Vicarious trauma and emotion work in documentary filmmaking

ABSTRACT

In this paper, I contribute to the scholarship on documentary film and ethics by reflecting on the emotional experience of producing the film series, The Ripple Effect of PTSD (Melzer 2016). The series focuses on caregivers of veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and was produced as a doctoral creative project. I situate my reflections in the literature on documentary studies and ethics, noting that while participant risk has been afforded welcome and increasing attention, there has been little consideration of how a filmmaker may be negatively impacted by the experience of film production. In contrast, there is a growing scholarship on ‘emotion work’ in qualitative research, particularly research involving vulnerable populations. Drawing on this literature, I detail the emotional labour involved in accessing participants, undertaking interviews and engaging in impact distribution. I argue that ethical documentary filmmaking necessitates emotional labour on behalf of the filmmaker and, as such, we need to broaden the scholarly research agenda on documentary ethics to include consideration of a filmmaker's emotional health and wellbeing.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethics
• emotion work
• emotional labour
• documentary filmmaking
• vicarious trauma

Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to my supervisors Dr Debra Beattie and Professor Barbara Pini for their expert advice. Debra assisted in the production of my creative project while Barbara assisted with the completion of the exegesis. I appreciate the assistance of Dr Wendy Keys who provided feedback on an earlier draft of this paper and I also appreciate Dr Ashleigh Watson proof reading this paper. I acknowledge and thank the reviewers for their valuable feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Veteran film participants were not interviewed as the key focus of the project was on caregivers. Five caregivers were interviewed in person, the sixth interviewee chose to email her responses.

2 In Australia, there is the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research (2018) and within individual universities there are ethics application processes and review committees monitoring the conduct of approved protocols and guidelines. https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/_files_nhmrc/file/publications/17628_nhmrc_-_nhmrc_the_australian_code_for_the_responsible_conduct_of_research_-_v1-1-accessiblefinal_0.pdf.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kym Melzer

Kym Melzer Griffith Film School doctoral documentary film series, The Ripple Effect of PTSD (2016), was officially selected and screened at film festivals and Melbourne WebFest 2017. My written exegesis is entitled, Impact and documentary filmmaking: ethical reflections on a practice-based study. I am a Company Director at Seeding Time Pictures and also work as a sessional Academic Advisor, Honours teacher and Lecturer at Griffith University, Griffith Film School, Brisbane. I am an active mentor in the MentorHER program at Women in Film & Television – WIFT Qld. I am passionate about writing, producing and directing films that tell compelling stories about social issues.