Ethical Questions

In Documentary Production

School of Creative Media, Professor Shannon Walsh

 Ethics are not static
 Signing a release form is the beginning of a discussion
about responsibilities and implications
 But, a release form does not ensure you have dealt
ethically with your subjects
 Ethics is a continual process, ongoing discussion and
understanding of empathy
 It is one of the key issues in documentary filmmaking
 Ethics is taking responsibility.
Gordon Quinn on Ethics
“There are no set rules in
documentary filmmaking, only
decisions about where to draw
the line.”
“the documentary process relies
upon a constant negotiation of
power relationships among the
story, subject, and viewer.”
…how to protect subjects'
privacy while intimately
exposing their lives, to
filmmakers' responsibility to
make their method and intent
transparent to the audience.”
Obomsawin on Ethics
“Alanis Obomsawin
(Kanehsatake: 270 Years of
Resistance) says her films
represent “the voice of our
people, which has been
silenced for many, many
hundreds of years.”
 What are your invisible
assumptions & biases?
Will the world of your film recreate stereotypes and
assumptions? Who are your participants?
 Class? Wealth? Poverty?
 Race? Ethnicity? Gender?
 Other kinds of appearances?
 Sexuality? Environment?
 Power structures?
 Moral stance and world views?
 Speaking on ‘behalf’ of others
Think about “how charity gets dispensed by the privileged,
how it can feel to the recipients, and how self-serving it can
be to imagine one is promoting someone else’s interests.”
-Michael Rabiger
“The difference in the power of filmmakers and their
subjects can often be best measured by their relative
access to the means of representation. Do subjects have
the means to represent themselves? Do they have
alternative access to the media apart from that provided
by a given filmmaker? To the extent the answer is "no,"
the filmmaker's ethical obligation to avoid
misrepresentation, exploitation and abuse rises
correspondingly.”

–Bill Nichols
 Paying people?
There are many different approaches to paying participants.

As a rule, most documentarians say it is best to never pay

subjects, as it will influence their performance, but there can
be exceptions.

We are in human relationships with the people you are

filming.
 Connections
Don’t make films about people you don’t like!

This isn’t a rule, but being condescending to your characters

can come across as terrible. Sometimes you need to do it,
but in general, empathy shines through.
 Dilemmas:
Nathi & the blind
Zimbabwean refugees

01
Segment on Ethics talks to a number of directors on their approaches.