Constructing Reality: A Practical Pedagogy of Documentary Ethics

Documentary has gained in popularity over the last 20 years, but its current status as entertainment brings challenges as well as opportunities. For teachers of documentary production, questions around the interplay of ethics and aesthetics, and the nature of the relationship between filmmakers, their subjects, and audiences are of critical importance.

This chapter explores how the engagement of filmmaking students with subjects and fellow students whose opinions differ from their own can be a valuable contribution to their ethical education.

This chapter derives from my experience of teaching documentary to film students at Westminster University from 2007 to 2019. I reflect on the methods of teaching
techniques of observational filmmaking that I developed with colleagues, and explore concerns around the risk of students becoming reluctant to engage with vulnerable subjects and challenging subject matter.

The ethical landscape is addressed through a contemplation of students’ evolving attitudes towards ‘difficult’ subject matters (for instance, death and religion) and to vulnerable subjects, particularly as questions of identity become increasingly central
to cultures around the world. This is supported by brief case studies exemplifying the development, production, and reception of student films that engage with these areas.

Our aim was to encourage students to discover the creative potential and excitement of observational documentary, and to help them develop the knowledge and confidence to negotiate conflicting responsibilities while creating engaging and thought-provoking films. What also emerged is the rich potential that documentary filmmaking itself holds as a tool for learning to think about ethics.