No Humans Involved: Why I Made This Film

Director Nick Broomfield on his new film TALES OF THE GRIM SLEEPER

‘Black lives matter,’ the slogan of the Ferguson protestors, says it all. The struggle in Ferguson, on Staten Island and across the country is about as basic as they come. It’s about people being treated as if they were disposable, lesser humans – and this is 150 years after the end of slavery.

When I was making TALES OF THE GRIM SLEEPER in Los Angeles, I came across a very similar slogan: ‘Black women’s lives matter… Every life is of value.’ Put forward by the Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders, it referred to over 200 black women who disappeared over a 25-year period, most of whom have never been accounted for. This took place in the middle of Los Angeles, not 15 miles from where I live, in South Central – the black area of town –…