Legal: relating to, appointed or acquired by the law. Legal requirements need to be met when creating a product of any sort.

• Copyright – images, film clips, music, logos, product, well-known designs and fonts
• Obscenity – Obscene Publications Act of 1959. The definition of obscene is “likely to deprave and corrupt” the audience for which it is intended and includes not only sexually explicit material but material relating to violence and drug-taking. (the film usually never gets made – stopped at the research phase).
• Blasphemy – the crime of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God or a religion and its doctrines and writings and especially God as perceived by Christianity and Christian doctrines and writings.
• Defamation – false accusations against an identifiable, living person that may result in them being despised. This includes characters based on real people.
• Illegality – Criminal behaviour/ anything against the law (do not encourage).
• True stories – there should be a clarification that any events that overlap with real-life are coincidental. If not, refer to it as ‘based on a true story,’ or similar.
• Working in a public space/with people – release forms are needed ( a document used by various parties to protect their company or organization from any legal claims or liabilities in the future).

Ethical: pertaining to or dealing with morals or the principles of morality; relating to beliefs about what is morally right and wrong.

• Sensitive themes
• The portrayals of subjects/cultures/religions/countries
• What is included and what is not included/how to edit the film
• Representing people with dignity and thoughtfulness
• What language is used
• Violence, sex/nudity, drugs, alcohol

 

It is important for filmmakers to consider what is ethical when beginning a project and throughout the process of making a movie or tv show. This also applies to games, music, books and pretty much any forms of media – ethics are a key aspect to contemplate because what is morally right or wrong is linked strongly to the view and perspective of the audience. The product is being made for an audience, and if a message or idea is portrayed, or even implied, that is largely considered immoral, the audience will most likely not take to it well unless it was done on purpose for comedy (but even with this, overdoing this could leave the viewers gaping at the offence instead of laughing at it). It is important to think about historically accurate events and the characterization of certain groups of people, for example, black people and the LGBT community. Everyone deserves fair representation, but groups like these which have suffered greatly from backward views that society used to hold, and still may be relevant today, it is especially important to present them and their beliefs with dignity and respect. Religion and culture are also incredibly important; people’s entire lives are being put forwards and displayed, and making jokes, dismissing or lying about their values and traditions is an enormous insult that disregards the ways that they actually live. Most viewers sense the filmmaker’s attitude toward their subjects—be it contempt or respect, compassion or cynicism, arrogance or humility. Legalities cannot be bent, but ethics can, and although films are always susceptible to unanticipated interpretations, it is important to keep the opinions and lifestyles of the target audience in mind, so that they don’t end up absolutely detesting the film or show created.

 

An example of an extremely unethical movie is the 1980 horror film Cannibal Holocaust, which remains one of the most disturbing films ever made.

 

 

The movie follows a team of American film-makers into the Amazon basin in search of a previous expedition, who disappeared investigating cannibal tribes. What we see is supposedly the footage recovered after they themselves disappeared. However, before we even get to the cannibalistic sections of the film, we are shown a degrading onslaught of rapes, murders, torture, salacious sex, genocide, castration and even news footage of real-life executions. It’s quite clear to see why this film remains controversial and why it can be deemed unethical. Upon seeing the title, and no even getting to the gruesome images of actual research, I already knew that this film would be wrong on multiple levels. The term holocaust may be incredibly offensive to any Jews that watch this film, but put together with the term ‘cannibal’ and it becomes an offence that borders on defamation. The film oversteps boundaries of all kinds, including a range of obscenities and being based on a concept that is blasphemic and amoral. But perhaps most notorious of all was Cannibal Holocaust’s depiction of the slaughter of wild animals, which is the only part that Deodato (The director) regrets – “The death of the animals, although unbearable – especially in a present-day urban mindset – always happened in order to feed the film’s characters or the crew, both in the story and in reality.” His latest edit cuts out some of these excesses but still leaves plenty in. More troubling, though, is the treatment of humans in the film, which has resulted in Deodato being often accused of racism and exploitation, despite his avowed support for indigenous peoples.

My opinion of this film was already one of pure disgust, but it only got worse after realising that the film-makers in Cannibal Holocaust are the real savages. They are shown goading, raping and even killing to get sensational footage for the media back home, and Deodato was only encouraging this behaviour. I cannot include the quote as it is extremely disturbing, but one of the film-makers did back up this fact by re-stating telephone conversations between him and his producer in Italy. The reactions from the public were all-too-obvious, yet also surprising, to say the least. Shock, outrage and revulsion, but also a positive response from many, as in the ten days before it was seized, the film had grossed approximately $2 million, ten times the original investment of $200,000. As a comment on horror and shock-value, Cannibal Holocaust succeeded all too well. Deodato was even put on trial in Italy on suspicion of murdering his actors – an accusation he disproved by bringing one of them to court. He was fined for animal cruelty, and the movie was banned for three years. It was banned in around 40 other countries, too, including the UK until 2001. But, Critics remain split on their stances on Cannibal Holocaust. Supporters of the film cite it as a serious and well-made social commentary on the modern world. Mike Bracken called it one of the greatest horror movies ever filmed, and also stated, “Viewers looking for a film that’s powerful, visceral, and disturbing have a new title to add to their must-see list.” However, it cannot be denied that it has an unabashedly racist portrait of indigenous folks and that the real savages involved with Cannibal Holocaust are the ones behind the camera.

This example showcases not only a film that is unethical but also a case where the film-makers did not think about the legal side of things and suffered the consequences for it. The film breaks almost every legal requirement – obscenity, defamation, blasphemy, illegality and true stories, which are shown in the documentary aspects of the film. These, paired with the sensitive themes and extremely negative portrayal of race and culture make me wonder why this film does not remain banned everywhere. With so many crossed boundaries, it is understandable why legal action had to be taken, and why the film is still forbidden in several countries around the world, and it shows that when commenting on such topics and trying to portray certain themes, careful consideration has to be made, as to what is necessary, humane and morally right, or at least neutral. As there are many other explicit films out there, the blame cannot be placed on this one factor however, a lot should never have even been filmed/done, let alone included in the final cut. There were some serious crimes that took place in the very making of this film, which are undoubtedly unethical and illegal!