Arguments about truth and ethical practice in documentary filmmaking are an inherent part of its workings as a genre. Truth is perpetual in an art form that demands both honesty and manipulation: honesty through its humanity and manipulation through its craft. It is assumed representing and communicating a subject ethically is the objective, however difficult challenges often lead them to deviate from the truth and exploit their subjects; sometimes unknowingly. This research proposal is questioning the extent documentary film makers of both animal and human subjects push the boundaries of manipulation. How natural are nature documentaries? Focusing on The Hunt (2015, BBC), White Wilderness (1958, Disney) and March of the Penguins (2005, Luc Jacquet). Ethically; can the audience trust that what they are watching occurred naturally without human interference? Does the anthropomorphism of animals manipulate the audiences understanding of the animals? Comparing this to documentaries of human subjects such as The Wolfpack (2015, Crystal Moselle), Nanook of the North (1922, Robert J. Flaherty), Amy (2105, Asif Kapadia) and The Act of Killing (2012, Joshua Oppenheimer) Is our greed and hunger for thrilling entertainment what drives film makers to make controversial ethical decisions? Is truth just an ever-changing tool used by filmmakers to manipulate their audience and enforce their viewpoint through conscious production decisions?
A popular subject within documentary film making, ethics and truth have long been the topic of conversation. Bill Nichols; an American film critic and theoretician speaks of filmmakers grappling with the ethics of documentary: "These questions boil down to questions of trust, a quality that cannot be legislated, proposed or promised in the abstract so much as demonstrated, earned and granted in negotiated, contingent, concrete relationships in the here and how." In Nichols essay ‘What to Do About Documentary Distortion? Toward a Code of Ethics’, he explains; ‘Akin to the Hippocratic Oath; "Do no harm, do nothing that would violate the humanity of your subject and nothing that would compromise the trust of your audience." But Nichols argues that this is a rather vague and misleading statement. What conciliates trust? What violates another person's humanity? Amy, Nanook of the North and The Act of Killing were just a few named by Melindi Gemesi in ‘A Taste of Cinema’ as Controversial Movies That Challenge the Ethics of Documentary Filmmaking. Some scenes of Nanook were staged and Flaherty even had some members of the group play certain roles. Amy was criticised as some thought that it victimised the late singer and incriminated the father. Mitch Winehouse was the first to attack the film, saying that it magnifies his role in the death of Amy. Amy is a typical example of what risks are awaiting documentary filmmakers at the stage of editing. Inevitably filmmakers decide to include some scenes and discard others so they unavoidably create an alternative version of the story.
The Centre for Media and Social Impact Honest Truths: Documentary Filmmakers on Ethical Challenges in Their Work film makers have spoken of commercial pressures to make decisions they believed to be unethical. The popularity of producing faster and cheaper documentaries has proven challenging to a filmmakers’ understanding of their obligations to subjects. An example of this would be a wildlife shoot trying to capture one animal hunting another: “We tried to shoot a few, and missed both. The animal wrangler broke the next rabbit’s leg, so it couldn’t run, so we got one. On the next take, they asked, “Should we break its leg again?” The DP was saying “No, I’m sure you wouldn’t want to do it,” but nodding his head yes. I made the decision, let them break it. I regret it. I can sort of rationalise it, but for us to inflict pain to get a better shot was the wrong thing to do.”
The research will be predominately library based, expanding the research to online articles, reviews and director interviews regarding their films and experiences. The research and analysis will be theoretical and critical. The library in which the books will be sourced is Norwich University of the Arts, in the Film and Documentary section. The two main focuses of the research will be truth and ethics within documentary, using the specific film examples as mentioned above; additional film reviews and analysis can be done empirically to support the theoretical analysis. The books that will be used are: - New Challenges for Documentary (Alan Rosenthal and John Corner, Manchester University Press, 2005) Part 3 ‘Issues of Ethics and Aesthetics’ ‘Ethics’ Brian Winston, ‘Ultimately we are all outsiders: the ethics of documentary filming’ Calvin Pryluck, ‘The ethics of image making or "They're going to put me in the movies. They are going to make a big star out of me..."’ Jay Ruby ‘Word is out and gay U.S.A’ Lee Atwell
- Documentary, the Margins of Reality (Paul Ward, Columbia University Press, 2005) Third chapter ‘The Changing Face of Historical Documentary’ Fourth Chapter ‘Fiction and Nonfiction: The great divide?’ Conclusion ‘The Future of Documentary’
- Imagining reality, The Faber book of Documentary (Mark Cousins and Kevin Macdonald, Faber and Faber, 2006) Part two ‘Filming Death’ Bela Balazs, Part nine ‘Narration can be a Killer’ Robert,
Part 10 ‘Filming Torture Victims’ Haskell Wexler
- Documentary: Self Witness and Revelation (John Ellis, 2012, Routledge)
- New Documentary (Stella Bruzzi, Second Edition, 2006, Routledge)
Online Articles: International Documentary Association - Where the truth lies – or not, How real is the reality in documentary film? Jill Godmilow, in conversation with Ann-Louise Shapiro, Honest Truths: Documentary Filmmakers on Ethical Challenges in Their Work, Indie Wire - The Ethics of documentary film making, The Conversation - Wolfpack and the ethics of documentary film making, Sense of Cinema - Ethics in the immersive documentary, Taste of cinema - 10 controversial movies that challenge the ethics of documentary filmmaking
Now more than ever anyone can be considered a film maker, the accessibility to creating film and distributing media has meant documentary film has been catapulted into modern society; Catfish (2010, Ariel Schulman, Henry Joost) being an early example. This research is exposing the importance of truth and ethics within documentary, during its most popular stage. Film makers must realise the impact and damaging effects misrepresentation and miscommunicating subjects can be for both the subjects and the film makers. Additionally, this research has a timely element as its ever-growing popularity makes us question our own naivety into believing everything these films claim and allowing ourselves to be manipulated by what we watch. However, nature documentaries make you wonder whether audiences are concerned whether the documentary is 100% real or fake if they are entertained. Do they really want to know how the documentary was made, as surely this defeats the object of it? We are happy to consume them but tend not to ask how they got made.
Bibliography
- New Challenges for Documentary (second edition, edited by Alan Rosenthal and John Corner, Manchester University Press, 2005) Part 3 ‘Issues of Ethics and Aesthetics’ ‘Ethics’ by Brian Winston, ‘Ultimately we are all outsiders: the ethics of documentary filming’ by Calvin Pryluck, ‘The ethics of image making or "They're going to put me in the movies. They are going to make a big star out of me..."’ Jay Ruby ‘Word is out and gay U.S.A’ Lee Atwell
- Documentary, the Margins of Reality (Paul Ward, Columbia University Press, 2005) Third chapter ‘The Changing Face of Historical Documentary’ Fourth Chapter ‘Fiction and Nonfiction: The great divide?’ Conclusion ‘The Future of Documentary’
- Imagining reality, The Faber book of Documentary (edited by Mark Cousins and Kevin Macdonald, Faber and Faber, 2006) Part two ‘Filming Death’ by Bela Balazs, Part nine ‘Narration can be a Killer’ by Robert,
Part 10 ‘Filming Torture Victims’ by Haskell Wexler
- Documentary: Self Witness and Revelation (by John Ellis, 2012, Routledge)
- New Documentary (by Stella Bruzzi, Second Edition, 2006, Routledge)
International Documentary Association - Where the truth lies – or not - http://www.documentary.org/magazine/where-truth-lies-or-not How real is the reality in documentary film? Jill Godmilow, in conversation with Ann-Louise Shapiro - http://www3.nd.edu/~jgodmilo/reality.html Honest Truths: Documentary Filmmakers on Ethical Challenges in Their Work - http://cmsimpact.org/resource/honest-truths-documentary-filmmakers-on-ethical-challenges-in-their-work/ Indie Wire - The Ethics of documentary film making - http://www.indiewire.com/2014/10/the-ethics-of-documentary-filmmaking-69007/ The Conversation - Wolfpack and the ethics of documentary film making -http://theconversation.com/wolfpack-and-the-ethics-of-documentary-filmmaking-47086 Sense of Cinema - Ethics in the immersive documentary - http://sensesofcinema.com/2013/feature-articles/ethics-in-the-immersive-documentary/ Taste of cinema - 10 controversial movies that challenge the ethics of documentary filmmaking - http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2015/10-controversial-movies-that-challenge-the-ethics-of-documentary-filmmaking/