ABSTRACT

The Freedom Stories feature documentary needs to be viewed to fully appreciate the results of that experimentation. This may have adverse results for the film project, and in some cases, exploring this with potential Freedom Stories participants led to their withdrawal. In addition to reflexivity as a component of film production, there is reflexivity as a research methodology, which requires the researcher to emerge from behind the barricade of professional anonymity and acknowledge her/his involvement. The ultimate aim is to produce a more empathic filmmaking result by working with participants who are simultaneously the subjects and the raison d’être of the endeavour – a result that doesn’t necessarily make greater claims to truth but is perhaps more honest. Reflexivity within a film draws attention to its artifice. For example, the glance to camera breaks the fourth wall, the illusion that there is no mediation between event and audience.