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Abstract
It is my experience that industrial constraints and pressures can impinge on a documentary maker's ability to behave ethically towards participants. How then would or should one behave if free of such constraints? My documentary Hope was made without broadcaster involvement and provided an opportunity to work collaboratively with its central participant and reflect on this process through a Masters by Research thesis. A collaborative approach gives participants space to take initiatives and share in the shaping and ownership of the film. The filmmaker has a responsibility to work transparently, right through to the final product, so that audiences can judge the film's ethical stance. Using Hope as a case study, examples are discussed of how this process worked and the ethical dilemmas that arose during the making of the documentary. This approach suggests a need for documentary filmmakers to re-examine the storytelling process, their ethics, and their role. It calls for a reorientation of institutional priorities towards the needs of the filmmaker–participant relationship and the rethinking of consent and ownership. Such considerations may, in the end, be more challenging to the institutional side of the documentary industry than to filmmakers themselves.
Acknowledgements
I wish to acknowledge the role of my co-producer Sue Brooks, also a collaborator on Hope and whose support, counsel, and continual interrogation of what I was doing was crucial throughout the production process. Also thanks to Dr Lachlan MacDowell, who provided the same qualities during the writing of my MA thesis.
Notes
2. Australian authorities refer to unauthorised boats attempting to bring asylum seekers to Australia as ‘SIEVs’ – Suspected Illegal Entry Vessels – and give each a number. The boat on which Amal travelled was not officially recorded before it sank and is thus referred to as ‘X’, meaning ‘unknown’.