Born to wealthy parents in Modesto, California, Broughton's father died when he was five years old in the 1918 influenza epidemic, and he spent his childhood in San Francisco. Before he was three, "Sunny Jim" experienced a transformational visit from his muse, Hermy, which he describes in his autobiography, Coming Unbuttoned : Broughton was kicked out of military school for having an affair with a classmate, and attended Stanford University before dropping out just before his class graduated in 1935. In 1945, he won the Alden Award given by the Stanford Dramatists' Alliance for his original screenplaySummer Fury. He spent time in Europe during the 1950s, where he received an award in Cannes from Jean Cocteau for the "poetic fantasy" of his film The Pleasure Garden, made in England with partner Kermit Sheets. Through his career, Broughton produced 23 books and 23 films. In 1967's "summer of love," Broughton made a film, The Bed, which broke taboos against frontal nudity and won prizes at many film festivals. The film rekindled Broughton's filmmaking and led to more films including The Golden Positions, This Is It, The Water Circle, High Kukus, and Dreamwood. Broughton's films developed a following, especially among students at the San Francisco Art Institute, where he taught film and artistic ritual.
With Joel Singer
As poet Jack Foley writes in All: A James Broughton Reader, "In Broughton’s moment of need, Hermy appeared again in the person of a twenty-five-year-old Canadian film student named Joel Singer... Broughton's meeting with Singer was a life-changing, life-determining moment, that animated his consciousness with a power that lasted until his death." In 2004, Singer wrote of their long relationship and collaboration in White Crane. With Singer, Broughton traveled and made more films – Hermes Bird, a slow-motion look at an erection shot with the camera developed to photograph atomic bomb explosions, The Gardener of Eden, filmed when they lived in Sri Lanka, Devotions, a study of male relationships, and Scattered Remains'', a tribute to Broughton's poetry and filmmaking. Broughton explored death deeply throughout his life. He died in May 1999 with champagne on his lips, in the house in Port Townsend, Washington, where he and Singer had lived for 10 years. His last words were: "My creeping decrepitude has crept me all the way to the crypt." His gravestone in a Port Townsend cemetery reads, "Adventure – not predicament."
Personal life
In Coming Unbuttoned, Broughton remarks on his love affairs with both men and women. Among his male lovers was gay activist Harry Hay. Broughton had many creative love affairs during the San Francisco Beat Scene. He briefly lived with the film criticPauline Kael and they had a daughter, Gina, who was born in 1948. Broughton put off marriage until age 49, when he married Suzanna Hart in a three-day ceremony on the Pacific coast, documented by his friend, the experimental filmmakerStan Brakhage. Hart and Broughton had two children, and built a counter-culture community along with friends including Alan Watts, Michael McClure, Anna Halprin, and Imogen Cunningham. Broughton is the subject of the 2012 documentary film, Big Joy: the adventures of James Broughton from Stephen Silha, Eric Slade, Dawn Logson and cinematographer Ian Hinkle.
The Films of James Broughton, a DVD compilation of seventeen films on three discs, was released in 2006 by Facets Multimedia. A selected collection of his work, All: A James Broughton Reader, edited by Jack Foley, was released in 2007 by White Crane Books.
