Reflexivity, Collaboration and Ethical Documentary Filmmaking: a Practice Led Approach
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Reflexivity, collaboration and ethical documentary filmmaking: a practice led approach. Stephen Thomas (ORCID ID 0000-0001-7121-1719) Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. February 2017 Faculty of the Victorian College of the Arts and Melbourne Conservatorium of Music (VCA & MCM), University of Melbourne, Australia. Abstract This creative practice research concerns reflexivity, collaboration and ethics in authored documentary filmmaking—with a focus on the filmmaker-participant relationship. The written thesis provides a first-hand account and self-reflexive analysis of the production of Freedom Stories, consisting of a feature and six short documentaries. These constitute the creative component of the doctorate and utilise reflexivity in the quest to achieve a more ethical practice. Recent scholarship has questioned the view of documentary participants as powerless in the filmmaking process, recognising their agency in relationships with filmmakers and the reality of consent as a process of ongoing negotiation, in which a right of veto is considered. Taking this as a starting point, I have employed an explicitly collaborative approach through which former asylum seekers were invited to share their stories of arrival, detention, and eventual settlement in Australia. An important aim was to explore how such an attempt to deal with this asymmetrical power relationship between filmmaker and participant might be carried into the creative product itself to render the filmmaking process more transparent. The importance of mutual trust and what it means to sensitively engage with participants was central to this exploration. As Freedom Stories features people from the Middle- East, who have often been negatively represented as the ‘other’ in western commentary, I found the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas to be particularly relevant. This kind of filmmaking depends on the quality of the encounter with participants, and in a way, what I have articulated is a kind of heightened ethics of everyday life—the aim of which is to work for the benefit of the participants, not just the film. This ethical tension permeates the filmmaking process, in which the rounded representation of participants is paramount. In the written thesis, I self-reflexively examine dilemmas experienced during filming and editing, when the processes involved and the imperatives of narrative storytelling tended to work against ethical representation. I also discuss the dilemmas of exploiting personal stories of pain, which are common among asylum seekers. i In experimenting with reflexivity in my filmmaking, I have articulated an approach that incorporates notions of performativity and improvisation. Through analysing the production process, including by means of a Production Journal, I have developed an iterative-reflexive approach to both practice and research. The conclusions reached confirm the centrality of participants in ethical filmmaking; the importance of a collaborative model in which agency is encouraged; the requirements of personal integrity and self-awareness in the filmmaker; and the necessity of ongoing review as a mode of reflexive ethical practice. Such attributes require an environment that encourages their employment, which is not always the case in the film and TV ‘industry’. The viability of this collaborative approach has been demonstrated through applying the ideas enunciated to achieve a more ethical practice, a greater transparency, and what might be termed a redemptive aesthetic, which calls on audiences through the performance of the documentary work to engage in deeper empathy with what really matters—that is, the life experiences of the people whose stories are explored on screen. ii Accompaniments to the Written Thesis As a practice led thesis, this written component is accompanied by Freedom Stories, a documentary project consisting of a feature film (2015, duration 99 minutes) and six short films (2016, total duration 100 minutes), which I directed and co-produced. The written thesis mainly concerns the making of the feature but reference is also made to three of the shorts (marked below with *). It is recommended that, where possible, the feature documentary be viewed in its entirety before reading the thesis, while the shorts referred to can be viewed as optional extras, if available to the reader. The entire suite of documentaries is as follows: Freedom Stories (‘the feature’, 99 mins) Plus: *Aamer’s Story – Someone I’m Trying to Forget (19’) Amin’s Story – Only Sunday Off (13’) *Ferial’s Story – Fighting for my Children (12’) Michael’s Story – A Place to Belong (19’) *Mohsen’s Story – Dreaming of Freedom (23’) Najaf’s Story – We are Guests in this World (19’) Where the reader has access to the Freedom Stories DVD, the feature and all of the shorts will be available for viewing. The DVD is available worldwide via the Freedom Stories website (http://freedomstoriesproject.com/shop/) or Ronin Films (http://www.roninfilms.com.au/feature/13158/freedom-stories.html). For ease of location or review, particular film sequences discussed in the text are identified by reference to the Chapters and More Stories menus on the DVD. For readers who are accessing this thesis through the University of Melbourne Digital Repository,1 the main feature film sequences discussed are provided as separate downloadable files, each also being identified in the text by a number and title (NB: because of distribution arrangements and the nature of the digital depository, the entire film(s) are not available by this means). 1 At https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/. iii Alternatively, readers can view the Freedom Stories feature and shorts in full via streaming from the Ronin Films website (http://www.roninfilms.com.au/feature/13158/freedom-stories.html), or they may be available on request from your educational institution or a library (e.g. via Kanopy – https://www.kanopystreaming.com/product/freedom-stories). NOTE: Although not accompanying this thesis, interested readers may wish to view other examples of my documentary work referred to in the text, namely: Black Man’s Houses (1992) Least Said, Soonest Mended (1999) Welcome to Woomera (2004) Hope (2008) All of the above, except Welcome to Woomera, are available worldwide from Ronin Films, either on DVD or via Vimeo-on-Demand (http://www.roninfilms.com.au). Welcome to Woomera is available from the Australian National Film and Sound Archive (https://www.nfsa.gov.au/) or via Kanopy (https://www.kanopystreaming.com/product/welcome-woomera). NB: All the internet links referred to above were current and active on 1 February 2017. iv Declaration This is to certify that: (i) the thesis comprises only my original work towards the Doctor of Philosophy except where indicated; (ii) due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used; (iii) the thesis is fewer than 50,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, figures, maps, bibliographies, references and appendices. ……………………………………… (Signature of candidate) v Acknowledgements I wish to thank and pay tribute to all of the Freedom Stories participants, named below, who have so generously given of their time and shared their stories—both painful and joyous. Without their trust and wholehearted commitment to the documentary project, there would, of course, be no films worth discussing: Feature Participants: Mustafa and Amir Jawadi Shafiq and Mahdiya Monis Reyhana and Mariam Akhy Amir Javan Sheri, Mohammad, Hamid and Ali Shoari Arif Fayazi Alana Elias Jamila Ahmadi Parviz Avesta Shorts Participants: Najaf Mazari and family Dr Aamer Sultan Mohsen Soltany Zand Michael Aboujundi Ferial and Fatin Al Khil Khali Amin Sherzad Because of the number of participants, I have provided in Appendix A, thumbnail photos and brief background descriptions of each. The reader can refer to these to help identify who’s who. Extra thanks go to those participants who feature in this written thesis and have permitted me to discuss our filmic relationships. I also acknowledge those former asylum seekers who declined to participate in filming but actively supported the project, including Mustafa Najib and Shahin Shafaei. I have learned so much from all of these people and it has been a privilege to collaborate with them. vi Documentary filmmaking is a collaborative effort all round, and I thank the members of the Freedom Stories production team for their commitment, support and creativity— especially producer Lisa Horler, editor Uri Mizrahi, principal cinematographers Philip Bull, Jenni Meaney and Peter Zakharov, and composer Brett Aplin. A full list of the feature credits is attached as Appendix G. Appreciation is also due to the members of the Freedom Stories Advisory Panel (see feature credits for details) and to those individuals and organisations that provided financial assistance to the production. Here I acknowledge the support of Screen Australia, Film Victoria, Bokhara Foundation, John T. Reid Charitable Trusts, R.E. Ross Trust, Scanlon Foundation, Victorian Multicultural Commission, Amnesty International and the University of Melbourne, as well as the Documentary Australia Foundation and Creative Partnerships Australia, which both provide mechanisms for channeling philanthropic grants to films. Dr James Oliver, formerly of the Centre for Cultural Partnerships at the Faculty of the VCA & MCM, has been my primary supervisor throughout the five years it has taken to complete this Doctorate. I cannot thank James enough