Autobiographical Mode

            Addressing perhaps one of the more frequently encountered moral or ethical dilemmas concerning the creation of documentary, the autobiographic mode attempts to navigate the problems of how to truthfully represent individuals and their experiences. It approaches this navigation by turning the camera around onto the producer, the filmmaker, bypassing the risks of representing others and their opinions as a third party. In so doing, Fox explains that the "distance between producer and subject is diminished", and the representation of the subject can be uniquely first-person.

This mode naturally positions the filmmaker as a central part of the film not just as creator but as a performer/social actor. The filmmaker becomes an authoritative insider to a historical reality. The filmmaker's existence is scrutinized and offers itself as a gateway for others to investigate larger social or historical questions.  This authority may come from a varying degrees of intimacy with the subject and like a memoir will be interested in doing as Emily Dickenson wrote, by “tell[ing] the whole truth, but tell[ing] it slant.”  An interesting example of this is found in Persepolis. The film’s stylized representation of historical reality presents ‘truth’ told ‘slant’ through the lens of the writer and narrator of the film. The film’s highly subjective voice is validly authoritative due to the inherent autobiographic elements. Or in other words, Marjane Satrapi is undoubtedly the authority on her own life, who has right to challenge a representation of her experiences? 

Another example of the Autobiographical mode can be found in Sadie Benning's A Place Called Lovely. The filmmaker provides specific images and stories from her own youth to express ideas and commentary on larger social issues. For instance, she acts as a sort of case study for many of the social problems she introduces, such as child bullying and homophobia.