What with WESTDOC's Documentary and Reality Conference, designed to explore connections between documentary filmmaking and reality TV, looming on the horizon (it runs from September 14 to 16), plus the plethora of truth-based narrative features and the integration of reenactments, special effects and other non-verite elements in documentaries, concerns about truth and ethics are surfacing -- well, maybe even erupting -- among documentarians, journalists and audiences.
The American University School of Communication's Center for Social Media has published a timely, in depth, important report, Honest Truths: Documentary Filmmakers On Ethical Challenges In Their Work, that's both a great source of informed opinion and a terrific platform for public debate about the issues.
Filmmakers interviewed for study -- including Stanley Nelson, Sam Pollard and Jennifer Fox, among others -- speak candidly about specific issues they've faced in their work, including whether or not to pay people who appear in their films or give them rights to approve content, whether their primary allegiance as filmmakers is to their subjects or the audience, whether it's appropriate to structure the storyline to protect the people who appear in their films, and other such matters. In general, the filmmakers see themselves as creative artists for whom ethical behavior is a core value, one on which their work will and should be judged.
According to the study, "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. Their comments can be grouped into three conflicting sets of responsibilities: to their subjects, their viewers, and their own artistic vision and production exigencies."
A panel discussion of Honest Truths is set for this year's Toronto International Film Festival, and maybe there should be one at the WESTDOCs conference, too.
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