Documentary Ethics

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Documentary Ethics This course explores the ethical stakes and social responsibilities embedded in nonfiction filmmaking. Through a wide range of historical and contemporary texts—with particular emphasis on the last two decades of documentary film production—we examine how documentary filmmakers have represented real people, events, and environments, and how those representations have shaped public understanding, policy, and cultural memory. Moving beyond a simple opposition between fiction and nonfiction, the course investigates how power, consent, authorship, and truth operate in documentary practice. We trace shifting approaches to depicting others, documenting the self, and engaging with the natural world, while considering how these categories are often entangled. Key areas of focus include the legacy of ethnographic film, questions of voice and authorship in personal documentaries, and the ethics of witnessing—especially in the contexts of trauma, activism, and environmental crisis. We also examine legal issues such as fair use and consent, and conclude with a look at how generative AI and emerging technologies are impacting the field. Students will engage with films that provoke critical reflection on what it means to look, to listen, to tell, and to expose. We ask: What does it mean to film another person responsibly? What are the risks of turning the camera on oneself? How do documentaries shape—or distort—collective memory? And what role should ethics play in creative expression? Through screenings, readings, discussion, and special guests, this course offers students the tools to think critically about documentary as both an art form and a mode of ethical inquiry.