Hella Solutions blog: "Document. Share. Inspire."

An interesting article was passed along to me the other day about Michael Moore and the whole discussion of how one handles the ethical issues associated with the construction of narrative within the context of nonfiction. I’m sure most readers are aware of the criticisms that Moore has received over the years and discussion around the man and his movies generally bring up very heated debates. Stepping aside of these types of arguments a couple of filmmakers are apparently tackling some of the very real issues associated with Moore’s style of “documentary” through a new film called Manufacturing Dissent. I enjoy Moore’s films but I also think that it’s about time there is some public discussion of ethics and guidelines in the genre. Nonfiction doesn’t have the same freedoms as fiction and even though narrative is always constructed this doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be some rules and guidelines that we stick to while constructing nonfiction stories. And this is where Moore gets into trouble…it’s likely going to be his downfall if he doesn’t take this issue seriously and sit down with other documentarians and discuss the issues at hand. But this is likely to degenerate into a “i love’em” “i hate’em” pontification rather than than forwarding a better understanding and framework for documentary work…the Spectacle continues…

the full story “Michael & Them: Filmmakers Chase Moore” is on the New York Times site.