VIDEO RESOURCE PACKET: best practice in ethical film-making
ONLINE RESOURCES
INFORMED CONSENT AND DOCUMENTARY TECHNIQUE
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
BEST PRACTICE IN DOCUMENTARY
The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School created Journalists Resource, an open-access online reference desk for journalists. See article: Best practices for documentary filmmakers and journalistic video work: Research on risks, resources which addresses the report from American University’s Center for Media and Social Impact on Dangerous Documentaries.
ETHICAL CHALLENGES IN FILMMAKING
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 the understanding and design of media that matter.
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
PARTICIPATORY VIDEO AND CASE STUDIES
The Video4Change Network is a consortium of organizations that draw upon communications technologies for human rights, social justice, and environmental change. Their website offers a range of valuable Resources for filmmakers and a Video For Change Impact Toolkit available for download.
For a variety of valuable products on ethics and participatory filmmaking, go to https://insightshare.org, a leader in this field. For a collection of their resources, click here.
ETHICS AND CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY ARTICLES
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
MEDIA ORIENTATION DOCUMENTS
Nonprofit organization that works on supporting indigenous communities in protecting their culturally significant, ancestral lands, in the Native American territory of Bears Ears (Utah). They have created a Media Orientation Document which contains Reporter guidelines and Recommended Terms for media coverage.
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.
NEWS LETTER WITH RESOURCES FOR FILMMAKING
Through the LEF Moving Image Fund, the office supports the creation of new work by documentary filmmakers living in New England and identifies and funds projects proactively. Subscribe to their newsletter for resources aimed at regional filmmakers.
CATALOGUE OF FILMIC APPROACHES TO 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.
FILM INDUSTRY DISCUSSIONS ON ETHICS
Online documentary discussion group - not entirely ethics focused.
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. Read article about the Code, in the Smithsonian magazine.
Indigenous Peoples’ Health Research Centre
The IPHRC is a partnership between the First Nations University of Canada and the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, to develop capacity for community-based Indigenous health research in Saskatchewan and to create networks of Indigenous health researchers. Read IPHRC report on Ethics of Research Involving Indigenous Peoples.
SAMPLE CONSENT AND RESOURCES FOR CREATORS
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
Platform with extensive content and innovative tools for filmmakers. For Templates, Forms, and Resources aimed at Documentary Filmmakers, click here.
The Video4Change Network is a consortium of organizations that draw upon communications technologies for human rights, social justice, and environmental change. Their website offers a range of valuable Resources for filmmakers and a Video For Change Impact Toolkit available for download.
BLOGS AND FORUMS
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.
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.
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. 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 verity 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.
Opinion piece on the feature Documentary Free Solo.
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.
Bech, L. 2015. What documentary filmmakers and journalists can learn from each other: A report seeks to promote dialogue between the two groups.
Benatar, S.R., Singer, P.A. 2010. Responsibilities in international research: a new look revisited. Journal of Medical Ethics 36:194-197.
Centre for Media and Social Impact. 2009. Honest Truths: Documentary Filmmakers on Ethical Challenges in their Work.
Cinema Politica: Screening Truth to Power. 2015. Assessing Documentary Impact: Three New Resources.
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.
Fitzpatrick, K. 2017. Research ethics versus ethical approval: A response to Tomaselli. The Ethnographic Edge 1(1): 21-22.
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.
Grasser, S., Schunko, C. and Vogl, C.R. 2016. Children as ethnobotanists: methods and local impact of a participatory research project with children on wild plant gathering in the Grosses Walsertal Biosphere Reserve, Austria. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine. 12(46):2-16.
House, D.R., Marete, I. and Meslin, E.M. 2016. To research (or not) that is the question: ethical issues in research when medical care is disrupted by political action: a case study from Eldoret, Kenya. Journal of Medical Ethics 42:61–65.
Kluger, J. 2015. Is it ethical to leave uncontacted tribes alone?
Lipari, L. 2009. Listening otherwise: The voice of ethics. International Journal of Listening 23(1): 44–59.
Lunch, C. 2005. The Most Significant Change: using participatory video for monitoring and evaluation. Participatory learning and action. 56: 28-32.
Maccarone, E. 2010. Ethical responsibilities to subjects and documentary filmmaking. Journal of Mass Media Ethics 25:192–206.
Nash, K. 2010. Exploring power and trust in documentary: A study of Tom Zubrycki’s Molly and Mobarak. Studies in Documentary Film 4(1): 21–33.
Nash, K. 2009. Beyond the frame: A study in observational documentary ethics. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of New England, Armidale.
Ouwe Missi Oukem-Boyer, O., Munung, N.S., and Tangwa, G.B. 2016. Small is beautiful: demystifying and simplifying standard operating procedures: a model from the ethics review and consultancy committee of the Cameroon Bioethics Initiative. BMC Medical Ethics 17:27.
Plantinga, C. 1997. Rhetoric and representation in nonfiction film. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Ravinetto, R., Tinto, H., Diro, E., Okebe, J., Mahendradhata, Y., Rijal, S., Gotuzzo, E., Lutumba, P., Nahum, A., De Nys, K., Casteels, M. and Boelaert, M. 2016. It is time to revise the international Good Clinical Practices guidelines: recommendations from non- commercial North–South collaborative trials. BMJ Global Health 1(3): e000122. doi:10.1136/ bmjgh-2016-000122.
Resnik, D.B. 2015. What is Ethics in Research & Why is it Important? National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Resnik, D.B. 2017. Research Ethics Timeline (1932-Present). National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Rosenthal, A. 1980. The documentary conscience: A casebook in film making. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Rouch, J. 2003. Cine-Ethnography. University of Minnesota.
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.
Russell, C. 1999. Experimental Ethnography. Duke University 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.
Saxton, L. 2007. Fragile faces: Levinas and Lanzmann. Film-Philosophy 11(2): 1–14.
Sixsmith, J and Murray, C.D. 2001. Pearls, Pith and Provocation - Ethical Issues in Documentary Data Analysis of Internet Posts and Archives. Qualitative Health Research 11(2):423-432
Stubbs, L. 2002. Documentary filmmakers speak. New York, NY: Allworth Press.
Tomaselli, K.G. 2014. Who Owns What? Indigenous Knowledge and Representation. Critical Arts 28(4).
Tomaselli, K.G. 2017. Ethical Procedures? A Critical Intervention: The sacred, the profane, and the planet. The Ethnographic Edge 1(1):3-16.
Tomaselli, K.G. 2017. Research Ethics in the Kalahari: Issues, Contradictions and Concerns. Critical Arts 30(6).
Weys, D, J. 2017. Responsible Filmmaking: ethics and spectatorship through the lens of Michael Haneke. Masters Dissertation.
Wihbey, J. 2015. Best practices for documentary filmmakers and journalistic video work: Research on risks and resources. Journalist’s Resource.
Wiles, R., Prosser, J., Bagnoli, A., Clark, A., Davies, K., Holland, S. and Renold, E. 2008. Visual Ethics: Ethical Issues in Visual Research. National Centre for Research Methods.
Winston, B. 2000. Lies, damn lies and documentaries. London, England: BFI Publishing.
BOOKS
Anderson, C. and Benson, T.W. 1988. Direct Cinema and the myth of informed consent: The case of Titicut Follies. In L. Gross, J.S. Katz & J. Ruby (Eds), Image ethics: The moral sights of subjects in photographs, film and television, pp.58-90. New York: Oxford University Press.
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.
Cooper, S. 2006. Selfless cinema? Ethics and French documentary. London, England: Legenda.
Hardison, P. and Banister, K. 2011. Ethics in Ethnobiology: History, International Law and Policy, and Contemporary Issues. In Anderson, E, N., Pearsall, D., Hunn, E., and Turner, N. 2011. Ethnobiology. Wiley-Blackwell.
Hill, A. 2008. Documentary modes of engagement. In T. Austin and W. deJong (Eds.), Rethinking documentary: New perspectives, New practices, pp.204–217. Berkshire, England: Open University Press.
Huber, B. Communicative aspects of participatory video projects An exploratory study. Masters Thesis. Department of Rural Development Studies Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
Katz, J. 2003. Family film: Implications for consent. In L. Gross, J. Katz, and J. Ruby (Eds.), Image ethics in the digital age, pp.327–342. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Loizos, P. 1993. Innovations in Ethnographic Film. University of Chicago Press.
Nichols, B. 2001. Introduction to documentary. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Nichols, B. 1991. Representing reality: Issues and concepts in documentary. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Plantinga, C. 1997. Rhetoric and representation in nonfiction film. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Pryluck, C. 2005. Ultimately, we are all outsiders: The ethics of documentary filming. In A. Rosenthal and J. Corner (Eds.), New challenges for documentary (2nd ed., pp.194–209). Manchester, NY: Manchester University Press.
Renov, M. 2004. The subject of documentary. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Rouch, J. 2003. Cine-Ethnography. University of Minnesota.
Russell, C. 1999. Experimental Ethnography. Duke University Press.
MASTER BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anderson, C. and Benson, T.W. 1988. Direct Cinema and the myth of informed consent: The case of Titicut Follies. In L. Gross, J.S. Katz and J. Ruby (Eds), Image ethics: The moral sights of subjects in photographs, film and television, pp.58-90. New York: Oxford University Press
Anderson, C. and Benson, T.W. 1991. Documentary dilemmas. Friedrick Wisemans’s Titicut Follies. Carbondale/Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press.
Aufderheide, P., Jaszi, O. and Chandra, M. 2009. Honest Truths: Documentary filmmakers on ethical challenges in their work. Washington, DC: Center for Social Media, American University. Download here.
Bakker, K. 2005. The good, the bad, and the documentary. On dentology of representation and ethics. Documentary Box 24:1-14. Download here.
Barnow, E. 1993. Documentary. Oxford University Press.
Bernard, S, C. 2007. Documentary Storytelling. Elsevier/Focal Press.
Benatar, S.R., Singer, P.A. 2010. Responsibilities in international research: a new look revisited. Journal of Medical Ethics 36:194-197.
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.
Cinema Politica: Screening Truth to Power. 2015. Assessing Documentary Impact: Three New Resources. Download here.
Cipriani, C. 2014. The Ethics of Documentary Filmmaking. Download here.
Cooper, S. 2006. Selfless cinema? Ethics and French documentary. London, England: Legenda
Donovan, K. 2008. Tagged: A case study in documentary ethics.
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, 23, 201–218.
Fitzpatrick, K. 2017. Research ethics versus ethical approval: A response to Tomaselli. The Ethnographic Edge 1(1):21-22.
Grasser, S., Schunko, C. and Vogl, C.R. 2016. Children as ethnobotanists: methods and local impact of a participatory research project with children on wild plant gathering in the Grosses Walsertal Biosphere Reserve, Austria. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 12(46):2-16. Download here.
Ginsburg, F. 2018. Decolonizing Documentary On-Screen and Off Screen: Sensory Ethnography and the Aesthetics of Accountability. Film Quart 72(1):39-49. Download here.
Hardison, P. and Banister, K. 2011. Ethics in Ethnobiology: History, International Law and Policy, and Contemporary Issues. In Anderson, E, N., Pearsall, D., Hunn, E., and Turner, N. 2011. Ethnobiology. Wiley-Blackwell.
Hill, A. 2008. Documentary modes of engagement. In T. Austin and W. deJong (Eds.), Rethinking documentary: New perspectives, New practices, pp.204–217. Berkshire, England: Open University Press.
Katz, J. 2003. Family film: Implications for consent. In L. Gross, J. Katz, and J. Ruby (Eds.), Image ethics in the digital age, pp.327–342. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
House, D.R., Marete, I. and Meslin, E.M. 2016. To research (or not) that is the question: ethical issues in research when medical care is disrupted by political action: a case study from Eldoret, Kenya. Journal of Medical Ethics 42:61–65.
Levinas, E. 1998. Entre-Nous: On-thinking-of-the-other (M.B. Smith and B. Harshav, Trans.). New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
Lipari, L. 2009. Listening otherwise: The voice of ethics. International Journal of Listening 23(1):44–59.
Maccarone, E.2010. Ethical responsibilities to subjects and documentary filmmaking. Journal of Mass Media Ethics 25:192–206.
Loizos, P. 1993. Innovations in Ethnographic Film. University of Chicago Press.
Nash, K. 2010. Exploring power and trust in documentary: A study of Tom Zubrycki’s Molly and Mobarak. Studies in Documentary Film 4(1), 21–33.
Nash, K. 2009. Beyond the frame: A study in observational documentary ethics. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of New England, Armidale.
Nichols, B. 2001. Introduction to documentary. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Nichols, B. 1991. Representing reality: Issues and concepts in documentary. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Ouwe Missi Oukem-Boyer, O., Munung, N.S., and Tangwa, G.B. 2016. Small is beautiful: demystifying and simplifying standard operating procedures: a model from the ethics review and consultancy committee of the Cameroon Bioethics Initiative. BMC Medical Ethics 17:27.
Plantinga, C. 1997. Rhetoric and representation in nonfiction film. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Pryluck, C. 2005. Ultimately we are all outsiders: The ethics of documentary filming. In A. Rosenthal and J. Corner (Eds.), New challenges for documentary (2nd ed., pp. 194–209). Manchester, NY: Manchester University Press.
Ravinetto, R., Tinto, H., Diro, E., Okebe, J., Mahendradhata, Y., Rijal, S., Gotuzzo, E., Lutumba, P., Nahum, A., De Nys, K., Casteels, M. and Boelaert, M. 2016. It is time to revise the international Good Clinical Practices guidelines: recommendations from non- commercial North–South collaborative trials. BMJ Global Health 1(3). Download here.
Renov, M. 2004. The subject of documentary. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Resnik, D.B. 2015. What is Ethics in Research and Why is it Important? National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Resnik, D.B. 2017. Research Ethics Timeline (1932-Present). National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Rosenthal, A. 1980. The documentary conscience: A casebook in film making. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Rouch, J. 2003. Cine-Ethnography. University of Minnesota.
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.
Russell, C. 1999. Experimental Ethnography. Duke University Press
Sanders, W. 2010. Documentary Filmmaking and Ethics: Concepts, Responsibilities and the need for Empirical Research, Mass Communication and Society 13(5):528-553.
Saxton, L. 2007. Fragile faces: Levinas and Lanzmann. Film-Philosophy 11(2):1–14.
Sixsmith, J and Murray, C.D. 2001. Pearls, Pith and Provocation - Ethical Issues in Documentary Data Analysis of Internet Posts and Archives. Qualitative Health Research 11(2):23-432.
Stubbs, L. 2002. Documentary filmmakers speak. New York, NY: Allworth Press.
Tomaselli, K.G. 2014: Who Owns What? Indigenous Knowledge and Representation. Critical Arts 28(4).
Tomaselli, K.G. 2017. Ethical Procedures? A Critical Intervention: The sacred, the profane, and the planet. The Ethnographic Edge 1(1):3-16.
Tomaselli, K.G. 2017. Research Ethics in the Kalahari: Issues, Contradictions and Concerns. Critical Arts 30(6).
Weys, D, J. 2017. Responsible filmmaking: ethics and spectatorship through the lens of Michael Haneke. Masters Dissertation.
Wihbey, J. 2015. Best practices for documentary filmmakers and journalistic video work: Research on risks and resources. Download here.
Wiles, R., Prosser, J., Bagnoli, A., Clark, A., Davies, K., Holland, S. and Renold, E. 2008. National Centre for Research Methods. Download here.
Winston, B. 2000. Lies, damn lies and documentaries. London, England: BFI Publishing.
Go back to Ethics Resources