Participatory Mode Response

On Thursday, when we watched Stories We Tell, I was completely blown away. I was surprised in the way that the multiple tellings of the story really added to it, and that, in a way, the acting was Sarah's version of the story being told. On Thursday, I thought about how my family would react if anything traumatic like that ever happened to us. And then, wouldn't you know, something extremely dramatic, and stressful, and crazy has unfolded over the past few days, and has enveloped nearly ever member of my extended family. In the beginning of this event, I was extremely tempted to start filming. Everything that was happening was so dramatic, and in my head, I began comparing it to Stories We Tell, primarily because we had just watched it for class. I wanted to capture that event, which will change our family, and I wanted it to be as powerful, and ground-breaking as the film that we had just watched. But I realized that, no matter how much I participated in this event, the only way for it to be a fair representation would be to include every story of every person who participated.

I think that this is the greatest strength of the participatory mode. It does not just give a voice to one person. This style of documentary gives a voice to many. This mode works against the "danger of the single story" that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talks about in her Ted Talk. This is not just Robert McNamara talking about decisions that have been made. This is Robert McNamara and all of the people that those decisions have affected.

However, no matter how many stories are included in the telling of a general story, this mode of documentary still risks being primarily one sided. While this was not the case with Stories We Tell, Harlan County, USA and Capitalism, A Love Story could have been more equitable to the whole story. This was especially true for Capitalism, A Love Story. This film completely lacked the Robert McNamara, big decision voice, although Michael Moore did "try" to include the voices of the decision makers. This film primarily worked to give a positive voice to the people who had been negatively affected by decisions, and then to paint the decision makers in a less than positive light.

I think that Stories We Tell was the most equitable participatory documentary that we viewed this week. This was the only documentary that gave equal voice and time to all sides of a story, and to everyone who had been involved. This film could have easily painted This was probably due to the small scale nature of the story involved. If Michael Moore or Barbara Koppel had tried to get every story down, they would still be working on this project.