Documentary Forum

Honest Truths: Documentary Filmmakers on Ethical Challenges in Their Work

In this study Aufderheide et all takes a look at the ethical challenges filmmakers have when filming documentaries. In order to find these answers, they conduct interview sessions with several filmmakers, and I find it interesting that some choose to use their names in the interviews while others wished to remain anonymous. A few of the overriding ideas with human subjects where to not harm to the subjects, and to preemptively protect the subject.

It is particularly interesting to see how filmmakers would continue to film certain scenes, and then later decide to “edit” them a certain way or omit scenes in which might cast a bad light on the subject or even place them in legal trouble. One such filmmaker describes shooting a documentary of a company that employs illegal immigrants. The filmmaker still shot the documentary but left that fact out. They also did no call the police, they just left it alone.

Another issue documentary filmmakers come across is deciding whether or not to resell their images. Most agreed that it is a case-by-case basis depending on how the subject will be presented in the next project, another said that it is a way of bringing in revenue. Throughout the text, the filmmakers stressed to the subjects that they are not journalist, and they spend more time with the subjects in order to create a stronger relationship.

Also, when it comes to showing the subjects the films before it was finished, most of the filmmakers agreed they would never do that. The could only see the final product. One filmmaker said she never showed her subjects the current work, but in order to keep the trust she would show them her past work.

In the conclusion, Aufderheide et all say that documentarians in a large part feel a larger ethical obligation to tell a story that fiction filmmakers do not face because they have to tell a story that often was not meant to be told.

Documentary As Adaptation: An Intertextual Analysis of An Injury to One

Author Walker Metz takes one documentary, An Injury to One from 2002 and compares it other text, including a historical film, a play and a novel. Mets says the film is compared in profit to The Salt of the Earth in 1953, as it was both difficult to find funding for both films due to the nature of films. The style of the film, an Injury to One is compared to the play The Threepenny Opera from 1928 due to the photographs used and the narration. The novel “Red Harvest” (1929) also depicts the same story as an Injury to One, as it is inspired by the murder of Frank Little.

 An Injury to One depicts the story or Frank Little with very different film aesthetics, something that Metz says is hard to watch. It is meant to give more of a distinct political message, instead of drawing people in on a popular movie with fancy shots and colors. Comparisons of the songs used in An Injury to One are made to the songs in The Threepenny Opera.

The differences in Metz's work from Aufderheide et all is that Metz takes one particular film and compares it to three other texts. He analyzes the message and shows that while it is a documentary, it uses pieces from three other fictional works to tell the story. Aufderheide et all talk of the ethical nature of documentaries, and do not focus on one particular work.

Documentary-for-the-Other: Relationships, Ethics, and (Observational) Documentary

 Author Kate Nash takes the work of Emmanual Levinas as uses it as a guide for documentary scholars. She believes Levinas provides a framework that other filmmakers can base their documentary ethics from. According to Winston, documentaries and journalism seem to clash when the idea that a documentary should present unmediated access to the truth (Nash, 2011).

I believe the argument Nichols makes is very similar to Auderheide et all work, “Filmmakers have an obligation to minimize the harms associated [of the people} with documentary representation” (Nash, 2011, p. 226). I can see truth in all of the opinions Nash brings up, but I most closely agree to Maccarone who says a documentary is a film that attempts to tell a story as it happen from a particular perspective (Nash, 2011).

Another idea that Nash discusses is Pryluck’s belief that observational documentary overrides the rights of the participants and subjects them to humiliation, shame and indignity in the private good. However, in this type of documentary the subjects are being opened up to any kind of ridicule that even the filmmaker may not be aware.

Crumb The Documentary

Before the readings, I would of viewed Crumb as very strange and vulgar (even after the readings, I still do) maybe even to the point of a mental disorder. I think I would have a negative viewpoint of Robert Crumb just from his drawings, and how in depth the film goes into his sexual desires. After the readings, I was viewing the film through a more relationship perspective, including the relationship between Crumb and the director, and the various relationships with Crumb and the people in the documentary.

From the Nash and Auderheide et all readings, I don’t think Robert Crumb particularly cares how he is portrayed. He is a quirky guy, and that worked for him. I don’t believe he is hiding anything, and if people are fans of him that’s what they like about him. I do not believe many people could pull this off.

 I do wonder the ethical implications that are placed on his family, including his sisters and his children and wife. I think his children, particularly his daughter in the documentary may be too young to realize what exactly is going on. It is no doubt that Crumb’s work and beliefs are questionable to many people, but I can’t help but wonder what that will mean for his daughter as she grows older. Also, his obsession with sex in his drawings, what does that say about his family growing up as a child? What does this say about the women who shaped him, including his mother, first wife, current wife, etc? As I said before, obviously this does not matter to Crumb, but I believe it could adverse effects on those in his immediate family. I think with all documentaries you should take a look at all who are affected.

A few months ago I rented a documentary on a family, titled Stories We Tell by Sarah Polley. The youngest daughter (Sarah) presented a documentary on her family after her beloved mother passed away. There were several children in the family, however, Sarah, the youngest daughter was a surprise and throughout her childhood the other siblings joked that she was only their half sibling- that their mother had had an affair. As the daughter grew older, after the mother had passed away to terminal illness, she investigated the truth and found out who her biological father was. In doing so, she exposed the secrets of her family and confirmed that her mother had an affair. At the time of watching the documentary, I thought it was interesting and I was happy the daughter found out the truth, however in doing so she exposed the secrets of her family and even her deceased mother. I believe in documentaries, it’s almost as if some people gain for it while it causes pain for others.

I believe the same can be said for reality TV. Its all a matter of opinion and if the people involved care to be exposed. Some people will do anything for a shot at “fame” while others prefer to keep to themselves and not be judged.

Aufderheide, P., Jaszi, P., & Chandra, M. (2009). Honest truths: Documentary Filmmakers on ethical challenges in their work. Center for Social Media.

Metz, W. C. (n.d.). Documentary as adaptation. In Montana State University.

Nash, K. (2011). Documntary-for-the-other: Relationships, ethics and (observational) documentary. In Journal of Mass Media EthicsTaylor and Francis Group.

Zwigoff, T. (Director) (1994). Crumb [Web]. Retrieved from http://viooz.co/movies/4185-crumb-1994.html