Ethics and Documentary
"Ethics" is a short word with many meanings. Ethics refers to what is right and what is wrong in particular contexts.
In documentary production, ethics centers on the ideas of truth(s) and how those ideas intersect with participants, audiences, and objectivity.
Participant Permission
Participant permission, or participant consent, refers to documentary makers gaining an agreement from their interviewees and using their interviewees' words and images in good faith. While the consent agreement allows documentary makers to use the materials as they see fit, ethics dictates that they represent people and their situations as realistically as possible and not use that footage or comments to support other ideas out of context.
One example of this comes from Peter Davis' Hearts and Minds. Walt Rostow attempted to halt the release of the film because he felt Davis had misrepresented him.
Another more general example is the idea that some participants get from even being on camera or in a documentary. They get a sense that this might be their ticket to fame and fortune, their big break in Hollywood. The makers are responsible for informing their subjects to potential outcomes of the documentary.
Audiences
Just as documentary makers have an obligation to their subjects, they also have ethical obligations to their audiences. Audiences expect documentaries to show some kind of reality. Documentary makers then must not skew details or evidence in order to make an argument or idea more convincing. Audiences will feel a sense of betrayal to find out otherwise.
One example of this comes from Michael Moore's Roger & Me. Moore constructs the entire film around the idea of trying to get an interview with General Motors president Roger Smith so he can ask Smith about the declining conditions in Flint because of the plant closures. The documentary Manufacturing Dissent, however, offers an interview with Smith, who says he did consent to the interview and Moore did not take him up on it.
Another more general example comes from using re-enactments without labeling them as such. From style or title, re-enactments should be clearly marked.
Objectivity
Objectivity refers to a documentary maker maintaining a critical distance from the subject under representation and offering a balanced perspective on it. This idea of objectivity draws from journalistic practices in newsgathering, which demands that reporters not possess any personal connections to the people in the story or to the subject at hand. The ethics here lies in the ideas that such neutrality hides power structures and offers an impossible ideal to which to hold documentary standards. Instead, documentary makers need to bring forward their relationships to subjects and productions, such as personal connections or interests.
Errol Morris' Standard Operating Procedure offers an interesting example here. Morris paid his subjects to appear in the documentary and talk about taking the photos of the prisoners. Had Morris remained quiet about paying the interviewees, the documentary might have appeared more objective. By bringing forward the payments, Morris reveals some power exchanges at work.
Some makers, however, would consider paying a subject to appear in a documentary unethical altogether. In paying them, subjects might just tell makers what they want to hear, instead of saying what they really want to say.
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