Ozeki Documentary

Aaron Stokke
Sadashivan – Representation

Ethics in Documentary Filmmaking

There are naturally many ethical questions that come up when creating any film; this is especially true when creating a documentary. In the documentary film Ruth Ozeki created about her grandmother’s bones, Ruth faced numerous ethical questions relating to her portrayal of family members and international history.
In several interviews with her mother, Ruth was faced with the ethical decision of how to portray her mother without making her seem either disrespectful of her deceased grandmother and at the same time portraying her mother in the best light possible. In the documentary, Ozeki was sent to Japan for her grandmother’s funeral and to retrieve her mother’s portion of her grandmother’s bones. Several times in the documentary, Ruth mentioned that she was waiting for the right moment to give her mother the bones. Her mother even knew that Ozeki had the bones. In one of the final interviews with her mother, Ozeki asks her mother why she did not travel to Japan. Her mother beats around the bush and eventually claims that the reason that she did not want to go to Japan was that she had problems with an arthritic neck. Ozeki had an ethical dilemma on her hands with how to portray her mother after she had made an obviously poor attempt at explaining why she did not want to go to her mother’s funeral. Ozeki handled the situation very well, letting her mother tell her story, and then stating that she did not know how she felt about that story. Very careful detail was given to making sure that the mother’s love for the grandmother was made known to the audience, also the facts behind her choice to not attend the funeral were also given as so that we could draw our own conclusions.
If Ozeki had chosen to show her mother in a way other than the way she did, the documentary would not be the same. We the audience would perhaps view her mother and the choices that she made differently. It is important to remember to create a documentary in an ethical fashion. How you choose to make the film greatly influences how the audience will view your subject matter.