After reading the pieces posted to the documentary as action blog and watching Struggle Street I came up with a few ethical concerns for my documentary idea about the Friends of the Point Lonsdale Lighthouse Reserve. My main concern was about the representation of the Queenscliff council as from my initial communications with the FOTPLLR I have deduced that they don’t have much nice to say about the council, which I think is unfair to claim as they do a lot for the towns even if they’re taking this development too far, I just think it would be unfair or unethical to create a completely negative representation of the Queenscliff council. To get over this issue I’d have to try and get my interview subjects to include some positive discussions about the council, or alternatively interview members of the council, which I’d rather not do not want to do as I initially planned on making this documentary for the purpose of creating publicity material for the FOTPLLR, not as a general documentary about the lighthouse reserve. However I am willing to change that element of the documentary depending on what the FOTPLLR are happy with.
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You make an interesting point about ethics here. When making documentary you don’t need to show both perspectives of a story. Rather than getting them to include positive aspects or asking the “other side” for input, you can use the interviewing process to present alternative perspectives and ask your interviewees about these perspectives. This will show that you have considered other sides the story.
Again it comes down to the purpose and why make it. If it’s a promotional video, it’s a certain approach to sell their ideas and cause. If it’s more open, you go in with a bit more of an investigative approach. Or a poetic approach might show the place from multiple perspectives and aesthetic possibilities.