GETTING STARTED: a selection of resources on ethics in research and filmmaking
ONLINE RESOURCES
Documentary Accountability Working Group
The working group considers guiding values that can inform
the practices of nonfiction filmmakers. For a collection of resources, click here.
For a variety of valuable products on ethics and participatory filmmaking, go to Insight Share, a leader in this field. For a collection of their resources, click here.
International Documentary Association
The IDA provides resources for filmmakers through their Education, Funding and Advocacy programs. For a collection of ethics and contemporary society articles, search: Ethics
Documentary Educational Resources
This website provides a catalogue of great films that represent ethical approaches to documentary filmmaking, including study and discussion guides for several films.
Indigenous-run organization presenter of Indigenous screen content and media arts. Go to their Publications page to find many valuable resources and the On-Screen Protocols & Pathways: A Media Production Guide to Working with First Nations, Métis and Inuit Communities, Cultures, Concepts and Stories.
CODES OF ETHICS
International Society of Ethnobiology
A global, collaborative network working to preserve vital links between human societies and nature. The vision of the ISE is reflected in its Code of Ethics.
Through its programs, the San Institute provides legal, advocacy and other services dedicated to the empowerment of the San peoples. See Trust Project’s San Code of Research Ethics launched by the San communities of South Africa, for fair Research Partnerships.
TOOLS FOR INFORMED CONSENT AND BASIC INTERVIEW SKILLS
WITNESS helps people use video and technology to protect and defend human rights. For a collection of tools for obtaining Informed Consent, Conducting Interviews, Interviewing Basics, Illustrated Guide to Video Advocacy, Video As Evidence, Basic Practices for Capturing Storing and Sharing. Click here
The Video as Evidence Field Guide helps filmmakers use videos to expose abuse and bring about justice.
Using videos in human rights reporting and advocacy: Ethical Guidelines
BLOGS: COMMUNITY POSTS AND FORUMS ON ETHICAL CHALLENGES
Center for Media & Social Impact
Based at the American University’s School of Communication in Washington, D.C., the Center is focused on independent, documentary, entertainment, and public media, producing Resources for the field and academic research, working towards understanding and design of media that matters.
For a study of perceived ethical challenges that documentary filmmakers face, go to: Honest Truths: Documentary Filmmakers on Ethical Challenges in their Work
For a series of resources for filmmakers facing aggressive attacks, go to: Dangerous Documentaries: Resources for Filmmakers. Reducing Risk when Telling Truth to Power
News, information and networking site for independent filmmakers. Source for film and television news, reviews, interviews, global festival coverage and more. Read article on The Ethics of Documentary Filmmaking.
Platform with extensive content and innovative tools for filmmakers. For Templates, Forms, and Resources aimed at Documentary Filmmakers, click here.
Committed to learning by doing, the NYFA provides students with the tools and know-how to apply in the real world. For a collection of Student Resources of Documentary Filmmaking, click here. Read this article on How To Deal With Ethical Challenges In Documentary Filmmaking.
Arts and Law Centre of Australia
Independent, non-profit national, community legal centre for the arts. Arts Law provides legal advice and information on a wide range of arts and issues. See their Legal resources for filmmakers.
Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions
The Center’s research program focuses on ethics in the life sciences and ethical and societal issues of emerging technologies, offering a wide variety of resources such as the Filmmakers for Conservation (FFC) Guiding principles for ethical filmmaking.
Pioneer of responsible healthcare delivery, Unite For Sight also offers resources for Ethics and Filmmaking in Developing Countries.
Independent, nonprofit publisher of commentary and analysis, authored by academics and edited by journalists, addressing contemporary topics. Read this Case study on the film Wolfpack and the ethics of documentary filmmaking.
Film Criticism is a peer-reviewed, online publication that brings together scholarship in the field of cinema and media studies, exploring many issues such as Ethics and Digital Film.
ARTICLES
Aufderheide, P. 1995. The Video In The Villages Project: Vldeomaking With And By Brazilian Indians. Visual Anthropology Review. 11(2): 83-93.
Bakker, K. 2005. The good, the bad, and the documentary. On dentology of representation and ethics. Documentary Box. 24: 1-14.
Cipriani, C. 2014. The Ethics of Documentary Filmmaking. Indie Wire.
Donovan, K. 2008. Tagged: A case study in documentary ethics. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 23, 201–218.
Fullerton, R. S. and Patterson, M.J. 2008. “Killing” the true story of first nations: The ethics of constructing a culture apart. Journal of Mass Media Ethics. 201-218
Ginsburg, F. 2018. Decolonizing Documentary On-Screen and Off Screen: Sensory Ethnography and the Aesthetics of Accountability. Film Quart. 72(1): 39-49.
Lunch, C. 2005. The Most Significant Change: using participatory video for monitoring and evaluation. Participatory learning and action. 56: 28-32.
Ruby, J. 2000. The ethics of image making; or "They're going to put me in the movies. They're going to make a big star of me" in Picturing Culture: Explorations in Film and Anthropology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Salazar, J. F., Córdova, A., Wilson, P., & Stewart, M. 2008. Imperfect media and the poetics of indigenous video in Latin America. In Global Indigenous Media: Cultures, Poetics, and Politics.
Sanders, W. 2010. Documentary filmmaking and ethics: concepts, responsibilities, and the need for empirical research. Mass Communication and Society, 13:5: 528-553.
BOOKS
Anderson, C. and Benson, T.W. 1991. Documentary dilemmas. Friedrick Wisemans’s Titicut Follies. Carbondale/Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press.
Barnow, E. 1993. Documentary. Oxford University Press.
Bernard, S.C. 2007. Documentary Storytelling. Elsevier/Focal Press.
Borland, K. 1991. “That’s not what I said”: Interpretive conflict in oral narrative research. In S. Berger Gluck and D. Patal (Eds), Women’s words: The feminist practice of oral history, pp.63-75. Bosen: Routledge Kegan Paul.
Loizos, P. 1993. Innovations in Ethnographic Film. University of Chicago Press.
Nichols, B. 2001. Introduction to documentary. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Go back to Ethics Resources