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Arts & Communication Documentary to support #EndFGM in Kenya

2010. The challenge for My FGM Story, Kenya was to Documentaries offer the sensuous experience of sounds
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develop messaging specific to the 14.8% of the population and images organized to move us: they activate feelings and
who still practiced FGM. It would thus need to build on emotions; they tap into values and beliefs, and, in doing
the significant progress already achieved by the Kenyan so, possess an expressive power that equals or exceeds the
#EndFGM campaign and show the specific positive printed word. 12, p. 100
impacts for the Maasai community when girls are not George Stoney further argues that you must treat the
subjected to FGM. people in front of the camera with respect, and this also

3. Planning and creating an effective holds true for the audience. Indeed, showing that you
documentary respect those you film is a way of respecting the audience.
Nichols describes three ways in which documentary
The successful experiences of a documentary filmmaker filmmakers communicate with their audiences:
always rest on two things. One is luck, and the other is the I speak about them to you. The filmmaker takes on a
respect he or she pays to the people front of the camera. 10
personal persona, either directly or through a surrogate.
The term “documentary” is widely credited to John A typical surrogate is the “voice-of-God” commentator,
Grierson, who coined the phrase in his critique of Robert whom we hear speaking in a voice-over but do not see.
Flaherty’s 1926 film, Moana. Flaherty’s earlier 1922 film, This anonymous but surrogate voice arose in the 1930s as a
Nanook of the North, is often cited as the first ethnographic convenient way to describe a situation or problem, present
documentary. Grierson’s use of the word comes from an argument, propose a solution, and sometimes to evoke
11
the Latin docere, which means “to teach.” This suggests a poetic tone or mood. 12, p. 59
that Grierson saw documentaries as primarily having an It speaks about them (or it) to us. This formulation
educational purpose, which they perform by showing characterizes what we might call an institutional discourse,
facts about people, events, and the world in general
that audiences cannot otherwise witness first-hand. in which the film, often by means of a voice-over
The documentary has authority because it is “real,” and the commentary, …informs us about some aspect of the world
12, p. 64
documentary maker is at the scene in person to record the in an impersonal but authoritative manner.
events. In other words, we watch a documentary hoping I (or we) speak about us to you. This formulation moves
to learn something from the world in which we live, and the filmmaker from a position of separation from those
this is an unspoken contract the filmmaker and audience he or she represents to a position of commonality with
members create. Grierson himself made films to promote them. Filmmaker and subject are of the same stock. In
social change. His tradition is not just to show facts about anthropological filmmaking the turn to this formulation
the world as it is but also to show us the filmmaker’s view goes by the name of autoethnography: this refers to the
of the world. efforts of indigenous people to make films and videos
Nichols studies what documentaries are, who makes about their own culture so that they may represent it to
them, and who watches them. If documentaries are there “us,” those who remain outside. 12, p. 65
to “teach” or “persuade” the audience, how do they do Having reflected on these definitions, I would argue
so? Why do some succeed, while others fail? First, he that there is one approach that should be added: “I (We)
determined that a documentary is not a “training film” speak about us to us.” TV news reporters do this all the
because it has the added dimension of “esthetic awareness” time. Local news audiences are especially familiar with the
and “activates our social consciousness.” 12, p. 102 The best idea of a local reporter (“one of us”) talking to us about our
documentaries, then, “show” rather than “tell” the viewer; community. When that reporter becomes a documentary
if people are to be persuaded, they must accept and filmmaker, nothing about this relationship needs to change.
internalize the evidence. The proverb “seeing is believing” They (“one of us”) are talking to us (at great length) about
1
is often used to describe the impact of pictures, whether an event or issue that directly affects us.
still or moving, but a documentary does more than that. As Viewers from different cultures, opinions, and
Grierson noted, a documentary “shapes” reality by editing backgrounds will see and relate to documentaries and
the footage and adding visual and audio effects, stimulating films differently. Practitioners may also use different
an emotional response in its audience:
platforms, such as YouTube and Vimeo, which often
1 Even providing evidence is sometimes not enough to show niche content that varies in production standards
persuade people with entrenched cultural beliefs, but it but are nevertheless highly valued by the viewers. This
does help persuade those who are questioning (or open to is not to say, however, that it is not important to have
questioning) practices like FGM. some common standards and to continue monitoring

Volume 3 Issue 3 (2025) 3 doi: 10.36922/ac.3725