ABSTRACT

The material challenges of funding, commissioning and distribution that are well known to inhibit production of children’s factual content about other countries and cultures operate in parallel with challenges arising from the moral responsibilities inherent in what Roger Silverstone called “the problem of proper distance”. By that he signified a “moral category” requiring filmmakers to provide “context as well as imagination” and be willing to “recognise the other in her sameness and difference”. “Distance” and “difference” have become at once more significant but also more ambiguous at a time of mass forced migration, in which traditions, religions and cultures from distant places are brought together in physical proximity. Based on input from cross-cultural dialogues, screenings and interviews involving European producers of children’s documentaries, this article explores dilemmas and experiences faced in representing the backgrounds and stories of children who arrived in Europe from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the mid-2010s. It shows the resonance of Silverstone’s thinking by revealing that many practitioners themselves apply notions of closeness and distance, both physically and metaphorically, in their choices about combining the familiar and unfamiliar and co-creating content with child participants.

IMPACT SUMMARY

a. Prior State of Knowledge:

Existing power imbalances between filmmaker and subject/participant are accentuated when documentaries are made about vulnerable children. Studies have pinpointed competing pressures to tell a compelling story, respect privacy and provide background, while avoiding exoticism, didacticism and cultural preconceptions.

b. Novel Contributions:

Practitioners’ spontaneous references to “distance” when discussing their filming of refugee children demonstrate that Silverstone’s concept of “proper distance” as a “moral category” can be operationalised in co-creating content with documentary participants and evaluating the merits of such documentaries.

c. Practical Implications:

Creatives and commissioning editors responsible for children’s factual content about other cultures can use the findings to calibrate how they convey children’s “sameness” and “difference” with empathy and respect. Such content’s relevance for promoting social cohesion also matters to policymakers.

摘要

众所周知，资助、委托和分发的物质挑战会阻碍儿童制作关于其他国家和文化的事实性内容，而这些挑战与罗杰·西尔弗斯通所谓的“适当距离问题”中固有的道德责任所产生的挑战同时发生。他由此表示了一种“道德范畴”，要求电影制作人提供“背景和想象”，并愿意“承认他人的相同和不同”。在大规模被迫迁移的时代，“距离”和“差异”变得更加重要，但也更加模糊，在这个时代，来自遥远地方的传统、宗教和文化在物理上接近在一起。基于跨文化对话的输入，通过对欧洲儿童纪录片制作人的放映和采访，本文探讨了在代表 2010 年代中期从叙利亚、伊拉克、阿富汗和其他地方抵达欧洲的儿童的背景和故事时所面临的困境和经历。它通过揭示许多从业者自己在选择将熟悉和不熟悉的内容与儿童参与者共同创造的内容时，在物理上和隐喻上都应用了亲近和距离的概念，从而显示了银石思想的共鸣。

影响总结

一种。先前的知识状态：

当制作关于弱势儿童的纪录片时，电影制作人与主题/参与者之间现有的权力不平衡会更加突出。研究已经确定了在讲述引人入胜的故事、尊重隐私和提供背景方面的竞争压力，同时避免异国情调、说教主义和文化偏见。

湾。小说贡献：

从业者在讨论拍摄难民儿童时自发地提到“距离”，这表明银石赛道将“适当距离”作为“道德范畴”的概念可以在与纪录片参与者共同创作内容和评估此类纪录片的优点时实施。

C。实际影响：

负责儿童关于其他文化的事实内容的创意人员和委托编辑可以利用这些发现来校准他们如何以同理心和尊重来传达儿童的“相同”和“差异”。此类内容与促进社会凝聚力的相关性对政策制定者也很重要。