This week's lecture was surrounding the ethics of making a documentary.
Liam highlighted the problem of signed release forms which I thought was very useful.
He showed us a sneak peek of the film 'Titicut Follies' by Federick Wiseman which was about a Massachusetts institution for the criminally insane. It revealed the horrific conditions behind closed doors that the patients were subjected to, and though he had all release forms signed, the documentary was still banned for quite some time upon its release. Although all appropriate release forms were signed, it was maintained that the patients were not in their right state of mind when they had signed them.
However, the ban was lifted after the deaths of some of the patients who's' relatives made a claim was avoidable had the film been allowed to air.
This example shows a couple of things. The power of a documentary, the ethics and dilemmas the person making the documentary faces in the editing process, and the grey area of release forms.
I think that this also reflects upon how much more creative freedom and options a documentary film maker has over a film maker of drama as we did in tv1, who has to follow a rigid storyboard and shooting style in order to get it 'right'.
No comments:
Post a Comment