Graduate Student Presentation

1. Documentary and Collaboration:
Placing the Camera in the Community
BY ELIZABETH COFFMAN
Taylor Davis
Missouri State University
MPS - Sports Management

2. Summary
This article explores the idea of collaborative documentary work through the study of four filmmakers - two
professional and two academic.
Questions posed for each case study are as follows…
- How do instructors teach documentary students collaborative media skills that go beyond the classical production techniques
for film and television?
- How do filmmakers assist community groups with telling their own stories in ways that benefit both parties?
- To what extent should filmmakers collaborate on content ideas or review material with community members?
- Should filmmakers assist community members with basic technology training or with putting media tools into the hands of
their subjects?
- How is collaborative documentary filmmaking a learning tool for issues of race, class, injustice, and opportunity?

3. - The article dives into how to develop documentaries through collaboration. Collaboration is a
necessity amongst production crew, partnerships, and communities.
- The article utilized has a focus directed mostly towards the collaborative nature between
filmmakers and the communities in which the stories/issues originate.
- The piece addresses the challenges that can come about with collaborative projects. The four
case studies are used to help better understand how to navigate these issues.
- Each challenge addresses real issues that must be addressed in the production of
documentaries.
- The negligence in ignoring these challenges impacts the integrity of the final productions.

4. Challenge 1: Media Is Not the Greatest Public Service Need for the Community
- Some view the direct media approach as a “quick fix”. This inhibits the community involvement for the social
issue being addressed.
- Community leaders claim media projects, such as documentaries, can take the place of certain activities that
can spark change.
- A media based project takes away from the social service.
- A lack of community involvement can impact the authenticity of the project.
- One of the case studies addresses this problem by using undergraduates to provide video training skills,
document significant events and speakers, and arrange screenings for the community.
- Providing outlets such as this aids in the trust amongst the collaborative parties (film students and community).

5. Challenge 2: Content Control? Who's in Charge?
- Sometimes when collaborating with a community the filmmaker and members within may have differing views on the
content that is vital to the story.
- The question regarding who possesses the most control gets difficult once the direct cinema approach is abandoned.
- Finding stories and gaining trust can only be accomplished through public screenings and meetings with community
members and liaisons. This relinquishes some control to the community.
- One case study discusses the challenges they faced when producing a film on public housing. During a previous
production on the same issues high school students within the community were prohibited to discuss the issue for the
production company by the housing commissioner. The members within the study approached the community with a
more collaborative sense and were allowed the perspective of the students. Once it became clear to the community
that their interests were being taken into consideration, more control was released back to the filmmakers.
*Direct Cinema Approach: Capturing everything as it happens. Sometime referred to as the “fly on the wall” approach.

6. Challenge 3: Filmmaking Is Easy
- This challenge addresses the misconception that producing a documentary is simple due to society's easy
access to cameras and the abundance of social media platforms in which they can be uploaded and shared.
- To properly and authentically address the issues being presented in a project there must take place,
appropriate editing, storyboarding, and transcribing. This requires collaboration.
- The academic case study working with the Public Housing project possessed the equipment and knowledge to
help produce a piece worthy of telling the stories the community members had.
- With this a certain level of time commitment is necessary. This must be understood by all collaborative parties.

7. Challenge 4: Empathy versus Objectivity?
- Empathy and objectivity are crucial in producing pieces that are addressing social issues within communities.
- Each area is interconnected to issues of race, class, and history, which can provide collaborative learning
opportunities for film students. However, more often than not, groups of these students exist within fairly
narrow parameters of difference. This is why collaboration with communities is crucial. It provides a necessary
perspective.
- Collaboration such as this forces students to address issues they normally wouldn’t be confronted with.
- Empathy is needed to gain a realistic view on the issues at hand, however, objectivity is necessary to produce a
genuine project.
- Identifying community liaisons can help bridge this gap.

8. Challenge 5: Who owns material?
- The article presents the idea that there are many different kinds of ownership within collaborative media
productions.
- Community members can and should claim appropriate forms of "ownership" as facilitators, advisors, or
coproducers or in additional camera roles or postproduction roles. In turn, these individual should be awarded tax
write-offs, screening profits, donations, and educational supplements amongst other benefits.
- It is crucial for all of these potential implications and/or benefits to be within a written contract.
- The production can also be viewed as a tangible benefit. With this the communities stories can be shared for
generations to come through their own representation.

9. Conclusion
- Documentaries, when lacking a collaborative approach, may be viewed as a unrealistic “quick fix”. However,
projects that pursue the input and help of the communities within contain a more authentic final product.
- Control may be difficult to give up, but in order to produce a authentic piece, as stated above, collaboration is
necessary and collaboration requires that release.
- Filmmaking is not easy. In order for a quality project to be produced, one that the community would be proud of,
individuals with a knowledge of filmmaking are a necessity.
- Empathy versus objectivity is a difficult balance. But it is vital that this balance be found to maintain the integrity
of the film. This balance is also a crucial discovery for film students.
- Designating ownership is a difficult conversation. But with proper collaboration, respect is found within both
parties and that makes the discussion easier.

10. Reference
Coffman, Elizabeth (2009). Documentary and Collaboration: Placing the Camera in
the Community. Journal of Film and Video, Vol. 61, No.1 (SPRING 2009), pp.
62-78

11. Discussion Questions
1. The article reveals five challenges that collaborating parties must face when producing a documentary. As
a filmmaker entering a community, with a desire for their story to accurately be told, which of the
challenges do you feel would be the hardest to overcome and why?
1. Challenge 3 discusses the overwhelming idea that filmmaking, especially within the genre of
documentaries, is easy. As a filmmaker, how do you address this fallacy with the community in which you
are working? How do you help them better understand the value you, as a professional, bring to the telling
of their story?
1. One of the cases studies, addressing public housing, spoke to their collaboration with high school students
within the community. They used these students to gain their perspective on the issue at hand. As
filmmaker how would you convince these young people that their input and perspective is vital to the
production?