At a time when mental health considerations and duty of care towards contributors and audiences are rightly paramount, this Channel 5 session will explore whether some documentaries should or even could be made now. Has journalistic compromise become inevitable or necessary when telling powerful and triggering stories? Have contributors a right to have a ‘stake’ in documentaries, even to the point of sharing the profits? Can or should people have a right to veto their story being told? And are guidelines from outside television making the telling of important stories harder?
Join a panel of commissioners, filmmakers, psychologists and mental health practitioners as they discuss why broadcasters are challenged more than other mediums when it comes to these issues, and explore if journalistic integrity and endeavour is threatened? Do we risk compromising projects and authenticity of the subject, and is there still a middle ground to tell the stories that filmmakers, contributors and broadcasters believe should be told.
Speakers: Andy Mundy Castle (Founder, Doc Hearts), Rebecca Day (Documentality), Adrian Padmore (Commissioning Editor VP Non Scripted Originals, Channel 5/Paramount +), Lisa Selby (Director, Blue Bag Life), Rachel Harvie (Executive Producer, ANOREXIC)
Moderator: Guy Davies (Commissioning Editor VP Non Scripted UK Originals, Channel 5/Paramount +)
Supported by Channel 5
Content Guidance: This session will contain discussions about eating disorders, mental health, PTSD and strong themes.
