Lambda Literary, one of the leading LGBT literature organizations, recently produced a superb article about Big Joy: the Adventures of James Broughton. Discussing both content and process of the documentary, Lambda provides some fresh insight into this incredible film project.
“James will continually be rediscovered as this golden secret of West Coast Bohemia, who had formed his voice before the Beat poets arrived,” says poet Neeli Cherkovski in the film. “He was an outsider’s outsider—under the underground.”
In fact, Broughton was part of the largely gay San Francisco Renaissance group who fused the arts and laid the groundwork for the coming Beat Generation.
The Big Joy documentary steps into the complex story of Broughton (1913-1999), where “Adventure, not predicament” is life’s motto, and where nursery rhymes and silly fantastical images pave the way to the mystical, serious and profound.
“Yes, this is the story of James, but it’s also the universal story of discovering joy in our lives,” said producer Stephen Silha. “James stuck to his true artistic path, and it put him through many agonizing journeys, but in the end, it delivered him to Big Joy, a name given him by his publisher, Jargon Society’s Jonathan Williams.”
The film explores his life, his art, his unconventional choices (like marrying a young man), his role in creating some of America’s most famous poetic movements, and his ceaseless ability to follow his own artistic tune (he produced 23 wildly different books of poetry, and 23 films).
Broughton’s story navigates his own struggle and eventual resolution with his sexuality, the family and societal pressures he felt because of this, as well as his journey with his personal artistic expression. His story transverses the Great Depression, the McCarthy Era, the Beat movement, the Hippie movement and Gay liberation.