On the Act of Looking Reading Joshua Oppenheimer’s Diptych: The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Rex Butler is Professor of Art History in the Faculty of Art Design and Architecture at Monash University, Australia.
David Denny is Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the University of Portland, USA. Previously, he was Associate Professor of Culture and Media Studies at Marylhurst University, USA.
I hoped that <i>The Act of Killing</i> and <i>The Look of Silence </i>would serve as mirrors — not to Indonesia alone, but to the whole world — inviting us to see humanity’s most painful, mysterious truths. What an unexpected surprise, then, to encounter a book so rich in insight, so manifold in perspective — a work that truly holds a mirror to my own, and thus to me. That pleasure carries urgency. When the films first appeared, I insisted they were not about a genocide committed decades earlier, but portraits of our present, of a flourishing regime of impunity, nothing that impunity is the story of our times. Today, as the whole world is becoming <i>The Act of Killing</i>, that seems at once prescient and terrifyingly understated.
Joshua Oppenheimer, Filmmaker, Sweden
<i>Act of Killing</i> is one of the most important documentary films made in the 21st century, and as of now, there are no books devoted to it. The need is crying, and Butler and Denny have put together an exciting group of writers to respond to it.
Todd McGowan, Professor, University of Vermont, USA
The two films are fascinating objects of study whose significance spans a number of different fields in the humanities and social sciences. Bringing together commentary by Indonesian writers, journalists and activists with academic texts by western scholars situates the cultural context of the films in a meaningful way.
George Kouvaros, Professor of Film Studies, School of the Arts and Media, University of New South Wales, Australia
More than a decade has passed since I first watched <i>The Act of Killing </i>and <i>The Look of Silence</i> by Joshua Oppenheimer. For me, these films breathe life into stories long smothered by those in power. Sixty years on, Indonesia has yet to move toward a genuine respect for Human Rights. I hope this book will inspire people to resist more strongly the forces of dehumanization everywhere.
Putu Oka Sukanta, Writer and Human Rights Activist
As if looking through a looking glass into a looking glass, this book offers insight into a moment in Indonesia’s transition that allowed a somewhat twisted — perpetrator-focused, truth-wrangled — introspection into an unspoken chapter of its past. Today, as Indonesia and the world plunge into an era where lies spread faster than truth, it is even more urgent to interrogate these creative, contested and fractured spaces that can still facilitate dialog on the unsettling truths of the violence of 1965, and many more chapters of violence in Indonesia’s history.
Galuh Wandita, Asia Justice and Rights (AJAR)
This collection analyzes Joshua Oppenheimer’s diptych The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence as a cinematic event that invites interrelated questions on historical memory, truth and reconciliation, and the limits of documentary filmmaking.
On the Act of Looking affirms Oppenheimer’s use of fiction and manipulation as a technique to expose, contrary to the classic documentary form, not so much a reality behind the appearance of things, but how appearance as such can become a site of intervention or truth-telling. Contributors to this collection, including film scholars, art historians, historians, political scientists, philosophers, and Indonesian human rights activists, answer why Oppenheimer's documentary films not only have received near universal praise and admiration, but also why this praise is often qualified by surprise and fascination.
1. Introduction: The Look of Silence at the Act of Killing
Rex Butler (Monash University, Australia)
2. An Interview with Putu Oka Sukanta and Galuh Wandita
Rex Butler (Monash University, Australia) and David Denny (teacher of Philosophy, USA)
3. Thinking of Joshua for My Country, Indonesia
Martin Aleida (Journalist, Indonesia)
4. A Conversation about The Act of Killing
Niels Pagh Anderson (Norwegian National Film School, Norway) and Joshua Oppenheimer (Film Director, Denmark)
5. A Conversation about The Look of Silence
Niels Pagh Anderson (Norwegian National Film School, Norway) and Joshua Oppenheimer (Film Director, Denmark)
6. The Presence and Absence of History in The Act of Killing
John Roosa (University of British Columbia, Canada)
7. The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence: Movies against the Politics of Stigma
Asep Topan (Independent Scholar, Australia)
8. Performance and Human Rights in Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence
Alexandra S. Moore (Binghamton University, USA)
9. Joshua Oppenheimer’s Provocation and its Reception
Iqra Anugrah (University of Turin, Italy)
10. All That is Spectral Made into Solid: Watching The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence as Ghost Stories
Tito Ambyo (RMIT University, Australia)
11. The Historical Situation: Oppenheimer’s Metacinema in the Context of Documentary Traditions
David LaRocca (Author and Filmmaker, USA)
12. The Truth of Atrocity: The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence and Fantasmatic Violence
Hilary Neroni (University of Vermont, USA)
13. The Discourse of the Analyst: A Reading of The Act of Killing
David Denny (teacher of Philosophy, USA)
14. Conclusion: On Forgiveness for Acts of Killing
Rex Butler (Monash University, Australia)
Index
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Rex Butler is Professor of Art History in the Faculty of Art Design and Architecture at Monash University, Australia.
David Denny is Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the University of Portland, USA. Previously, he was Associate Professor of Culture and Media Studies at Marylhurst University, USA.