festival

A key player in the artistic renaissance of San Francisco after World War II, James Broughton fathered a child with film critic Pauline Kael, wrote poetry alongside Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, received an award from Jean Cocteau at Cannes, and went on to push the boundaries of artistic expression and sexual liberation. 

While celebrating the impact of Broughton's art, BIG JOY: THE ADVENTURES OF JAMES BROUGHTON also explores his deeply intertwined creative and personal lives. For a man who joyfully embraced life and preached "follow your own weird," the repressive McCarthy era brought inner turmoil and even an attempt to "straighten himself out." 

Ultimately, Broughton's experimental films and poetry helped free both his own spirit and that of a new generation, and at the young age of 61, he met the love of his life.

SELECT PRESS

• New York Times - “A life-affirming documentary.”

• The Village Voice - “Charismatic and intensely creative…Big Joy captures [Broughton’s] oversize spirit.”

• The Hollywood Reporter - “Fascinating…a revealing portrait of a man who helped to broaden our ideas of what films could accomplish.”

• The Wall Street Journal - “Broughton is celebrated in this buoyant documentary portrait…an insightful survey of West Coast bohemia in the wake of World War II."