Beyond the Frame: A Study in Observational Documentary Ethics

Abstract

Ethical questions are central to documentary studies. It has long been acknowledged that documentary practices have an ethical dimension for filmmakers, audiences and documentary participants. An ever-expanding body of literature academic, professional and popular speaks of a wide concern to understand and address the ethical issues raised by documentary filmmaking. Documentary ethics is a complex discourse, crossed by multiple and incommensurable obligations, rights and principles. The participant's right to privacy, audiences' right to know and the documentary filmmaker's need to tell a compelling story collide as filmmakers are called to 'weigh up' competing interests. Questions continue to be raised about the possibility of informed consent in documentary practice, appropriate levels of disclosure and the power relationship between filmmaker and participant. Despite the complexity of documentary ethics, this thesis argues that some questions fall beyond current boundaries. Specifically, the experience and meaning of documentary participation have not yet been considered. This research seeks to bring a fresh perspective to questions of ethics in documentary practice through empirical study of the practices and meanings of documentary production. In taking as its object of study documentary practice itself, this study seeks out the voice of the documentary participant, a voice that has too often been a central absence in debate in the ethics of documentary.