Shining a Light on Those in the Dark

The community we live in is not a representation of the whole world. We live in a bubble, and most of the time, we are unaware of that. We don’t realize that the relationships we have, the culture we experience, and the services we take part in are very different from those of someone on the other side of the world. What is even more surprising is that our experiences may also be vastly different from someone who lives in the same town as we do. Our lived experience is a bubble, and it is not representative of the lives that others have. For this reason, it is essential that voices from different backgrounds and communities are represented in documentaries. When we become less ignorant, we make the world a safer, more respectful, and more inclusive place for everyone. Our ignorance is harmful, because the knowledge gained from understanding someone else’s experience can drive us to make a change, both within our own bubble and beyond it.

Documentaries are powerful tools to shine a light on those who are not given a voice. They provide a stage for individuals to share the beauty and struggles of their communities. Will and Harper is a documentary that tells the story of a person who has transitioned and goes on a road trip with her lifelong friend. It is personal and moving, and by telling the story of one individual, an entire community is represented.

Performative documentaries use broad social processes as a foundation and delve deeply into individual stories. They are driven by emotions and lived perspectives rather than facts. I believe Will and Harper works well as a performative documentary for various reasons. First, someone close to you may be transgender or part of the LGBTQ+ community. The intimacy we see between Will and Harper allows us to familiarize ourselves with this experience and become more open to the fact that this could happen to us. The conversations in this documentary are crucial because they allow individuals to understand someone else’s perspective through dialogue. Understanding does not come from facts or logic—it comes from intimacy and emotion.

Harper and Will

If Will and Harper had relied more on facts about how many trans individuals are killed or discriminated against, it would still feel distant from our own lives. We wouldn’t truly grasp the fact that trans individuals live among us, and there wouldn’t be any meaningful understanding of them. A participatory documentary would not have been as effective because the story is not the filmmaker’s—it is the subject's. Performative documentaries allow us to give the microphone to underrepresented communities, because right now, the story should only be about them. In a way, participatory documentaries make us aware of the camera, reminding us that the film is a constructed story by the filmmaker. By adopting a performative approach, we focus solely on the story, and we can ground ourselves in the fact that this story is real, and it is happening.