The Ethics of Documentary Film - by Agnieszka Piotrowska (Hardcover)

About the Book

A comprehensive re-examination of the ethics versus history and knowledge debate within documentary film.

Book Synopsis

Documentary film has been an important vehicle to interrogate the world since the inception of film more than a hundred years ago. The Ethics of Documentary Film reformulate some of the foundational notions in documentary films studies and practice, relating to archive and the production of knowledge. Published in a particular moment in time, post pandemic and in the middle of the climate change debates and the traumas of new conflicts in the world, it gives voice to all of the important contemporary debates and offers ideas about different international approaches to documentary. With particular focus on the question of to what extent a documentary film can be defined as an ethical project, the various contributions look at issues of history, the hidden stories, and issues of the ethics of representation to provide new insights into the role documentary film can play within society.

Review Quotes

In an age of fakery and bombast, the documentary film has taken on an ever-greater weight and responsibility. Where matters of Truth and Beauty may once have reigned, nothing now matters more than the Good. Does what we make and watch help or harm? Who benefits - maker, subject, sponsor? Who is silenced? Can ethics be situational, variable owing to historical and cultural context? These questions and more provide the focus for this long overdue study of ethics in documentary film. Broadly conceived and elegantly curated by Agnieszka Piotrowska, by turns philosophical and pragmatic, the volume boasts a truly global reach in its shared obsession with the ethical questions that should haunt all those who care about nonfiction film.-- "Michael Renov, University of Southern California"

This visionary book renews inquiry into the ethics of documentary showing careful attention to theory and criticism as well to the quandaries of film practice. Its beautifully conceived sections hold chapters from authorities in the field and newer writers, offering live engagement with gender, race, trauma and ecology, amongst other issues. Movingly it is dedicated to the memory of Patricia Zimmermann, who is also an inspiration in its pages.-- "Emma Wilson, University of Cambridge"