The Staircase

There is a built-in irony in this provocative documentary. Its subject, as the title so baldly states, is the subjects of documentaries and how these films continue to impact their lives long after the circus of filmmaking has moved on and a curious public has had an intimate glimpse into their lives. The doc is a fascinating film, creating more questions about the ethics of documentary filmmaking even as it attempts to find answers to one of documentary makers’ most basic quandaries and becoming part of that ethical argument itself.

Jennifer Tiexiera and Camilla Hall shed light on a subject that could easily slip by our radar: the impact of documentaries and their ability to trend. With sensational voyeuristic fascination, the masses consume this fly on the wall world of real life through docuseries and films, But viewers are not aware that the documentary subjects are sometimes unsuspecting victims to exploitation — whether it’s whether unintentional or calculated.

Subject takes a look at the ethics of documentary filmmaking, and particularly at what happens after the film is released. There are interviews with numerous people who were in documentaries as subjects or other participants, but not the directors of those films. There are, however, other documentary directors speaking about documentary filmmaking, just not about their own films – except where the director and the subject are the same person. Documentaries are having a moment right now, and even have become part of pop culture. We assume (or would like to assume) that what a documentary presents is true but is that always the case.