The Ethical Tension Between Artistic Expression and Historical Representation in Documentary Making: The Filmmaker’s Mediation with Reality

摘要

This article emerges from the assumption thatrepresenting reality in documentary raises specificcomplex ethical issues. This is due to the fact thatdocumenting an event partly results from thefilmmaker’s mediation with the historical world. Thechoices involved in this process are subjective, biasedand creative. In fact, representing reality results from aparticular tension established between that which Irepresent and how I represent it. From this tensionseveral ethical issues with regard to the filmmaker’smediation with reality may emerge. This paper aims torevise and confront key literature on this subject todiscuss and deconstruct the process of mediationand the ethical issues involved in this process. Thekey questions to answer are: What role doesmediation plays in representing reality? What ethicalissues may emerge from this process? Do filmmakersexplore “others” to satisfy their own personal needs asartists? Is it possible to control or regulate filmmakers’mediation with reality? Can we develop a set ofparameters or strategies that can be consideredethically more appropriate for representing the world?