Documentary Legal Question

[Anonymous]

I’m about to embark on a Documentary film project about a family and was wandering about the legal permission reagrding the family & the production. Exactly how do you get legal permission to do a documentary video on a family from the members? I was asked to it by one member of the family, but do I need to get permission from all members or just the ones I interview and include their name? This video will include many years and ancestors. Any advice helps. Thanks,

Rob

[SteveMann]

If you are distributing or exhibiting the video, then yes, you do need the permission of everyone living who can be identified in the video. A letter of introduction from the family member that is comissioning the work should be all that’s needed to get the people appearing in the video to agree.

If you are making a one-copy video for your client, like a personal family history, and you have no intent to distribute or exhibit the video (except to your client), then permission is probably not required.

[Author]

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