Decolonizing the Documentary: Reframing Gaze, Voice, and Process

From the early explorers and ethnographic filmmakers such as Robert Flaherty in Nanook of the North, through projects like the BBC’s Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus, and into the present day, documentary has carried a long and often ignoble history of colonial representation. These works, while influential in the canon, too often reproduce a white or outsider gaze, casting communities as objects of study rather than as active participants in the telling of their own stories. This panel takes as its starting point the urgent need to interrogate and reimagine documentary practices. We ask: How can we be more intentional in decentering the white gaze in our work? What strategies exist to resist exoticizing or “othering” participants, while still engaging in meaningful storytelling? And what does a community-based production process truly look like—one in which participants are not only subjects, but collaborators and co-authors of their narratives? Moderator: Dominique Taylor, Northwestern State University of Louisiana Panelists: Yonatan Tewelde, Penn State Harrisburg Tula Goenka, Syracuse University Dominique Taylor, Northwestern State University of Louisiana Colin Lasu, Central State