Distorting Biographies

Is it ever appropriate for a director or author to distort the facts of someone's life in a biographical work?

When thinking about distortion of biographical works, the two guidelines that I would have to place on it are one: who is the audience? And two: what is that is being distorted? Obviously for biographical works in general there is a very broad type of audience, but when taking into consideration specific works, each has a targeted audience, in which the works main goal is to appeal to.
A time when it would be okay to make a certain distortion is when the work needs this distortion in order draw the audience in so that the story ever has a chance at getting across to the audience. Whether it being making it more interesting through a dramatization or “up-play”, if this is the only way possible to get the numbers in to create the audience then it is acceptable – but only when this distortion was not the main point of the story. In certain cases biographical works need to be distorted in order to be relevant for the culture or society of the audience. This distortion makes sense as long as this distortion does not exceed beyond the boundary of being there to pull the audience in. The problem with this, however, is deciphering where this boundary begins and ends, and that also depends upon how the individual in the audience perceives the work.
Distortion can happen in places where a work would want to highlight a certain appeal of the subject, not only to make it more interesting for the audience, but also to help get the main point of the story across. Although this could pass as innocent, and to a point makes sense, I don’t see it as fair. If the story that the director or author is telling is legitimate, then they should be able to do it without needing to distort any of the main points surrounding the argument. I feel a perfect example of this is in Basquiat, where the director focused so much on the artist’s drug use that it is what the audience came to see him defined by. Like Stacey pointed out, this goes to neglect so many other aspects of Basquiat’s life that are much more respectable.
The second guideline that I had mentioned above was that if we are going to let distortion happen in a biographical work, then we need to consider what is being distorted, and beyond this how much of the story is being distorted. Within this there is another boundary that has to be determined, and that is how much distortion is okay?
No matter the context of distortion – how much, where, or why – it is the director or authors job to always make their audience aware that the story has been distorted. In a world where people are not only questioning truth, but also taking truths for granted, we need to be aware of what is real and what is not. And for respect of the subject of the biographical work, the fact of any distortion needs to be made clear so that some truth of the subject continues on in letting them being a human and not turning into an icon withholding to a dramatized “type”.