Strangers With A Camera Questions

Strangers With A Camera Questions

1. How did Hugh O'Connor's daughter find peace with her father's death? Would you have felt the same?
Hugh O’ Conner’s daughter was able to find peace with her father’s death by convincing herself that her father died for his art and message that poverty was a social issue that needed to be diminished.
I don’t think I would have felt the same if I was in her shoes. The reason why I don’t think I would be able to take her approach of accepting my father’s death, because I, unlike her do not forgive and forget too easily. I would have been consumed by anger directed at his murderers and at him for getting into a situation that lead to his death in the first place, rather then to find some, tragic beauty in the wake of his death.
2. Barret says that some filmmakers "wanted to show that contrast [between those who prospered from coal mining and those who didn't]to bring about social change. Others mined the images the way the companies had mined the coal? What does that say about the power of the visual image? What (if any) responsibility do filmmakers have toward their subjects?
Barret’s statement that “some filmmakers wanted to show that contrast, while others mined the images the way the companies had mined the coal," says that visual image can have a bias stance on the video or photography image to support the artist’s own personal argument rather then present the issue being explored in the image, in a way that supports neither or both sides of the argument.
The responsibility that film makers have towards their subjects is to ask for the person’s permission and to capture them on film that supports the film maker’s intent (even if that intent is slander), but doesn’t portray the subject in a way that could victimize the subject through embarrassment or criticism by their friends and neighbors for being too far fetched.

3. Colin Low, director of the Canadian Film Board, said the camera is invasive, exploitive and like a gun because it's threatening (42:23). What does he mean by that statement?
What are some specific steps you can take as a photographer/filmmaker when photographing a sensitive subject or social issue to make the camera less exploitive and invasive?
When Colin Low says that “the camera is invasive, exploitive and like a gun because it's threatening,” he means that the film maker wields a certain power when he uses the camera through the way he shoots and presents his subjects. He or she, can shoot the subject with a neutral, and non threatening outlook to the topic theme, a positive or negative outlook that can offend the viewers, create backlash and victimize the subjects for their poor portrayal in the movie or image.
The specific steps a photographer and film make can take to protect his or her subjects is to have the principal models sign wagers to document their permission to adhere to the director or principal photographer’s needs. The director or principal photographer can also place the model in a position (like sitting, engaged in play etc.) that can depict the controversy that he or she is trying to depict, without making accusations (the unfamished children eating food barbarically that Hugh O’Conner photographed for example), that won’t cause a full uproar from the subject’s community, friends, and neighbors. I’m sure that documenting the subject’s permission to release the images, as well as shooting the model or actor in a position that depicts the controversy, but appears to be realistic and setting would eliminate the dangers and the public uproar that Hugh O’Conner and his crew were unfortunate to experience in that Coal Mining town.