Community Consent

Yesterday, William Hipwell gave a talk at my department about “Research Ethics and Aboriginal Peoples.” I won’t go into the details, but the emphasis was on the importance of informed consent. I was reminded of our recent discussion on SM about “anthropology and the IRB” and, indeed, some of those issues came up in discussion. The point I raised, however, was slightly different and came from my recent work in India. The issue there is that while we have the full consent of those we are working directly with in the film, the concept of “community” and who has the power to provide consent on behalf of the community (as opposed to individuals) is one of the things at stake.

The group we are working with are reformers who are challenging the old system of community governance. One of the processes we filmed was the establishment of a new form of self-government that aims to more democratically represent the needs of the community. However, there are still several competing traditional councils, or panchayats, that have significant power in the community. The group we worked with was reluctant to go to those groups for permission because their activities were challenging the authority of the panchayat and some panchayat members were actively seeking to hinder those activities.

At the same time, discussions within the group of reformers revealed that there was some concern that failure to secure community-wide consent could result in blow-back. Already two members of the group have been arrested for violent crimes on the basis of false testimony provided by their opponents within the community, and everyone was nervous.

We decided to leave the decision as to what support would finally be necessary up to our subjects, since they were the ones who would have to live with the consequences. In the end it was decided to convene some smaller meetings with selected members of the community that were sympathetic, or at least not obstructionist, and seek their support. And since we wanted to talk about criminal activity in the film we were also to meet with the leaders of the thieves’ panchayat. That meeting, however, never took place since the police chose that week to round up the “usual suspects” and take pictures of them (thus permanently marking them as “usual suspects” whether or not they had a criminal record). As a result most of the thieves fled, and a meeting with the thieves’ panchayat was not possible. Our current plan is to return to the community with a rough cut of the film, when it is completed, and seek consent and feedback then.

This arrangement, however, creates special problems for filmmakers, since it means that any distributer we go to with the film has to give us (and by extension, the community) complete control over the final edit of the film – something which eliminates certain potential venues, such as many TV and cable stations.

Interestingly, Hipwell commented that he had encountered identical issues in his own work in Canada where he had researched logging issues and the community was divided between pro- and anti-logging factions. Again, he had to go with the consent of that faction which he was working most closely with.

At the same event I had the pleasure of meeting documentary filmmaker Nigel Markham, whose 1985 film The Last Days of Okak was screened complete with Chinese subtitles. Although this version had been dubbed in English, he said that the film had done very well in Norther Canada where an indigenous language version of the film had been released at the same time. It seems to me that releasing such indigenous versions of one’s final product, while not always possible, is an important thing to try to do.

One thought on “Community Consent

  1. Jeevika: South Asia Documentary Festival, which began in 2003, aims at capturing the livelihood challenges faced by the rural and urban poor and bringing it to the attention of current and future policy makers. Over the years, Jeevika has been successful in advocating for the cause of numerous entry-level entrepreneurs – rickshaw pullers, street vendors, prostitutes, child labour, farmers and forest-dwellers.

    The premier event of the festival to be held at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi will be the awards ceremony from 20-23rd July 2007, which will culminate four days of screening for the top films. The last date for the submitting the entries is May 31, 2007

    In addition as part of the festival tour, the award-winning films will travel and be screened in premier schools and colleges in over 20 states in India and other organisations working on livelihood issues as well as in our South Asian neighbours.

    Over the years, Jeevika has become an increasingly popular and news-worthy event as well as an important catalyst for positive social change. The Film-makers whose films have been showcased in the past include Rakesh Sharma (of the Final Solution fame), Sanjay Barnela (Turf Wars) and Shohini Ghosh (Tales of the Night Fairies).

    For further details, please log on : http://www.ccs.in/jeevika

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