Intro: In this piece, current OHMA student Eleonora Anedda (2019-2020 cohort) wanders around the ethics of storytelling. Her post was inspired by Tim Raphael’s presentation on his ongoing project Newest Americans, and its multimedia oral history archive.

The audio clip below was taken from the Q&A session of the Oral History Workshop held on September 19th 2019. The speaker, Tim Raphael, was asked to address his position of power as a privileged American white man, and, more specifically, how that might have influenced the creative process of the projects he had worked on.

I can give you some examples about what we're doing in Malta - we're making films about Malta's refugees. But we're also providing training, access, resources, and a platform for them to tell their own stories and advocate for themselves. It's a balance. I question all the time whether I should be doing a project like this. But here's the thing: I can't imagine doing anything else, now that I do this. I also give the opportunity - I don't give it, but I raise money so that the opportunity is there for journalists, filmmakers, and photographers who might not have that opportunity. I think the ethics of this are really important, I also think it's important that if you think you're a storyteller you need to make stories. To a certain degree if we all decide that we're only gonna make stories that reflect our own experience what a boring fucking world it would be.

After hearing this, I was left wondering. Dr. Raphael works in collaboration with minority groups; his work is undoubtedly valuable. But I wanted to hear more about how a storyteller can ethically work with communities other than their own. What would other filmmakers have said in his place? Would they have answered similarly? Nowadays we are aware that all stories are important. But who is in charge of sharing those that have been silenced for such a long time? Driven by curiosity, I interviewed four young filmmakers: Chloe, Lily, Annie, and Breanna.

Obviously everything that has been said comes from the perspective of people involved in the film industry. Their background and their personal experiences play a considerable part in the making of a project. As storytellers they want to be as accurate as possible when it comes to portraying reality. Nonetheless, as Lily says, one might need to draw a line and establish what exactly they are capable of talking about. But what happens when you find yourself in the position of having to cross that very line for the sake of representation?

How might we apply these ideas on oral history practices?

Before we go forward with a project, it might be valuable for us, storytellers, to ask ourselves if we should step back and let others tell their story. In case we persist, what is our reason for doing so? Evaluating and acknowledging who has the power during the interview might be a good place to start. Do we share at least partially the experiences of the narrator? If not, what attracts us to their story? Will we give back to the community even if we are not part of it? Or would we be only profiting by another person/community’s problems? How do we avoid exploitation? Do we know enough about the issue or do they simply find it interesting? What is our “why”?

The point here is not only that we can tell our own story, as we are entitled to it, but also that we should not assume that everyone is okay with having their own story told by someone else. Someone might feel comfortable sharing memories, experiences or struggles that the other person does not understand - others, on the other hand, do not feel it is their responsibility to educate others on what they do not know/have not experienced in their skins. Oral History is a collaborative project between interviewer and narrator. The story belongs to the narrator and their community. Within this picture, the interviewer should be aware of the responsibility of preserving someone else's memory, and the ethical issues that come with storytelling. Maybe, we should let the narrator decide who has the right to tell their story.

[1] Eleonora Anedda, Downtown Manhattan, New York, 2018.

Brewer, Kirstie. “‘If Diversity Means Giving White Men More Work Writing about Black Women, We’ve Failed.’” The Guardian, June 16, 2016, sec. Women in Leadership. https://www.theguardian.com/women-in-leadership/2016/jun/16/diversity-black-women-screenwriters-film-misan-sagay-guerrilla.

Wilke, Lorraine Devon, ContributorSass, and Sensibility. “No, Authors Should Not Be Constrained By Gender Or Race In The Characters They Create.” HuffPost, 16:46 400AD. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/no-authors-should-not-be-constrained-by-gender-or_b_592281cbe4b0b28a33f62db1.

Eleonora Anedda was born in Muravera, Italy; she was raised in a small town in Sardinia and spent most of her life inhaling the clean Mediterranean breeze. In 2015 she began attending history classes at the University of Cagliari. Three years later, she was awarded a first-level degree in History with a dissertation on the case of Artemisia Gentileschi, an Italian Baroque painter who pressed charges against her tutor who repeatedly raped her. Last year, Eleonora moved to London to study Queer History at Goldsmiths College. Her background in Women’s Studies and Early Modern Age Europe has given her a solid foundation to explore Contemporary LGBTQ+ History. Capturing the voices of minorities and the less represented has always been at the heart of her research interests; which is why she is thrilled and honoured to be part of Columbia’s OHMA.

This post represents the opinion of the author, and not of OHMA.