Broughton, James, 1913-1999

James Richard Broughton was raised in California and graduated from Stanford University in 1936. After studying playwriting and directing in New York, Broughton returned to California and began making experimental films, including The Pleasure Garden, which won a special jury prize at the 1954 Cannes Film Festival. During this time, Broughton wrote and published poetry as one of San Francisco's "Renaissance Poets," which included Helen Adam, Robert Duncan, Jack Spicer, and Eve Triem. From 1958 to 1964, Broughton was resident playwright with the Playhouse Repertory Theater in San Francisco and six of his plays were first performed there. In 1968, Broughton returned to filmmaking with The Bed and continued to make films for the next twenty years, including Dreamwood (1972), Testament (1974), and Scattered Remains (1988). His films have won numerous awards at film festivals throughout the world and, in 1989, the American Film Institute presented a lifetime achievement award to Broughton. In the 1960s and 1970s, Brougton taught at San Francisco State University and the San Francisco Art Institute and has lectured extensively throughout the United States and Europe. Broughton continued to write as well and has published more than twenty books, including A Long Undressing (1971), The Androgyne Journal (1977), Graffiti for the Johns of Heaven (1983), and Special Deliveries: New and Selected Poems (1990). In 1993, he completed his memoirs, Coming Unbuttoned.

From the description of James Broughton papers, 1895-1999. (Kent State University). WorldCat record id: 43619682