Self-formation and hidden aggression: ethical issues in self-therapy documentaries

The object of the study is a Chinese documentary about self-therapy. Documentaries about self-therapy have become the main focus of the work of young Chinese documentary filmmakers over the past two years. They often act in front of the audience as victims in the family. Such films are mostly very touching. Directors are often rated as brave and courageous, as they openly talk about their traumatic experiences, directly confront their parents and demand that they admit their mistakes. However, behind all this, serious ethical problems related to the shooting method remain unnoticed. The author analyzes in detail the film "Small Talk", a representative of Chinese documentaries about self—therapy. Special attention is paid to the rhetorical techniques used by director Huang Huidu in the film. The aim of the study is to compare the camera with a tool that promotes communication and self—reflection, rather than with a weapon of violence and self-defense. To study the texture of the film, a strategy of reading with commentary is used, perspectives are involved, knowledge of jurisprudence and psychoanalysis is used to question the authenticity of the first-person narrative, and ethical problems in the director's approach are indicated. The novelty of the research lies in the development of the ethical aspect identified by Paul Arthur in his study of documentaries about self-therapy, namely "murder on screen", which is insufficiently studied in subsequent studies. The study argues that in order to study the ethical aspects of documentaries about self-therapy, it is necessary to analyze the rhetorical actions of the director. Thereby finding out how he hides his aggressiveness. The study found that the director, firstly, creates an image of the victim, thus allowing the audience to listen to his story sympathetically, but ignores the violence to which the mother is subjected during filming, namely: reveals the mother's private life without permission, forcibly forces her to act, deprives her of her voice and distorts her image. Secondly, the director took on the role of an analyst to convince the audience that the film reflects objective facts, not subjective ones. The study convinces that the director's self—medication methods are unscientific, therefore, the cure in the finale of the film is false.

self-therapy documentary, role, rhetoric, ethical issues, psychoanalysis, Small Talk, monologue, film production, aggressiveness, authenticity