Chapter 6 Recording and Presenting Reality 221Ethical Considerations
As you consider examples in this chapter and among the movies that you
watch, think about the role of the fi lmmaker in the events that have been
recorded. From Nanook of the North to the contemporary documentary Hoop
Dreams (1994), ethical concerns have confronted fi lmmakers regarding the
ongoing experiences that they are chronicling. Sometimes fi lmmakers are
subjected to great danger and they must consider the well-being of their
crew and themselves.
For the fi lm Harlan County, USA (1976), Barbara Kopple and her crew
were swept up in an intense, violent standoff between labor and strikebreakers
in a mining area of Kentucky, and they were shot at. Many non-fi ction motion
pictures made in war zones and locations of confl ict or tension entail signifi cant
risk. In producing the Academy Award-nominated documentary short La
Corona (2008), fi lmmakers Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega traveled to a
women’s prison in Colombia to fi lm a surprising event: a beauty pageant. A
signifi cant part of their work entailed earning the trust of the prison offi cials
and the inmates. Once they were able to manage those diffi culties, their focus
was on depicting the stories of the women whose lives were at the heart of
the event.
Physical conditions dictate many aspects of documentary production,
chiefl y because of the inherently unpredictable nature of many non-fi ction
motion pictures. Yet again, changes in technology are intertwined with shift s
in practices and communicative styles in movies. By the early 1960s, more
widespread use of lightweight 16mm cameras and faster fi lm stocks led
fi lmmakers to embrace new approaches in recording reality. In the 1990s, the
arrival of digital technologies triggered a boom in documentary fi lmmaking
as directors capitalized on the high image quality of digital recording andFigure 6-12 A contestant in
the beauty pageant from La
Corona, directed by Amanda
Micheli and Isabel Vega.
(Photo by Petr Stepanek, Courtesy
of Runaway Films/Vega Films)Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).