In the introductory portion of the article Hampe asks what is or should be the relationship between the documentarian and the people who are being recorded, and what should the documentarian's responsibility to these people be. In Born into Brothels, it is clear that Zana and her main subjects, the children, are very close, they call her Auntie Zana. However, her relationship with the families of each of these children is not a friendly one. Since she is so close with the kids, it is assumed that she will feel responsible for how they are showcased, and not want them to seem like they are bad people. With the families, it could be assumed that she feels little to no responsibility for how they come across, and wants to show the audience that they are in fact bad. Most of the scenes in which the families, mainly all adults, are shown, they come across as mean, almost hateful towards their children.
Based on the relationships between the documentarian and their subjects, the ethics of keeping them informed and aware of being on camera can be brought into question. It is assumed that since the children loved Zana so much, she had their consent to film them, and for certain aspects of their lives to be shown to the world. Since she was likely not as well liked by the families, she may not have informed them of how their image could be damaged if they were filmed yelling and swearing at their children, but, as Hampe includes in his article, perhaps even Zana was not aware of what she would catch on camera, and what affect it could really have on everyone's lives. So, it is difficult to try to question if Zana was ethical in getting consent from all of the film's participants without seeing or hearing it from them firsthand.
In Hampe's, "Ethics in making a documentary," many important points are brought up. The main arguement in the piece is that what is the importance of informing the subjects of a documentary about all of the potential risks of being in the film, and to what extent do they need to be informed. As stated, I feel like a lot of the time the subjects are not well informed about just how they are going to be portrayed in the film they have "agreed" to be in. While, yes, this can be in part due to the fact that they are not able to think of all the risks on their own, I do think the documentarian holds a large part of the responsibility in telling them how they intend to use the segments filmed. This being said, I definitely agree with what was said in the middle of this article. It is amazing how quickly people can look past any potential risks just to get their "15 minutes of fame." I was shocked to read that the parents of a baby just 6 hours old had no second thoughts of allowing their child to be filmed right then and there.
ReplyDeleteNo matter what the intelligence level of the subjects or their willingness to be filmed, I feel it is in the documentarians best interest to just put it all out there and for the most part, let it be known their intentions. While certain aspects can and should be left out to prevent a biased outcome, by allowing the subjects to have an adequate amount of information to make a sound decision on whether or not they want to participate will eliminate a lot of unneeded drama in the end.
Working in the medical field I have much experience with consent forms and I think this article thought different from medical consents, has many similarities. Many times people even in a hospital or surgical setting have no idea what they are consenting to, they just assume that since their doctor said it is a good idea, I had better do it. I like the fact that documentarian ethics are at least being considered much the way medical ethics have been for years. At the end of the day the documentarian should be held accountable.
ReplyDeleteTo what extent should people be instructed of the rights they are giving up is a great question. In the medical field we try to keep it as on the level as we can, if the patient wants more information we can get them what they need on a case by case basis. Something of this sort may be helpful for documentaries, however there will always be ones that skirt the fine line of what is ethical and what is not both in medicine and documentaries, what is ethical to some may not be very ethical to others.