Documentary Filmmaking: Cannabis Politics, Image Rights and Ethics... where do you draw the line?

Backstory:

For three weeks you have heard one story told by person after person, after person, after person... and you become that person, who told another person; that story becomes a belief.

Four weeks later, you are able to finally confront the very foundation of that story and midway through, you receive a message that someone you should care deeply about, is part of that foundation. The foundation of the story that has caused so much disturbance amongst the persons above.

Why should you care about this person, stuck in the middle of this questionable foundation?

Because that person is your friends' mother.

Strikes a cord, right?

The mother, of course like in every greatest story ever told, she is the innocent bystander. Stuck in the middle of the cross fire. I didn't completely understand that until after all the dust had settled,... the "villagers" and "the council" parted ways, some in pairs or clusters. I saw my friend's mom gathering her belongings and she just beamed emotional overload and drained. I mean how could she not, after listening to four hours of residents beging to their council to leave alone, what they had voted for.

But that's a whole other story.

I felt for her and I feel for my friend. Politics suck. You have to be an idiot to get involved, but you are certainly no coward for trying to be involved.

And then check this out,... Present;

I got to have the opportunity to visit the Mayor, with the Paitent's Coalition. I did not have a printed form release, but I did ask him for permission to record and the president did for audio. Well, the discussion was on cannabis. The conversation obviously got of track and at points, "heated." Which at that point, he asked me to stop recording. 1.)

2.) Now, this man is old enough to be my grandfather. He looks at me and asks me how I intend to use the footage. Now at the beginning, I already told him my intent, so the subtext of his question was, "you're not going to use that at against me are you?"

Absolutely not. Which it is important to note that after the camera and phones stopped rolling, the discussions were continued and there was some form of a compromise/agreement made. Head over to www.VallejoPatientsCoalition.Com for more information. I explained to him that I know how it feels to have your character tarnished, I wouldn't do that to him.

I do plan to include it within the documentary.

So you see, one way or the other, there will be a story told. Be it by someone else, you or me,... who's going to tell it right? What is right?

I feel as a film maker, I am obligated to ONLY present the truth, as I see it. If I am wrong, you are welcome to educate me. The documentary I will show will include footage from the council meeting with my friends' mother and again, the conversation with the mayor.