Doc Clips: “Sarah Palin: You Betcha!”

The other Sarah Palin documentary, “The Undefeated,” hasn’t been a huge hit, though its gross is not awful for a non-fiction release, especially one so right-leaning. Could a lefty take on the former Vice President candidate do better? We’ll have to wait a bit, as Nick Broomfield‘s “Sarah Palin: You Betcha!” doesn’t even hit the festival circuit until next month, when it premieres in Toronto. I can see it being the filmmaker’s highest grossing doc since 1998’s “Kurt & Courtney,” which would put it well above the pro-Palin doc, if it can garner some positive reviews and decent distribution (Arc Entertainment holds U.S. rights) that sells it as a Michael Moore-ish doc.

And based on the first “teaser” clips, that shouldn’t be too hard. I prefer Broomfield’s sensationalist shtick to Moore’s, because he aims less for laughs and tends to seem genuinely a curious, albeit emotionally distanced, investigator in spite of his reputation for paying interviewees and hawking conspiracy theories. But it’s also hard to imagine he’s gotten much of substance here that other journalists have failed to get. Unless Broomfield has found people to testify that Palin shot both Kurt Cobain and Biggie Smalls and is currently hiding Tupac in her home — and I’m sure Broomfield could — I don’t even know how entertaining or interesting it will be compared to the filmmaker’s past works. I’m bracing for disappointment yet I also can’t help anticipating his first feature doc in five years, following a great two-film jump into narrative works.

Check out the two new clips after the jump.

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Nick Broomfield Interviewing El Duce About Kurt Cobain’s Death

I won’t start on the whole discussion of whether or not Kurt Cobain was murdered and whether or not Courtney Love had anything to do with it. It’s been 17 years, to the day, of the Nirvana front man’s death and it’s as moot a point as ever. That doesn’t mean that I won’t continue to love Nick Broomfield‘s documentary “Kurt and Courtney” for scenes like the one I share today. El Duce, who claims to have been offered money by Love to “whack” Cobain, is as addressed hard to rely on as a witness. But as a character, he is awesome. Truth schmuth, to me it’s all about personality, and while we don’t get enough of Broomfield’s typically fascinating first-person protagonist here, it’s more than made up with the interview subject on hand. In terms of Broomfield characters, he’s up there with Aileen Wuornos and Violetta Wallace as favorites.

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As for the reality of Cobain’s death, all I can say is that it’s a shame he’s not still around and I hope he’s resting in peace.