Recently, the Amazon show Hunters came under fire for a scene involving a fictionalized human chess game taking place in Nazi Germany. The Auschwitz Memorial called the scene a “dangerous foolishness and caricature.” It got me thinking about where the line between taking liberties with a story to enhance the plot and doing a complete disservice to the people whose past you're representing lies.
In your mind, where does your obligation to historical facts (and the people who have been affected by them) versus telling a good story begin and end?
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My screenplay is about the true story of my Great Grandparents and takes place between 1905 and 1912. I already knew little bits and pieces of their story, but I did have to make the majority of it up. I did my research and I have my characters involved in the troubles between the workers and the government in Warsaw, Poland, which is where they came from originally. I don't know if they were ever involved in the protests or not, but it helped to springboard the story.
I think the answer to your question is that my obligation to historical facts was paramount and I wanted to get it as near to correct as I could. I have embellished some things, for instance I know for a fact that when they settled in London, they lived in one room, but for the story, I've given them a tiny house.
I haven't been able to find any pictures of the street where they lived in the times, so I have had to look at the pictures of how it is now, and imagine what it would have been like in 1905.
I think it depends what you are writing about and what you want to depict. Dramatic licence does give permission to embellish, purists would probably pull you up on something they see isn't right (as they did in Hunters), but I think as long as you're true to yourself in what you're writing, that's all you can really do.
Thanks for your answer, Rosalind. I think the way you've chosen to tell your story makes a lot of sense. I don't think it matters whether or not your great grandparents were a part of every single event...Since you're painting a picture about what could have been their lives, or even a couple like them, using real facts. That gives it authenticity.
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Always be true to the known facts of history. How you weave your story around the historical truths is up to you. (Titanic?) My script, The Hooded Summer, is a political/romance in 1924 under the watchful eyes of the KKK - lots of accurate facts & lots of story fantasy.