Ethical Issues in Documentary Filmmaking

How Documentaries Represent the World

  • Documentaries have a strong connection to the historical world, enhancing popular memory and social history by representing the world in three ways:
    • Likeness or Depiction: Documentaries offer a recognizable likeness of the world using audio and visual recordings.
      • This fidelity creates belief because viewers see what was before the camera, implying reality.
      • The power of the photographic image is significant but has qualifications:
        • Images cannot convey complete information.
        • Images can be altered.
        • Authentic images don't guarantee the validity of broader claims.
    • Standing For/Representing Interests: Documentaries represent the interests of others, functioning as public representatives.
      • Filmmakers speak for individuals in the film and the supporting institution or agency.
      • Examples:
        • The Selling of the Pentagon (1971): Represents the American people by investigating the military's marketing and use of tax dollars; represents CBS News's independence from government pressure.
        • Nanook of the North (1922): Represents Inuit culture and the interests of Revillon Freres by depicting fur hunting as beneficial.
    • Making a Case: Documentaries actively present a particular interpretation of evidence to influence opinion.
      • They don't just stand for others but advocate for a viewpoint.
      • Examples:
        • The Selling of the Pentagon: Argues the U.S. military aggressively seeks funding.
        • Nanook of the North: Portrays survival in a harsh climate as a test of courage and resilience, highlighting the dignity of the Inuit people.
        • Daisy: The Story of a Facelift: Represents the social construction of an individual’s image, influenced by social conditioning, medical procedures, and documentary filmmaking.

The Ethics of Representing Others

  • Documentaries offer representations of the historical world and aim to persuade viewers.
  • The concept of representation raises ethical questions about how people are treated during filming:
    • What do filmmakers owe their subjects and audience?
    • Should subjects be compensated?
    • Should subjects have the right to block incriminating content?
    • Is it acceptable to restage actions or conversations?
  • Fiction vs. Nonfiction:
    • Fiction films treat people as actors with defined professional roles and contractual agreements.
    • Documentaries treat people as social actors whose value lies in their everyday lives, embodying cultural participation rather than theatrical performance.
  • Documentary filmmakers often seek individuals who exhibit complexity and depth, similar to trained actors.
    • These individuals possess charisma and attract attention.
    • Examples include Nanook, Timothy Treadwell (Grizzly Man, 2005), and Becky Fischer (Jesus Camp, 2006).
  • Authenticity vs. Direction: The director’s influence can threaten the authenticity of the subject’s self-presentation.
    • Too much direction can undermine the sense of an authentic portrayal.
    • Example: American Teen (2008) faced criticism for shaping characters into stereotypes, though students felt represented fairly.
  • Self-Consciousness and Altered Reality: Filmmaking can alter the reality it aims to represent.
    • People modify their behavior based on feedback.
    • Example: An American Family (1972) sparked debate about whether the Louds’ behavior was altered by filming.
  • Releases and Compensation:
    • Documentary filmmakers typically obtain releases, granting them full decision-making power.
    • Participants in successful documentaries may feel entitled to compensation, similar to actors.
    • Cases: Randal Adams (The Thin Blue Line, 1988) and Georges Lopez (Etre et avoir, 2002) sued for a share of revenue.
    • Courts have generally upheld the filmmakers' position, though compensation was sometimes part of settlements.

Filmmaker Responsibility

  • What responsibility do filmmakers have for the impact on the lives of those filmed?
  • Being in a film can raise questions about how others will perceive and judge the subjects.
  • These questions place a significant ethical burden on documentary filmmakers.

Case Study: Luis Buñuel’s Land without Bread (1932)

  • Buñuel portrays the impoverished citizens of Las Hurdes, Spain, with a judgmental commentary.
  • The film appears to be a callous depiction of the Hurdanos.
  • However, the film gradually reveals self-awareness and calculated effects, prompting viewers to question Buñuel’s intentions.
  • The film may be a satire of documentary representation that reinforces stereotypes.
  • Land without Bread serves as an early cautionary note against literally believing what we see and hear.
  • Comparison with Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will (1935) highlights the dangers of accepting either film as a “truthful” representation.
    • Buñuel may be among the first filmmakers to explicitly raise the issue of the ethics of documentary filmmaking.

The Purpose of Ethics

  • Ethics govern conduct in areas where strict rules or laws are insufficient.
  • Ethical considerations attempt to minimize harmful effects on subjects and viewers.
  • Ethics measure negotiations about the relationship between filmmakers and subjects.
  • Filmmakers risk exploiting subjects, altering behavior, and having their responsiveness questioned.
  • A common test for ethical issues is the principle of “informed consent.”
    • Participants should be informed of possible consequences.
    • Example: Medical experiments require disclosure of risks.
    • Filmmakers must honestly reveal intentions and foretell effects, though some intentions are unconscious and effects are unpredictable.

Case Study: Stanley Milgram’s Obedience (1965)

  • Milgram's experiment tested people's willingness to obey commands, using deception.
  • Subjects administered shocks to others who failed memory tests, unaware the shocks were fake.
  • The experiment required withholding informed consent, raising ethical concerns.
  • Alex Gibney’s The Human Behavior Experiments (2006) revisits Milgram’s work and links it to events like Abu Ghraib and Enron.
  • Errol Morris’s Standard Operating Procedure (2008) explores obedience to authority through interviews with military police involved in prisoner interrogations.
  • What is a deceptive practice in documentary filmmaking?

Deception and Obligations

  • Is it acceptable to feign interest to gain evidence of unsafe practices?
  • Is it appropriate to film illegal acts?
  • What obligation do documentarians have to their subjects, audience, and truth?
  • Example: Michael Moore's portrayal of Miss Michigan in Roger and Me.

Case Study: Hoop Dreams (1994)

  • Filmmakers consulted lawyers and the Agee family about including a scene where Arthur Agee's father is involved in a drug deal.
  • The family felt the scene should stay in, as it dramatized the father's growth over time.

Filmmaker's Position

  • Filmmakers often act as representatives rather than community members.
  • Tensions arise between the desire to make a compelling film and respecting individual rights and dignity.
  • Example: Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady viewed Becky Fischer (Jesus Camp) as “a great documentary subject” due to her charisma, without necessarily endorsing her views.
  • Ethics need not mean taking a stand but acting respectfully and maintaining trust.
  • Films like Land without Bread and No Lies remind us these values can be questioned.
  • Developing ethical regard is vital for documentary filmmakers.

Filmmakers, People, Audiences

  • How should we treat those we film?
  • How can the presence of a camera change the rules of the game?
  • What forms of alliance can take shape between filmmakers, subjects/social actors, and audiences/viewers?

Three-way Relationship: Verbal Formulations

  • I speak about them to you:
    • The filmmaker takes on a personal persona, directly or through a surrogate.
    • Example: Voice-of-God commentator in Song of Ceylon (1934) and Night Mail (1936).
    • Examples: Field correspondents in Harvest of Shame (1960), Roger Mudd in The Selling of the Pentagon, Wynton Marsalis in Jazz (2000).
    • The filmmaker can speak on or off-camera, as in Sherman’s March, Roger and Me, The Thin Blue Line, and Nobody’s Business (1996).
    • Speaking in the first person moves the documentary toward diary, essay, and avant-garde forms.
    • The emphasis shifts from persuasion to expression of a personal view.
    • New journalism and documentary filmmaking combine a personal voice with reporting on topical issues.
    • What shall I speak about?
      • Speaking about a topic or issue lends an air of civic importance to the effort.
      • A content-oriented desire to convey information, rely on facts, and make points about the world we share.
    • Them
      • The third person pronoun implies a separation between speaker and subject.
      • Example: Early documentary
    • You.
      • Like them, you suggests a separation. One person speaks and another listens. A filmmaker speaks and an audience attends.
      • Documentary, in this sense, belongs to an institutional discourse or framework.
      • Army recruits in Joan Churchill and Nick Broomfield’s documentary Soldier Girls (1980) or Fred Wiseman’s Basic Training (1971).
  • It speaks about them (or it) to us:
    • This formulation betrays a sense of separation, if not alienation, between the speaker and the audience.
    • Institutional discourse, in which the film, often by means of voice-over commentary, informs us about some aspect of the world in an impersonal but authoritative manner.
    • Example: The City (1939), addresses the problem of urban poverty.
    • They are not the work of a specific individual whom we could call the filmmaker; they are often not even the work of an institution as identifiable as CNN news with its on-camera representatives.
  • I (or we) speak about us to you:
    • This formulation moves the filmmaker from a position of separation from those he or she represents to a position of commonality with them.
    • Examples: the efforts of indigenous people to make films and videos about their own culture so that they may represent it to us.
    • By speaking about an “us” that includes the filmmaker these films achieve a degree of intimacy that can be quite compelling.
    • Tongues Untied (1989) and Black men. subtle fusion of both “I speak about us to you” and “I speak about myself to you” formulations, that stresses the linkages between personal and collective experience.
    • These various formulations of the relation of speaker/subject/audience convey some sense of how the filmmaker adopts a specific position in relation to those represented in the film and those to whom the film is addressed.
    • Signs of trust and respect provide evidence of the ethical considerations that went into the film’s conception, acknowledging that some films will deliberately challenge or subvert these values.
    • These formulations suggest what kind of relationship the viewer may have with the film by suggesting what kind of relationship we may have with the filmmaker and his or her subjects.
  • Assumptions vary considerably, as we shall see, but the underlying question of what we do with people persists as a fundamental issue for the ethics of documentary filmmaking.