Ruby

In “Speaking for, Speaking About, Speaking with or Speaking Alongside” Jay Ruby explores the concerns about ethnographic/documentaries and whose voice should be heard. He speaks about the motivation of documentary films, cites Dziga Vertov, who says that the most necessary voices are that of the filmmaker and the subject being filmed.
Ethnographic films were considered true representations of another culture. Ruby speaks about the idea that misconception that being a moral person as a filmmaker was sufficient for telling a truthful story about another group. Objectivity plays a large part in what filmmakers produces.
Cultural interest and personal experience shape the interpretation of visual images, the author of the image has one set of views that he hopes to convey. His vision is shaped by his experiences, culture, social views, gender, and race; this too can also be said about the subject of the documentary.
Ruby talks about Cooperative films where the filmmaker works with the subject to create a more truthful representation of the Other.
The roles of filmmaker historically have been played by straight, white, male, middle class westerners with very little in common with their film subjects. Ruby talks about cooperative films and also giving The Other role of filmmaker. Allowing minorities the capability of self-representation is great but at the same time in order for these same films to be a success they often have to follow the straight, white, male middle class script.
The power to represent yourself and group does that make a documentary more truthful or does it bring forth a whole other perspective?