Week 2 in ‘Do Great Things’!
We all want to go out into the world, do great things AND BE RECOGNISED FOR IT. But how can we use our skills and process as film makers to benefit a wider community or group of people?
Week 2, we hustled together our little ideas for the pitch session of Project Brief 1. This involved; 3 Pitches, 20 kids, a few coffees and a focus on PARTICIPATORY approaches to the work and subject matter.
Participatory documentary appears to cover a fairly broad genre or style of content, although the one common theme through what we have studied and read up on so far, is the ability for the participants or subject of the documentary, to be involved in the process that will inevitably shape the outcome and point of view of the documentary. This doesn’t mean that a participatory approach will favour the subject, this is an ethical issue. It’s up to the filmmaker to represent and look after the subjects but as we know, this doesn’t always happen. If the filmmaker believes she is representing someone unfavourably in the attempt to uncover a greater truth, then that’s their objective and the subject can remain unaware throughout the process.
Our pitch ideas are aimed to benefit a wider community or group of people. One of the questions we had to ask ourselves was, “what would they (the subjects/participants/social actors) be getting out of this”? “How will this documentary process benefit them and/or their cause”?
It will be great to see, at the end of this process, who chose what idea, how they approached it, how their subjects responded to it, and whether or not the project really benefited the subjects.
A segment from Bill Nichols’ on interactive documentary in ‘Documentary Modes of Representation’, he says; “Issues of comprehension and interpretation as a function of physical encounter arise: how do filmmaker and social actor respond to each other; do they react to overtones or implications in each other’s speech; do they see how power and desire flow between them?”
In participatory mode where the subject and filmmaker are in constant conversation and dialogue, how do we shape our arguments or start thinking about representing a point of view through this mode of documentary filmmaking? How do we respect and honour our subjects that we are representing at all times and protect them from undesirable judgments or critiques from the outside world. These are considerations that must be understood and mapped out before we embark on these wonderful journeys. With many of us approaching delicate subject matter, I would hope that we carefully consider these possibilities before we proceed.
Wonderful week, looking forward to the next stage of the process!
Fab & Alex