Ethics of Documentary Film
A lot of video essay channels focus a lot of their time on Movies, Every Frame a Painting, Wisecrack, and the Nerdwriter to name a few; But there’s always one genre of film that they seem to ignore, Documentaries; and I get it. It’s a lot harder to let’s say extract the essence of a shot, or to judge the quality of the writing when the Director doesn’t have full control over what’s happening. However, there’s an elephant in the room when you discuss a documentary film because when you discuss documentary — you have to discuss the ethics of documentary.
Now before we delve deep into the ethics of doc film we have to define it properly. Often ethics get mixed up with morals, the two discuss similar things and in the right circumstances — can be the same. Mariam-Webster defines Morals as: “considered right and good by most people : agreeing with a standard of right behavior.” And Ethics as: “the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation.” Can you see how they may get confused?
Basically Morals is a standard of principles determined by society, and Ethics is a standard of principles determined by the individual.
In documentary film filmmakers do have a set of morals, ironically referred to as The Code of Ethics. These are basically principles that are required of the director for the picture to keep its integrity in tact. Some examples of these include: 1. The director must not interfere with the life path of the subject. 2. The filmmakers cannot pay the subjects for their use in the film. 3. All parties involved with the film’s story must be given the opportunity to represent their self. There are many more than this but these are just some of the biggest three. These rules can be quite vague for example: You can’t pay you subjects to film them is a part of the Code of Ethics, however you can take your subject out to dinner without violating the code. The Code of Ethics is purposely vague to allow the director of the film to maintain artistic integrity, but because of this vagueness the line can be blurred when it comes to ethics.
A fantastic example of the vagueness of the Doc Code of Ethics is the HBO Series, the Jinx. The series is renowned for the huge controversy and debate over the Ethics of Documentary it caused when it was alleged that the directors withheld evidence against Robert Durst. Now I’m not here to say whether or not this is OK. Although I think what they did was totally fine, but many people outside of the film world thought that this was not just a violation of ethics but the law. People are still questioning whether or not its ok to withhold contents of the film in order to sustain the story. And while it hasn’t yet been determined if it did violate the law, but because of the premier of the Jinx, Robert Durst was arrested and convicted.
This is an example of something that Journalists would never do, and a showing of the differences between Journalists and Documentary Filmmakers. Journalists have a desire to keep their stories as factual and unbiased as possible where documentaries go the opposite route and are often very biased.
In turn Journalists attempt to get a story, and Documentarians attempt to get an emotion.
A very important and interesting counter-argument to Doc film making in general is the question:
“What gives the filmmakers the right to film these people?”
Now this is a very interesting question and often there are many different answers for different films, but one answer that is always consistent is the subjects do.
The subjects give the filmmakers the right to film them.
In Docs the characters that are being followed are not actors and they are not getting paid. In the industry these people are referred to as subjects. You will not see a subject in a film without their expressed permission to be filmed. This isn’t just an ethics thing it is also the law. Often times the filmmakers and subjects become friends during the process. An example of this is Aaron Wickenden and Dan Rybicky’s 2014 film Almost There. The pair spent eight years filming with the subject Peter and became good friends with him, a relationship they maintain today. Unlike Hollywood, the characters are not actors so maintaining a good relationship with them is vital to the completion of the film.
Something that must be remembered is that in documentary, the person behind the camera is just as much of a character in the film as the people on screen. A great example of this Subject filmmaker relationship is the 2002 film Stevie, Directed by Steve James. The film follows the director as he reconnects with a young man he formerly mentored while volunteering in the Big Brothers Little Brothers Program. Stevie, the titular character, has not had an easy life in the last ten years that Steve has spoken to him and Steve feels guilty for losing touch with him. Without giving too much detail Stevie is eventually tried and convicted of a very serious crime and is put in jail. When the film was released many people called into question the Ethics of Steve for including Stevie’s incarceration in the film. Many people thought it was a violation of Stevie’s privacy to include that while Steve debated that he didn’t want to hide Stevie’s wrong doings, that Stevie was who he was and did what he did and it would be a disservice to not show his full character. This is a great example of how Ethics works in the world of doc film, it takes two sides of an issue and brings them out into the public and makes them open for discussion.
That’s the power of documentary film making. Unlike fiction films where every single thing is meticulously crafted to be exactly what the Director’s vision is, Documentary is more open ended often times inconclusive, and is more in touch with a part of society at the moment it was captured. While fiction films open up discussions about cinematic techniques and hidden meanings in plots, Documentary spark discussions on our present world, the good and the bad, and how we can change it for the better, and in the case of the Jinx actually have an effect on our world. So the next time you watch a documentary think about who’s behind the camera and what you aren’t seeing as much as what you are.
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