His Big White Self
Dir: Nick Broomfield
2006
****
My biggest criticism of Broomfield's The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife was that for all it's light-hearted piss taking, it never really explained the situation in South Africa at the time. In His Big White Self, made fifteen years later, Broomfield makes amends and it's obvious he realises that he owes explanations to the audience and everyone involved. I'm guessing he really didn't know how popular his 1991 documentry would be and had pretty much written it off before it was released. It's fascinating to see what has happened since and what at first sounded like a crap idea for a documentary, really turns into something quite unique and historically important.