ABSTRACT
We watch documentaries because they provide us with information and a way of knowing the lives of other people without making their acquaintance directly. We watch documentaries to see events up close, but simultaneously at a safe distance. We are able to watch the most intimate or outrageous actions of others without suffering any kind of threat to our own safety; without any need to intervene to influence a dangerous or unjust situation; without the need to respond directly to objectionable views. We can see things happen, but without feeling, as a bystander would, that we should intervene in some way or hurry away to a safer place. There is no possibility of interpersonal exchanges with the people we see on our screens. Even if we are moved to help, we cannot. The eventual viewers of documentaries watch them from a secure position, outside the action, yet able to see and hear closely and in detail.
