Documentary ethics in contemporary practices. Alternative participation, alternative ethics?

Abstract

Documentary scholars have presupposed a certain documentary practice, and have ethically evaluated this practice, with a focus on the need for protection for a vulnerable and ignorant participant. But times have changed. By researching the experience of ethical challenges by both documentary filmmakers and participants, through both a quantitative and a qualitative project, a practice surfaces in which the participant is committed to and involved in the project; conflict between filmmaker and participant is recurrent, but non-decisive, as communication, trust, and commitment act as a safety-net. Hence, questions about documentary ethics need to address this contemporary practice, rather than a past one.