2022 Based on a True Story Dispatch

Non-fiction cinema has been growing in popularity recently due to the accessibility that the medium creates, and the innovative VR and Camera technologies that are utilized to make films such as Sundance and True/False selected I Didn't See You There (directed by Reid Davenport), and We Met in Virtual Reality (directed by Joe Hunting) happen. However, despite the advancements and soaring viewership in the medium, it has not erased long-term problems in documentary ethics, the overlooked artistry in documentaries, treatment of the on-screen participants, and the specific ways mainstream society views documentaries. While recognizing all of its possibilities positively and negatively, featured filmmakers, film journalists, and journalist scholars break down these topics in the 10th Based on a True Story Conference, a collaborative program founded in 2012 between the University of Missouri (specifically MU's School of Visual Studies and Jonathan B. Murray Center for Documentary Journalism) and Ragtag Film Society. 

The main ethical problems of documentary filmmaking were addressed in the panel "Holding Documentary Film Accountable: The True, the False, and Everything Else." The panel featured research and historian perspectives from MIT Open Documentary Lab researcher and film writer Abby Sun, Center for Media & Social Impact members Patricia Aufderheide (American University Professor) and Marissa Woods (American University MFA Student), and the filmmaking point of views from filmmaker Kristal Sotomayor (upcoming Expanding Sanctuary) and filmmaker Kevin Shaw (T/F's and SXSW EDU's Let the Little Light Shine).

Aufderheide and Woods unveiled their findings of the concerns of the medium as stated in their co-authored CMSI's 2021 report The State of Journalism on the Documentary Filmmaking Scene. While you can read the full report here, the main emphasis is that there are issues with working conditions, participant care, accuracy in fact-checking, funding for documentaries, and the lack of Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion in front of and behind the camera in both. They revealed how people trust documentaries more than other news sources. These viewers feel more interested in learning from the manipulated storytelling in reality TV series such as Tiger King and not verifying other factual places of real-life events. Due to the popularity of docs, it has become a click-and-like-driven business, and it can exclude detailed analysis and investigative writing. They also mention how funding from films can create a conflict of interest from a journalistic standpoint, such as Verizon funded Without a Net (2017), "where the film does not disclose Verizon's interest in e-rate or conflicting views about how that fund is managed" as stated in the report, as well as the lack of Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion, in front of and behind the camera that perpetuates the types of films that are on displayed and misrepresentation in mass media.

This is where Sun comes in as a past True/False programmer, current Doc Yard curator, and media historian. She speaks more about her 2022 Sundance critic’s notebook that highlights the controversy stemming from Sundance 2022 selected Jihad Rehab (a film that perpetuates nation-based racism and Islamophobia from director Meg Smaker's unethical mistreatment of the on-screen people involved in the film), as well as unveiling the history of Sundance previously selecting unethical films that create real-life harm. In her findings, Sun states that every accredited journalist at Sundance has different levels of accreditation and that each writer deals with censorship from a Sundance representative. So, unfortunately, she had to pay to see that film like the public. Thankfully, with Filmmaker Magazine's support, she will not go through many repercussions on speaking out in the industry and revealed that Cinetic media pays people to write reviews and press kits for their films, which implies how an agenda and goal of a director perpetuates through Jihad Rehab reviews. 

Then, Shaw and Sotomayor share their experiences in making films while having these things in mind. Sotomayor uses their work in various fields to speak out against the discrimination they face in the industry. Before being an Awards Competition Manager for the International Documentary Association, Programming Director for the Philadelphia Latino Film Festival, among other roles, they questioned being a film journalist after having a racist and misogynist professor shutting her out for a critique of a film where the film’s White director exploited Indigenous people. Despite that event, they highlight the importance of films' sociology in its making. As someone with power in exhibiting and recognizing stories, they make multiple decisions on supporting stories while discussing the art aesthetics and acknowledging who is behind the camera.

Shaw explained that he made Let the Little Light Shine for the National Teachers Academy community after CPS officials overlooked them, despite having a highly excelled academic program. He wants to uplift the people that are in his works. The panel also revealed how participants in Kartemquin films (Minding the Gap, Hoop Dreams, etc.) are paid through a model of the participants' screen time and words spoken. It shows how Kartemquin makes stories to give light to communities instead of making decisions for money and achievement. It also wants to allow the featured participants to keep their lives going. Despite the initiative, the model should not have to factor in one's exposure in the film itself. It should also include the participants’ press stipend and public media appearances. To be clear, they didn't mention if the model is a one-time payment for the participants and that there needs to be a donation fund for the afterlife of a film, as Gnarlybay provided a donation fund for Barbie "Gangster Granni" Carter, a participant in their LA Times-acquired short doc After Skid Row.

While the work needs to be done and there should be an objective line between filmmaker and featured people in docs at times, there are also moments where the participants need agency in the making of the film within their collaboration with the director. This is weaved in from the remaining panels “Creative Freedom, Collaboration, and Care” featuring director Isabel Castro (Mija), editor Ora Dekornfeld (Mija), editor Todd Chandler (I Didn’t See You There) and producer Keith Wilson (I Didn’t See You There), “How We Met in Virtual Reality: An IRL Workshop” featuring director Joe Hunting (We Met in Virtual Reality) and VR community ASL teacher Jenny (participant featured in We Met in Virtual Reality), “Playing Roles: Drama Therapy and Theatricality in Documentary” featuring director Robert Greene (Procession), drama therapist Monica Phinney (a participant featured in Procession) and director Eliane Rehab (Miguel’s War), and the screenings/discussions of Oscar-nominated Three Songs for Benazir (directed by Elizabeth and Gulistan Mirzaei) and Reid Davenport’s short films. 

In the Collaboration panel, Dekornfeld and Castro mention that they push, learn, and challenge each other after working together on several projects. Castro said she was initially hesitant to bring Mija participant Doris Munoz (Jacks Haunt's music manager) in the post-production phase as a music supervisor. She was afraid that showing things too early in the making would affect her on-camera appearance. In addition, coming from a journalistic background, she did not interact with past on-screen participants during her works' post-production phases, such as US v. Scott and Vice segments. However, once Castro brought Munoz in seeing rough cuts for Mija, it created a more vital trust after Castro unlearned her journalism practices. While it is hard to draw the line between participants and filmmakers, many beautiful things come out of discussions between the main characters and other key artists and finding the right partners. 

With I Didn't See You There, Wilson and Davenport got to know each other by working at New Day Films (Growing Up Female, Betty Tells Her Story). Davenport wanted Wilson to be his producer after showing him a rough cut of the film. They soon got Chandler after inquiring with others about Chandler’s work ethic and behavior. All three of them work as artists instead of x crew position. They all worked most of the time virtually due to COVID, learned how to understand boundaries and have fruitful conversations without difficulty. They all wanted to protect Reid’s vision of the film by being selective in showing rough cuts to specific funders and other people as some would be enableist or would not understand the film’s unconventionality. Each part of the collaborative process sets up for virtual and remote partnerships for the making of We Met In Virtual Reality.

In the IRL workshop, Hunting mentions how he ties his live-action experimental filmmaking background into his VR shorts that have played in European film festivals like Raindance and his feature We Met in Virtual Reality. He was influenced into doing these works after reading an article on how VR saves people's lives and gives people freedom of expression where real life may not have to offer. Hunting also demonstrated, with VRChat's Helping Hands ASL teacher and featured participant Jenny in how he records the film on VRChat (it is not just a screen recording through OBS software for those wondering). Hunting uses a specific cinema lens with the headset on VRChat to change the aperture and shutter speed like an actual camera. The VRChat users can see a camera on Hunting's hand while filming. It creates a mind-blowing experience for future filmmakers of the genre. It weaves into how the film explores human behavior and interaction in VR, not a movie about technology. 

In Playing Roles, directors Robert Greene (Procession) and Eliane Rehab (Miguel’s War) discussed the navigations and skepticism of telling stories that are packed with trauma. The directors discussed the differences between the meanings of therapy and therapeutic, the origins of their recent films, staging scenes that dive into more profound truths, and careful turns to make their respective films. For example, one turn is by having playfulness to be a step into learning other roles as playfulness does not break through trauma. After their conversation, drama therapist and Procession participant Monica Phinney moderated hand-on workshops such as expanding open-ended questions about goals in life instead of how you are feeling in the moment that people respond with short answers (e.g., I’m fine), and dealing with tough situations through a “phone-call-like” simulation where people can have agency in such moments. 

With the screenings, the audience gets to learn the filmmakers’ foundations. After its screening, Three Songs for Benazir directors Elizabeth and Gulistan Mirzaei spoke of the film with writer Sam Adams (Slate). They stated how they wanted to have a love story in a country that is too widely reported for its violence and wars. For the couple, the movie is a “time capsule” due to the Taliban takeover as they ended the Afghan national army that the main character Shaista applied as depicted in the film. They wanted to have as little context as possible by presenting the film only through observation footage and featuring Shaista and Benazir’s special moments in their life that are about them. 

Before their screening on March 3, Davenport presented his short docs A Cerebral Game (2016), Ramped Up (2017), and mockumentary Garden Variety (2018) in non-chronological order, discussing his work with curator and writer Eric Hynes (Museum of the Moving Image; Reverse Shot) on March 2. Davenport's use of including himself in the film, voiceover, challenging the word activism, and creating debates between "looking at and being seen." In his works, he blends the personal, emotional, and political intentions and motives into works that have agency in the center of its conversation. They are responses to events that happen in his life that include a terrible date for Garden Variety, coping with his parent's divorce through his love of baseball in A Cerebral Game, and documenting the discrimination he faces as someone with cerebral palsy who uses a wheelchair when he planned to travel abroad to Italy as a GWU undergraduate for Wheelchair Diaries (2014). Davenport's shorts have their mark in creating a dialogue of accessibility, and it sets up his aesthetics and politics that are in his debut feature, I Didn't See You There.