On the Act of Looking

I hoped that The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence 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 The Act of Killing, that seems at once prescient and terrifyingly understated. * Joshua Oppenheimer, Filmmaker, Sweden *
Act of Killing 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 The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence 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) *