How can you tell whats true? The core data was gathered in long-form, hour-long interviews, grounded in open-ended questions, conducted usually by phone. . Someone else will be culling footage from your film. You have to open your eyes and trust yourself. Adi Rukun, left, questions Commander Amir Siahaan, one of the death squad leaders responsible for his brothers death during the Indonesian genocide, in Joshua Oppenheimers documentary The Look of Silence. Courtesy of Drafthouse Films and Participant Media. 5 7 11 17. 25. an automobile factory produces 75 cars in an hour. [Our subject] had one for radio; we used the audio and made a commercial [to go with the audio]. Here this guy worked for five days and they get no glory, they go back to their regular jobs. The producer noted that the filmmakers work for a for-profit venture, and were making our money based on these peoples stories . Experts say there are some easy ways to become more media literate to help audiences siphon fact and fiction in documentaries and journalism. 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. In both cases, militating against what filmmakers might prefer personally to do was the obligation to complete a compelling and honest documentary story within budget. . When Im working on a doc, I try not to lie, said Sam Pollard. Thats irrefutable evidence of the injustice thats going on and it wasnt the mainstream media that provided it, although it used it, Breyer said. Public more agency in news gathering, Cross said. Especially on a historical documentary, I keep to the facts. To look at a homicide that happened seven years ago, and look at who did itits good entertainment. They didnt garble the voice but did obscure the face. . Many filmmakers believed that payment was not only acceptable but a reasonable way to address the power differential, even though payment often sufficed only to cover costs of participation. Click hereto view or download a PDF of this report. . Video sweetening, or adding in layers of sound, did not concern documentarians in generalif it was incidental. And Im not sure thats a bad thing.. Any documentary code of ethics that has credibility for a field with a wide range of practices must develop from a shared understanding of values, standards, and practices. After I wrapped, I felt like a real shit for the rest of the day, felt like I manipulated him for my personal gain. . 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. In London, people expect fees for interviews, etc., anytime you take up someones time. What hes done isnt quite documentary filmmaking, but it certainly isnt fiction either, Slate Magazine film critic Dana Stevens wrote of Oppenheimers work. In thinking about their subjects, filmmakers typically described a relationship in which the filmmaker had more social and sometimes economic power than the subject. Filmmakers were drawn into criticism of their peers, while lacking common standards of reference. 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. We felt it was better not to use that scene. Taped confessions? [You have to be] obsessively careful. what would be the next number in the following series? "But we dont know what a balanced media diet looks like.. if both individuals start working at the same time, and each works 56 hours completing tooth canals over the course of one month, how many tooth canals will they have completed, taking issue with media reports, the president_____ that she had no plans to step down and ____________ claims that her office was guilty of corruption. 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. an=(4.5,2,0.5,3,5.5,)? 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 . But I feel like its important to get the big-picture truth of the situation on camera. For todays documentary filmmakers, it appears to grace a set of choices about narrative and purpose in the documentary. The journalistic approach is the news comes first and story second. In some ways, Michael Mann's Ali, starring an Oscar-nominated Will Smith in the title role, plays like When We Were Kings stretched out into a moody, ambient-leaning slow motion. So we got one. . Why? We make the films we make because of these relationships we build. Its important to lift up people who tell their stories, as opposed to making them victims. Class 12 Class 11 Class 10 Class 9 Class 2 Class 1 A Practice Book of English Class 11 English Medium NCERT Class 11 English - Hornbill High School English Grammar and Composition Book by Wren & Martin Ringer illustration. Filmmakers resolved these conflicts on an ad-hoc basis and argued routinely for situational, case-by-case ethical decisions. Filmmakers also try to prevent material featuring their subjects from being reused by other filmmakers in ways that might misrepresent them in new contexts. It eats me up every day. It spoke to the possibilities as well. Are there music cues? 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. I regret it. One said, If you add birds chirping to facilitate the story, the birds are inconsequential to the audience misunderstanding the scene, it helps them enter the moment. However, a few noted that audio that changed the meaningfor instance, adding the sound of gunshots to a scenewas regarded as inappropriate. Up until 1960, with (director Robert Drews) Primary and the work of some others, documentaries were just lectures on film. I changed it . Filmmakers were acutely aware of the implications of telling a story one way rather than another. At a time when there is unprecedented financial pressure on makers to lower costs and increase productivity, filmmakers reported that they routinely found themselves in situations where they needed to balance ethical responsibilities against practical considerations. Anonymity was important to many, especially to those working directly and currently for large organizations. legally I could have put it in [without the familys approval], but hey, I want to sleep at night. Symbolic tribunals?. For Grierson, who incessantly strategized to garner government resources for documentary film, the phrase had strategic advantages. 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. 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. It appears to justify the overall goal of communicating the important themes, processes, or messages within the (required) entertaining narrative frame, while still permitting the necessary distortions to fit within that frame and the flexibility to deal with production exigencies. within last week 6 students have dropped out of the basketball team and 2 students have dropped out of the debate tryouts. . Breyer urges people to inject diversity into what they watch and read. My test for these things is, Does the audience know what its getting? . 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 were fully aware that their choices of angles, shots, and characters were personal and subjective (a POV, or point of view, was repeatedly referenced as a desirable feature of a documentary), and justified their decisions by reference to the concept the truth. This concept was unanchored by validity tests, definitions, or norms. Viewers are also reticent to call Oppenheimer's work pure documentary, given how Oppenheimer utilizes certain cinematic techniques. When (filmmakers) feel we have to pick up the ball dropped by the news media, that means we will not prioritize being artists anymore. you decide what your film is going to be, you have to put your traditional issues of friendship aside. SeaWorld declined to cooperate with filmmakers and called the film propaganda.". Following is further discussion of ways in which ethical questions about relationships with subjects surfaced in interviews. That critique has popped up a lot recently Netflixs miniseries Making and Murderer was criticized for omitting some facts of the case it examined, HBOs The Jinx was similarly judged for not going to police immediately when they found they had a taped confession of the killer, and the true crime podcast Serial has been scrutinized for being too one-sided. A.253m2B.25m2C.103m2D.53m2\begin{array} { l } {A. I remember negotiating with a bigwig, he was in demand, he said hed like to do it, and requested a donation to a nonprofit. All Rights Reserved. If you abuse this, then you wont get access to people for the next project.. Data were reviewed by an advisory board composed of two industry veteransfilmmaker and author Sheila Curran Bernard and filmmaker and professor Jon Elseand documentary film scholar Bill Nichols. Most subjects signed releases allowing the makers complete editorial control and ownership of the footage for every use early on during the production process. They were much happier, I was much happier, and the film was better because of it.. I want you to sign the release, but we will really listen to you. Some filmmakers acknowledged that they occasionally would resort to bad faith and outright deception, both with subjects and with gatekeepers who kept them from subjects. Oppenheimers film (currently streaming on Netflix and airing on PBS June 27) examines the fallout from a world that wasnt paying attention in the mid-1960s when thousands of people were killed in the Indonesian genocide many of the perpetrators and unapologetic murderers remain significant community members and political leaders in Indonesia today. Gallup reports that just 40 percent of Americans trust . 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. 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. One said that as long as the activities they do are those they would normally be doing, if your filming doesnt distort their life there is still a reality that is represented. Another recalled asking her subjects to stage an annual event earlier in the year than it would happen in real life: I would not want to put words in peoples mouth, or edit them in a way thats not leading to the larger truth. 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. This second relationship became primary in the postfilming part of the production process. 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. Its increasingly entertainment. 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. The Economist reports that documentaries now make up 16 percent of the Cannes Film Festival slate, compared to about 8 percent in 2008. . What is the difference? A cable TV producer argued that the ethical thing to do would be to pay subjects. . March of the Penguins (2005) Dir. 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. In one example, interviews were given and releases were signed on condition that they garble their voice and obscure their face . if the regular price od the book is $25, how many books could be bought at the sale price if a shopper spent $105? The filmmaker decided to exclude this information from the film. Most kept filming and postponed the decision of whether or not to use the footage. In that instance, I didnt feel it would affect what he was going to say.. This distinction accords with filmmakers sensitivity to the power differential in the relationship. what is the value of the cryptocurrency after 2 years, a restaurant buys 1500 eggs per week, at $1.50 per dozen. For instance, filmmakers also regularly used re-creations (re-staging of events that have already occurred, whether in the recent or distant past), although they widely believed that it was important that audiences be made aware somehow that the footage is recreated. Watch documentaries that dont align with your opinion, Breyer said. At its face value, colorblindness seems like a good thingreally taking MLK seriously on his call to judge people on the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. Indeed, any subjects withdrawal of affection may result in denial of access to material in which the filmmakers have invested heavily. It may be a necessary sacrifice if the media is going to continue not to investigate things like Indonesia.. News, and Im talking about TV news mostly, doesnt attempt to give people context anymore. a dentist can complete a tooth canal in 1.4 hours. . it would have been a betrayal to not listen to her. Ross Kaufman noted that the subjects disagreed with the coda at the end of one of his films, saying that it did not ring true to them . Filmmakers felt frustrated that stations did not always honor the agreements they had made with their subjects. Gordon Quinn recalled, I made a film in the 70s about an 11-year -old girl growing up. a safety specialist can complete an inspection in .5 hours. In a world where people deny the Holocaust, you dont want to give wind to that fire. We want to have a human relationship with our subjects, said Gordon Quinn, but there are boundaries that should not be crossed. They sometimes deal with hostile gatekeepers or powerful celebrity subjects. People who love documentaries love Netflix because the streaming . This survey demonstrated that filmmakers generally are acutely aware of moral dimensions of their craft, and of the economic and social pressures that affect them. The trend towards faster and cheaper documentaries and the assembly line nature of work has proven challenging to filmmakers understanding of their obligations to subjects in particular. He justified it by the result: Ultimately there is a story to be told, you may have to make these compromises. SMEs are especially in high demand in workplaces requiring a technical approach to operations and culture. Steven Ascher said that revealing a subjects weaknesses or positions that the audience is likely to find laughable or repellant can be justified when they are taking advantage of other people or when they are so completely convinced of their own rightness, they would be happy with their portrayal. Making a Murderer is exploitation entertainment, Dixon said. It would have made a fabulous turning point in the film, but I didnt include it. a home goods stores sells 385 lamps in the month of July. Many documentary filmmakers work with people whom they have chosen and typically see themselves as stewards of the subjects stories. 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. Anonymity permitted filmmakers to speak freely about situations that may have put them or their companies under uncomfortable scrutiny. This filmmaker decided to take the story out altogether: the harm that we could potentially do overwhelmed our [broadcasting rights] . 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. A documentary goes the other way, Breyer said. It is a powerful moment in the film but I felt bad to push him to that point when he broke down., This perception of the nature of the relationshipa sympathetic one in which a joint responsibility to tell the subjects story is undertaken, with the filmmaker in chargedemonstrates a major difference between the work of documentary filmmakers and news reporters. Institutional standards and practices remain proprietary to the companies for which the filmmakers may be working and do not always reflect the terms they believe are appropriate to their craft. Luc Jacquet 3. One filmmaker said I might hire a scholar for a day to consult with me on a script, so why cant I pay a musician whos made little money and felt exploited by white people their whole life? I usually enter peoples lives at a time of crisis. Or would they think its fair? one filmmaker told us. If the tables were turned, God forbid, said Joe Berlinger, I would never allow them to make a film about my tragedy. Stanley Nelson said, People have to know and feel its a recreation. Its part of our work and our interpretation, said one. The Economist reports that documentaries now make up 16 percent of the Cannes Film Festival slate, compared to about 8 percent in 2008. The interview was important for the film, Nelson said, and he believed the request was motivated by desire to control the film. So to use archival footage . One featured his typical bodyguards, in street clothes. In journalistic practice, payment is usually forbidden for fear of tainting the information garnered. Then, its got our companys name on it. One diagnostic was whether the filmmaker found the subject ethically lacking, for instance, because of politically or economically corrupt acts. Controversies emerged about several documentaries. When filmmakers face ethical conflicts, they often resolve them in an ad-hoc way, keeping their deep face-to-face relationship with subjects and their more abstract relationship with the viewers in balance with practical concerns about cost, time, and ease of production. What were seeing now is a democratization of storytelling in a way that gives John Q. 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? 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. Where institutional standards and practices exist, as in the news divisions of some broadcast and cablecast networks, filmmakers felt helpfully guided by them. On the next take, they then asked, Should we break its leg again? . One filmmaker said that she tries to be as authentic as possible, down to the year and the place. 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. In a certain sense there is something deceptive about that. Similarly, both Oppenheimer's films make use of re-enactments of events in question, which some documentary purists consider questionable because they're easily changed or fabricated. That kind of authenticity shook the tree of trust.. We said, We cant let this happen. We stopped filming and stopped this from happening. One filmmaker who made a documentary about a company that employed illegal immigrants simply left that fact out of the film and did not report it, either: We didnt call the policewe felt like that would be a breach of trust. Another filmmakers subject told a story about trying to bring her son across the border illegally. Clockwise from top left: Casting JonBenet; Homecoming, Dirty Money, They'll Love Me When I'm Dead; Miss Americana; Jim & Andy. Another filmmaker said that while she would not show subjects the current work, she would show previous films she had made, as a way of gaining their trust. Hopefully you do it in a way that ultimately, with the finished product that I had a clear conscience. . . He said, Its a rotten thing to have done journalistically. The standards and practices share some common themes, as analyzed by project advisor Jon Else. 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. time of the drinks were $1 each and the rest $3 each. We discussed it with her, and then she felt comfortable. 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. Professor of Law, American University Washington College of Law. . Dave Chapelle attacked onstage while performing at LA festival, Here are the 14 inductees for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Utah is apparently the most Star Wars-obsessed state in the country, Five political statements guests made at the 2022 Met Gala. They said it will be upsetting for children, and that the films point is solely to talk about material science. Its one of those areas where our responsibility to our audience and our responsibility to our subjects can be at odds. They portray themselves as storytellers who tell important truths in a world where the truths they want to tell are often ignored or hidden. not looking at archival footage as a document of a particular time and place, becomes problematic. Peter Miller noted that. A good film often has many lives, and one of the lives is in educational institutions, within schools and libraries. I always decide not to use that moment, said another. Above all, Breyer said, accept that it's OK to walk away without a solution to the problems a film presents. They had fewer qualms about lying to public officials or to representatives of institutions than about lying to subjects. The differing styles of documentary and injection of cinematic elements that arguably make them more interesting has made it harder to define documentary and its goals even among professionals, no two definitions of a documentary are quite the same. A great documentary doesnt give you an answer, Breyer said. Filmmakers observed these principles with widely shared limitations. And you want to be honorable. Of course, doing your homework and keeping up with current eLearning trends is a must. If youre a filmmaker you try to create a POV, you bend and shape the story to your agenda . They also lacked support for ethical deliberation under typical work pressures. September 2009 Where before a small number of players dominated the category, now it is extraordinarily . Another featured uniformed guardsa one-time, exceptional moment. Everyone raised their hands. He wanted us to interview someone else as a precondition [for using his own interview], Nelson said. A funny thing happened over the past decade in the short subject documentary space: It became competitive. Another recalled a prolonged negotiation. Its not meant to be consumed the day its produced.. It was awkward for them but I did not want to set a precedent.. Rather the opposite, in fact: faced with evidence of or a decision for inaccuracy or manipulation, they often moved the truth to a higher conceptual level, that of higher truth.. They typically assert that an independent media is a bulwark of democracy, and that the trustof both audience and subjectis essential. if the cost per dozen eggs rises to $1.80, how much more will the restaurant have to pay for eggs per week, based on the ______________ behavior and _________________ toward service staff exhibited by the job applicant before his interview, the hiring manager decided not to move forward with his application. I felt that my obligation was fulfilled. In another case, a director decided not to show footage to a subject who wanted approval over material used, because he feared the subject would refuse to permit use. To a certain extent, SeaWorld is right, Dixon said, though he liked the film. 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. This baseline research is necessary to begin any inquiry into ethical standards because the field has not yet articulated ethical standards specific to documentary.
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