In the case of subjects who they believed were less powerful in the relationship than themselves, they believed that their work should not harm the subjects or leave them worse off than before. They didnt garble the voice but did obscure the face. One director recalled, I knew personal information about one of the [subjects] that I thought would make the film richer, but she was confiding to me in person, not as a filmmaker . SeaWorld declined to cooperate with filmmakers and called the film propaganda.". In still another case, an HIV-positive mother addicted to drugs asked filmmakers not to reveal where she lives. Stanley Nelson said, People have to know and feel its a recreation. In one case, Sam Pollard asked a subject to redo an interview in order to get a more emotionally rich version of a painful moment when he had been abused by police in prison. Documentary films are becoming more popular but are they fact or fiction? He justified it by the result: Ultimately there is a story to be told, you may have to make these compromises. . In both situations, they used deception to keep someone with the power to stop the project from doing so, and they regarded it as entirely ethical because of an ends-justifies-the-means argument. So we got one. This report reveals profound ethical conflicts informing the daily work of documentarians. Some filmmakers were adamant that only precisely accurate images should be used. Unlike journalism, documentary filmmaking has largely been an individual, freelance effort. We consume news in very small bites now like on Twitter, but we naturally tend to want to be able to sink our teeth into something, whether 8,000-word magazine piece or big documentary, Woelfel said. They said it will be upsetting for children, and that the films point is solely to talk about material science. There are purists who would feel thats not right. . I insisted that they show me the cut and when I saw that they were implying that the girl had had an abortion, I said, You have to change that. if both individuals start working at the same time and each spends 70 hours completing inspections over the course of a month, how many total inspections will they have completed? One filmmakers client hired her to make an educational documentary for middle school kids and to leave out the fact that Americans dropped the first atomic bomb. . . Her reasons were goodshe did not want her son to grow up and maybe have a family, and 25 years from now have his kids find out he was arrested for attempted murder. The filmmaker allowed the family to consider; eventually, the kid himself spoke up and said that he was ok with it . . In one case, a filmmaker decided to withhold information about a public figures drug addiction in order to create the strongest cinematic experience. Documentaries dont pretend to be fair and balanced.. Who is it and how they are using it is also important, because as a small independent [filmmaker] you are personally accountable. Furthermore, noncommercial public TV news programs explicitly placed journalistic standards above commercial mandates. This study provides a map of perceived ethical challenges that documentary filmmakersdirectors and producer-directorsin the United States identify in the practice of their craft. The Economist reports that documentaries now make up 16 percent of the Cannes Film Festival slate, compared to about 8 percent in 2008. We have the money. Subject matter experts, also called SMEs, are professionals who have advanced knowledge in a specific field. Dixon suggests viewers beware certain hallmarks designed to sway them. People who love documentaries love Netflix because the streaming . One subject when drunk revealed something he had never revealed when sober, and in the filmmakers opinion probably would not. The Times described the documentary not only as focusing on women in politics, but more specifically on women of color, their communities, and the significant changes they have wrought upon America. The ongoing effort to strike a balance, and the negotiated nature of the relationship, was registered by Gordon Quinn: We say to our subjects, We are not journalists; we are going to spend years with you. In that part, friendship wasnt helpful in making the film, even though it is during the production phase., Filmmakers accepted significant manipulation of the situation in filming without regarding it as a betrayal of viewer expectations. He said, Its a rotten thing to have done journalistically. Some of these outlets may ask filmmakers to observe standards and practices, and/or ethics codes derived from print journalism and broadcast news and developed in conjunction with journalism programs in higher education. They had fewer qualms about lying to public officials or to representatives of institutions than about lying to subjects. Anonymity was important to many, especially to those working directly and currently for large organizations. After I wrapped, I felt like a real shit for the rest of the day, felt like I manipulated him for my personal gain. A.253m2B.25m2C.103m2D.53m2, How to calculate the 424242nd term of the arithmetic sequence. They widely shared the notions of Do no harm and Protect the vulnerable., They usually treated this relationship as less than friendship and more than a professional relationship, and often as one in which the subject could make significant demands on the filmmaker. film: The documentary The British documentary film movement, led by Grierson, influenced world film production in the 1930s by such films as Grierson's Drifters (1929), a description of the British herring fleet, and Night Mail (1936), about the nightly mail train from London to Glasgow. They spoke of making a fair film and a truthful film, not necessarily one that would, for instance, make their subjects happy or their networks richer. Blackfish is what Dixon considers an advocacy film," even though the film spurred change that journalism may not, because of ethical considerations, have been able to achieve. Its your reputation. Documentary filmmakers typically are small business owners, selling their work to a range of distributors, mostly in television. a dentist can complete a tooth canal in 1.4 hours. She has organized programs with the Human Rights Film Festival, Brooklyn Museum and Film Society of Lincoln Center and currently teaches arts management at CUNY Baruch. Gallup reports that just 40 percent of Americans trust media outlets to report the news fully, accurately and fairly. Amid dwindling trust in the press, documentaries with strong, emotional points of view can feel more authentic by comparison. Some filmmakers, however, were comfortable using stuff that evokes the feel of the spot or the person or the subject matter. They believed it was acceptable when it helped the story flow without causing misunderstandings, and they did not believe in disclosure. The felt power differential also led them to protect their subjects when they believed they were vulnerablenot, however, at the expense of preserving their own artistic options. Everyone raised their hands. if the regular price od the book is $25, how many books could be bought at the sale price if a shopper spent $105? Its increasingly entertainment. Its important to lift up people who tell their stories, as opposed to making them victims. I may get in by a sneaky way but hold up standards in the final product. Another gained access to someone in prison by writing on BBC letterhead stationery, although he was not working for the BBC. Its a powerful story, and its important plot-wise. Furthermore, producers, who were held responsible for the standards, are typically forbidden to offer subjects the right of review or to restage events; they are required to ensure that image and sound properly represent reality, and that music and special effects are used sparingly. A substantial minority of filmmakers argued that they would never allow a subject to see the film until it was finished. I want you to sign the release, but we will really listen to you. In the case of viewers, they believed that they were obligated to provide a generally truthful narrative or story, even if some of the means of doing that involved misrepresentation, manipulation, or elision. When the filmmaker showed a scene of a handcuffed minor in juvenile halla crucial and pivotal sceneto the family, in spite of having releases, the mother objected. In one case, for instance, a filmmaker was on location shooting a wildlife film, trying to capture one animal hunting another: We tried to shoot a few, and missed both of them. He said, I didnt have a [moral] dilemma. Click hereto view or download a PDF of this report. They didnt demand it, but they were right. I usually enter peoples lives at a time of crisis. That is the most deliberate falsification Ive ever done . If its 1958 Manila . When (filmmakers) feel we have to pick up the ball dropped by the news media, that means we will not prioritize being artists anymore. Explain the error. On the next take, they then asked, Should we break its leg again? . the perilous cliff filled the hiker with___________________, but her companions urged her to _______________ her fear, upon entering the ________________ home, police officers were disgusted to see its rundown state, a group of numbers has an average of 11. the first three numbers are 16, 3, 10 what is the other number, an investor purchases shares in a company for $20 share. One of the most effective approaches for how to become a Subject Matter Expert in eLearning is to hone your skills. office printer uses an average of 33.5 pages every hour if the printer is only used while the office is open, and the office is open for 50 hours each week, how many pages will the printer need over the course of 8 weeks. what is the price of the stock after two years, a coffee shop sold 300 beverages during one morning shift. Experts say that it's no coincidence that documentary films are enjoying boosted popularity at a time when trust in the media is at an all-time low. In 2021 yet. . In relation to subjects, they often did not feel obliged to protect subjects who they believed had themselves done harm or who had independent access to media, such as celebrities or corporate executives with their own public relations arms. But you should also develop core competencies that help you collaborate with clients and meet their expectations. . [Our subject] had one for radio; we used the audio and made a commercial [to go with the audio]. Originating in the 1960s alongside advances in portable film equipment, the Cinma Vrit -style is much less pointed than the expository approach. In most cases, documentarians believed strongly in making informal commitments and employing situational ethics determined on a case-by-case basis. I wanted to learn more about why she did the awful things . In both these cases, the choices not to honor the subjects requests reflected the fact that the subjectsboth experts, not less-powerful subjectsattempted to exert control over the films outcome that differed from that of the filmmakers. Great journalism shouldnt, either., Copyright 2023 Deseret News Publishing Company. Filmmakers need to share both experience and vocabulary and to be able to question their own and others decision-making processes without encountering prohibitive risk. Above all, Breyer said, accept that it's OK to walk away without a solution to the problems a film presents. In thinking about their subjects, filmmakers typically described a relationship in which the filmmaker had more social and sometimes economic power than the subject. Some filmmakers, however, did give subjects the right to decide whether or not their material should be included in the film. time of the drinks were $1 each and the rest $3 each. When documentary filmmakers do have to make their own ethical decisions, how do they reason? I was making a film about someone who was not loved . Video sweetening, or adding in layers of sound, did not concern documentarians in generalif it was incidental. WasFahrenheit 9/11accurate in its factual indictment of the Bush administrations geopolitics? An independent filmmaker said that his financially strapped subjects could see that we had money to make the movie, and we were making money ourselves off their tragedy, at a time when they could not work because of dealing with [a difficult situation]. In this regard, many found institutional rules against payment to be arbitrary and even counterproductive. I remember negotiating with a bigwig, he was in demand, he said hed like to do it, and requested a donation to a nonprofit. Then, its got our companys name on it. . Jon Else said: For years I never paid anyone for an interview. Narrative structure sometimes mandates manipulation, which they often but not always found uncomfortable. If you're in tech, you might have subject matter experts for web-hosting, agile methodology, and more. He most often refers to his work as art rather than journalism. At the end of the day, it became a mother-son deal and they worked it out. In this case, the filmmakers objective was maintaining the relationship and salvaging key footage. They commonly shared such principles as, in relation to subjects, Do no harm and Protect the vulnerable, and, in relation to viewers, Honor the viewers trust.. That could be good or bad, depending on the story being told, Cross said. This is an area that we havent really worked out, where a big conversation needs to happen. Is the filmmaker the center of this film? Most kept filming and postponed the decision of whether or not to use the footage. All Rights Reserved. The trouble is, most viewers dont know the difference. by working __________ the new employee hoped to prove that he could excel in his new position, the student offered information to his classmates under the _____________ of altruism, but in reality, the information was false, and he sought to ______________ their grades, the author has been criticized for the __________ views expressed in his book; while his words may have once been met with agreement; they are now met with disappointment. September 2009 That more cinematic approach to documentary filmmaking is new, said Stacey Woelfel, the director of the University of Missouri's Center for Documentary Journalism, but it's present in many modern documentaries like "The Jinx," "Blackfish" and others. A funny thing happened over the past decade in the short subject documentary space: It became competitive. its a case-by-case example. Still another grappled with this issue in the editing room: I was complaining to someone [that] I feel some allegiance to them, and the person said that at this point your only allegiance should be with the audience. But when art (like a documentary) shocks us, its never because were hearing something new. But even more valuable, Winter gives Zappa pride of place among the most important composers of the 20th century . Filmmakers repeatedly referenced problems with using historical materials, which document specific people, places, and times, as generic references or in service to a particular and perhaps unrelated point. It summarizes the results of 45 long-form interviews in which filmmakers were asked simply to describe recent ethical challenges that surfaced in their work. To me the difference is that journalism offers us a window into new information and ideally tries to put it into context so it can be useful somehow. His promotion of the term has been criticized, by scholar Brian Winston, among others, for allowing ethical choices to go unexamined. It would have made a fabulous turning point in the film, but I didnt include it. an=(4.5,2,0.5,3,5.5,)?a_n=(4.5,2,-0.5,-3,-5.5,\ldots)? Despite its detours, this doc about the alleged 1948 massacre of a Palestinian village clicks into a sobering portrait of collective memory. Documentary films have risen significantly in popularity since the turn of the century, increasing from less than 5 percent of all movie releases to 18 percent as of 2012, according to the media analysis nonprofit group the Harmony Institute. They take you to places that you will never see in the so-called mainstream media. But they can also be manipulated.. a safety specialist can complete an inspection in .5 hours. what is the value of the cryptocurrency after 2 years, a restaurant buys 1500 eggs per week, at $1.50 per dozen. I am keenly aware of the hypocrisy of asking someone for access that I myself would probably not grant. They let you be there as their life unfolds, said Steven Ascher, and that carries with it a responsibility to try to anticipate how the audience will see them, and at times to protect them when necessary., I often think, Let me be this person watching the film. Would they hate me? Vietnam veteran and biker Ron " Stray Dog " Hall is the subject of "Winter's Bone" director Debra Granik's documentary debut "Stray Dog," which follows Hall's bike club on a . That makes me uncomfortable; it puts them at risk.. They nonetheless subscribed to shared, but unarticulated, general principles. a company hires 14 new employees onto sales team A and 14 new employees onto sales Team B. within one year 2 of the new team A employees and 6 of the new team B employees have quit. Are they works of art? Documentary filmmakers, whether they were producing histories for public television, nature programs for cable, or independent political documentaries, found themselves facing not only economic pressure but also close scrutiny for the ethics of their practices. Anonymity permitted filmmakers to speak freely about situations that may have put them or their companies under uncomfortable scrutiny. A story of loving impossible loves and the torture of self-discovery in a world of demagogues and uncompromising hate, it has a tragic immediacy that makes it as contemporary as ever. With the Holocaust, you really dont want to show anything other than the exact day or place. He wanted us to interview someone else as a precondition [for using his own interview], Nelson said. By not including a perspective sympathetic or understanding of SeaWorld's position even perhaps their attorneys, who could explain their side of legal cases included in the movie the film stops trying to tell the entire story. Another featured uniformed guardsa one-time, exceptional moment. [30] By Justin Sayles Jul 9, 2021, 6:30am EDT. Saying this blurry figure is not our guy would ruin the scene, said Peter Miller. At the same time, some people encouraged us to make their stories public and volunteered use of their names. . But ultimately it has to be our decision. In some cases I will say, If there is something that you cant live with then well discuss it, we will have the argument and real dialogue. The opening . . But I feel like its important to get the big-picture truth of the situation on camera. . Here are the best documentary films of all time. I can sort of rationalize this, that it might be killed by a natural predator. Its one of those areas where our responsibility to our audience and our responsibility to our subjects can be at odds. If youre a filmmaker you try to create a POV, you bend and shape the story to your agenda . You use [the photo] with the knowledge that ultimately its not important if its your guy or not, whats important is the story. Another recalled: [One subject] talks about his childhood, his family all died . Were no longer seen as an institution thats fair and balanced. a store has a sale where all hats are sold at a discount of 40%. A good film often has many lives, and one of the lives is in educational institutions, within schools and libraries. But part of this subject matter is the graphic depiction of the attitude of the youths as they beat the man; they are represented as enjoying their act of brutality. Especially on a historical documentary, I keep to the facts. I have to be careful not to abuse the friendship with the subject, but its a rapport that is somewhat false, said one. You have to be 99.9 percent sure that people will know. Some filmmakers also stage events to occur at a time convenient to the filming. Filmmakers grounded this permission in two arguments: they wanted to demonstrate a trust relationship with the subject, and they wanted to make a film that was responsible to the subjects perspectives. inaccurately, for mood or tone, . . But that doesnt mean that I dont bend the truth. If Americans substitute documentary film for hard news reports and daily journalism, it could have major implications for journalism and for how Americans view the world around them. But those kinds of distortions are often necessary to tell the story or to compress ideas that would otherwise take too long. For all their aesthetic beauty, both The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence occupy an unsure place on the continuum of cultural forms. Only one respondent, Jennifer Fox, said that she offered fine cut approval in a legal document, with the caveat that the subjects couldnt object to the film because they didnt like the way they looked but could object to things on the grounds of hurting their family. the more fundamental questions are related to matters of life and death. This filmmaker decided to take the story out altogether: the harm that we could potentially do overwhelmed our [broadcasting rights] . Even producers working for large outlets, such as Discovery, National Geographic, and PBS, are typically independent contractors. In that instance, I didnt feel it would affect what he was going to say.. Its part of our work and our interpretation, said one. Where before a small number of players dominated the category, now it is extraordinarily . . The decision to share material in advance with subjects was, typically, an informal decision. . And it wasnt, so we had to take it out. Julie Ha and Eugene Yi's involving documentary covers a U.S. wrongful conviction case that ultimately helped improve cultural and judicial sensitivities. if the bartenders total pay for the moth was $4,250. Concerns about documentary ethics are not new, but they have intensified over the past several years in response to changes in the industry. The population spanned three generations. The filmmaker decided to exclude this information from the film. We are a respected educational program provider, [and] we would have looked bad, disgraced by it., Filmmakers expected to get to truth via the vehicle of a story and held themselves responsible for its implications. legally I could have put it in [without the familys approval], but hey, I want to sleep at night. Will this 23-year-old tutor win her 23rd Jeopardy! game? Director nixed Jeffrey Epstein project due to 'distasteful' subject matter. They argued that the responsibility to control the films point of view lay squarely with the filmmaker. In the edit room . On June 30, Netflix debuted its latest big-ticket true-crime documentary, Sophie: A Murder in West Cork, a three-part deep dive into . The growth of commercial opportunities and the prominence of politics as a documentary subject also produced tensions. One filmmaker recalled omitting a section on request. . Its not about 1965, its about the terrible consequences of impunity in the present.. He is still in contact with his characters, but he admitted they felt betrayed by [him] in some way. They had expected the filmmaker to protect them by not including comments they made and remembered making. In this case, they worked for a good-faith relationship that would not put their subjects at risk or cause them to be worse off than they were before the relationship began. Co-director, Center for Media & Social Impact, American University, Peter Jaszi, I usually say no, its a conflict of interest, but sometimes you really want someone to do the interview. Another thought it was more a matter of cultural norms. Unbeknownst to me, the [animal wrangler] broke the next rabbits leg, so it couldnt run. Singled out for notice was the attention at some television networkseven when not in the news divisionto factual accuracy. if Rauls sister is 25 years old how old is Rauls brothers, a store selling posters featuring Yosemite national park carries posters in three different sizes, with twelve different designs, and each poster is available in four different frames. The keenly felt power differential between filmmaker and subject led some filmmakers to make unilateral storytelling decisions, usually to omit material, with empathy for the subjects. It was the right thing to do, he said, because it was their lives, their stories that made it successful. The two central characters had equal shares with the three filmmakers. It may be a necessary sacrifice if the media is going to continue not to investigate things like Indonesia.. a home goods stores sells 385 lamps in the month of July. Tilikum, the orca whale that killed several people while in captivity in SeaWorld. And you want to be honorable. The minute you start to pick and choose facts, youre making fiction. within last week 6 students have dropped out of the basketball team and 2 students have dropped out of the debate tryouts. an hourly worker whose wage is 15 per hour will be paid how much for an 8 hour shift, which of the following is the. . It did not compromise an ultimate truth.. It has no ethics. One diagnostic was whether the filmmaker found the subject ethically lacking, for instance, because of politically or economically corrupt acts. Advertisement. With profound sadness, Adi Rukun watches footage of interviews conducted by Joshua Oppenheimer with perpetrators of the 1965-66 Indonesian genocide in Drafthouse Films and Participant Medias The Look of Silence. Courtesy of Drafthouse Films and Participant Media. In one case, a subject who had signed a release asked Stanley Nelson not to use an interview. Interrogating what it means to become a "subject" in a documentary film that ultimately takes on a life and a folklore of its own, Jennifer Tiexiera and Camilla They believe that they come into a situation where their subjects, whether people or animals, are relatively powerless and theyas media makershold some power. Documentary clients have included Sonia, Power Trip, Afghan Women, Trembling Before G*D and Blacks & Jews. We loved the texture of the campaign commercials for various candidates. what is the average number of book sold per month during the five month period, which of the following is the largest value. . They believe that their viewers are dependent on their ethical choices. I said, I dont care what youre talking about, we have to put it in there . In one case, a filmmaker lacked exciting enough pictures of a particular animal from a shoot, and the executive producer substituted animals from another country. Its mostly now a reporter being front and center rather than telling the stories of others, so people feel they cant trust it, Columbia University journalism and documentary film professor June Cross said. . I wasnt comfortable with it but I did it. In journalistic practice, payment is usually forbidden for fear of tainting the information garnered. We felt it was better not to use that scene. her less experienced colleague takes 1.6 hours to complete a root canal. he didnt have family photos. Or would they think its fair? one filmmaker told us. Hopefully you do it in a way that ultimately, with the finished product that I had a clear conscience. We showed her the piece first. Experts say that its no coincidence that documentary films are enjoying boosted popularity at a time when trust in the media is at an all-time low.
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