Penny Woolcock: Risk and Range in Documentary

This is a short interview with the documentary maker Penny Woolcock that was recorded at Sheffield Doc Fest in 2012.

One thing she mentions that stuck with me is that when making a documentary you have people's lives in your hands and that's what she finds so burdensome and you have to think of the morality that comes with it and how you're going to represent people.
 I think when you get into the process of making a documentary and you're thinking about the shoot and what equipment you're going to need, what you want to film and then how you're going to make a story and edit it, it's easy to forget or put to the back of your mind that actually you are representing other people lives and you are responsible ultimately for what the outside world sees. 
When I was talking to one of my tutors I told him about a dispute that was happening at the refuge and how I was getting told both sides, he said that I should try and film it or at least record it to see if we could use it in the film. 
At first I agreed and thought there could potentially be quite a juicy story here but some of the stuff could have been quite damning to the refuge or a couple of the people. In the end I did manage to dig quite a bit of information out of Pam, the owner, because I do have a relationship with her now where she will talk to me about lots of things. 
Despite having this information for a number of reasons I decided not to use it. One being I couldnt see a place for it in the film anyway as a lot of it was bitching and people slandering each other and this wasn't what my initial aim was and not the story I wanted to tell. Another reason is Penny also says it's about trust between both of you and I wouldn't want to betray someone's trust. Although I perhaps shouldn't let it impact on my films and it is quite bias, I had ties with the refuge before filming as I am a volunteer there and would not want to damage my relationship with the owner. 
Also when I have finished making the film I also want it to be something not only that myself and the crew are happy with and proud of but also the people at the refuge as they have put in the time and effort to help us and let us film there so I want them to feel it is a fair representation of them.

Another point she makes is that she has to be very interested in the subject and that she couldn't do it unless she was really curious everyday about what was going to happen.  
For me that was one of the main things that drew me to doing the film and what was the beauty of it because there is always something going on at the refuge. When you're filming animals and people working with animals, no two days are going to be the same and I was always excited about what shots we were going to get each time and not just of the animals but the people as well. 
The only thing I'm disappointed about is that we weren't able to exploit this to its full potential as obviously we can't go down everyday constantly for 2 weeks and I felt that overall as a group, because we are still learning that our skills have let us down and there have been missed opportunities shot wise and maybe even content/story-wise.

The final point I particularly liked was she said that it's not about looking at other people lives and how different they are from ourselves because we're not that different as each little world makes sense in itself when we make a documentary so it's about sharing and bringing our stories to each other.
I think this is a nice perspective to have, that even though we all might have different lives that we are still all human beings and together are a collective and documentary's job is to just share peoples lives with each other rather than focus on how different we are or aren't.


Penny Woolcock: Risk and Range in Documentary [Internet] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpiBc94P_5M#t=136 - Accessed 22/3/2014