They’re all cases where filmmakers have needed to seek permission from people to enter their private spaces or circumstances and make films about them. The issues that emerge run parallel to those that arise between journalists and those they interview on the record, and each of the situations is what one might classify as “in the public interest”.
Jesse Friedman in Subject, which explores the relationships between documentary filmmakers and their participants. One of the films in Subject is the 2003 HBO documentary Capturing the Friedmans, about the child molestation charges made against Jesse and his father Arnold.On the other hand, it also draws attention to how lives can be empowered by individuals’ appearances in documentaries.
“During shooting, he was very nice and very open,” the director recalls. “We had the keys of the school and he prepared coffee every morning for us. There was a great trust between us and it was a very nice adventure for us, for him, for the children. And then suddenly, a few months before the release – before the release and not after the success – we discovered something absolutely new.