Thursday, January 20, 2011
This article was mostly about decisions while make a documentary film, along with the ethics behind filming your subjects. According to Hampe, people need to know that if they don’t want to be recorded, don’t be in the film. He states that most film makers don’t really ask for the consent and are more likely to abide by the, if you stay, you consent rule. However they may have them at the start say that they are fine with being on tape. But people should think before they make a film because using others in the process can have unforeseen consequences. This is somewhat evident in Born into Brothels where we find out that the children are ridiculed and harassed in response to them being filmed and taking pictures throughout the red light district. Zana probably did not foresee this happening, but I think in hindsight it would be worth it for the good that it did the children. Long term consequences can come back to haunt the people if they decided to be used. I think this would come into effect with the child whose mother was burned by her pimp. Now at this time the kid is probably dealing with it the best he can, but what happens if he ever gets out of Calcutta and looks this video up? That will surely scare him as an adult to see how his family was portrayed. And worse, if he applies for a high position job, someone will surely look up his name and find this film online. You cannot say that won’t have an impact on his life. This film fits what the author of this calls journalistic objectivity where the makers of the documentary use highly politically and opinionated issues and ideas. However, Zana did not show both sides of the story evenly. In the case of the prostitutes, there was really only way to look at it though.
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The paper covered what we have been talking about in class the past couple of days. The author talks about how documentaries aren’t total truth. Yes the cameras follow real people doing their real lives but the person putting the film together can do it in any way that he or she wants. And this relates back to the movie “Born into Brothels”. Zana could have easy only show the parts that she recorded to help her point of trying to get the children out of the brothels. The kids obliviously love their parents so maybe she cut some scenes out that showed a compassionate parent children moment. Another aspect of a documentary that can’t be accounted for that the paper goes over is the audience reaction. No matter how the person putting it the documentary feels about it or how the people involved and seen in it feel about it, there is no true way to know how the audience will feel about it. For “Born into Brothels” it’s pretty clear that Zana was going to stir emotions but maybe not as much as she did. The audience reaction can never be predicted and can only be know after the film. And probably the biggest thing covered in the paper was the issue of consent. It covered how consent in the beginning of the movie and after are different and it goes back to the audience reaction. If Zana did ask for consent then everyone who was in the film probably saw at the least the parts with themselves in them. And like the examples in the paper, they all felt that it was okay for the movie to be made. But after the movie was seen by the audience, and the horrible reaction that the parents received, probably made they wish they could change their minds about giving consent.
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