What Do You See and Why?: A Look into the Perspective of Documentaries

Abstract

This study attempts to explore how
documenters comprehend and conceive the world
they live in using their own perspectives. This paper
collected data through a series of semi-structured
in-depth interviews of a sample of documenters
presently engaged in creating Taiwanese
documentaries. It is found that: (1) Documentaries
are deeply influenced by the perspective of the
documenters; (2) Everything in documentaries has
undergone a selection process; (3) It is highly
difficult to maintain total objectivity and to work as
an observer; (4) Covert observation is considered a
less acceptable method of observation by
documenters.