tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/joshua-oppenheimer-13640/articlesJoshua Oppenheimer – The Conversation2018-12-27T09:30:30Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1072982018-12-27T09:30:30Z2018-12-27T09:30:30ZA brief history of black holes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250023/original/file-20181211-76959-cevsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/black-hole-space-distortion-anomaly-high-1253323123?src=_ZCrmjzHx8R553ssdCC96A-1-33">Cepheia/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Late in 2018, the gravitational wave observatory, LIGO, announced that they had detected the most distant and massive source of ripples of spacetime <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-detections-of-gravitational-waves-brings-the-number-to-11-so-far-107962">ever monitored</a>: waves triggered by pairs of black holes colliding in deep space. Only since 2015 have we been able to observe these invisible astronomical bodies, which can be detected only by their gravitational attraction. The history of our hunt for these enigmatic objects traces back to the 18th century, but the crucial phase took place in a suitably dark period of human history – World War II.</p>
<p>The concept of a body that would trap light, thereby becoming invisible to the rest of the universe, had first been considered by the natural philosophers John Michell and later Pierre-Simon Laplace in the 18th century. They used Newton’s gravitational laws to calculate the escape velocity of a light particle from a body, predicting the existence of stars so dense that light could not escape from them. Michell called them “dark stars”.</p>
<p>But after the discovery that light took the form of a wave in 1801, it became unclear how light would be affected by the Newtonian gravitational field, so the idea of dark stars was dropped. It took roughly 115 years to understand how light in the form of a wave would behave under the influence of a gravitational field, with Albert Einstein’s <a href="http://myweb.rz.uni-augsburg.de/%7Eeckern/adp/history/einstein-papers/1916_49_769-822.pdf">General Relativity Theory</a> in 1915, and Karl Schwarzschild’s <a href="https://www.jp-petit.org/Schwarzschild-1916-interior-de.pdf">solution to this problem</a> a year later.</p>
<p>Schwarzschild also predicted the existence of a critical circumference of a body, beyond which light would be unable to cross: the Schwarzschild radius. This idea was similar to that of Michell, but now this critical circumference was understood as an impenetrable barrier. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250670/original/file-20181214-185237-6ibiwo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250670/original/file-20181214-185237-6ibiwo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250670/original/file-20181214-185237-6ibiwo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250670/original/file-20181214-185237-6ibiwo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250670/original/file-20181214-185237-6ibiwo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=679&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250670/original/file-20181214-185237-6ibiwo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=679&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250670/original/file-20181214-185237-6ibiwo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=679&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Schwarzchild radius.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Black_hole_details.JPG#/media/File:Black_hole_details.JPG">Tetra Quark/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>It was only in 1933 that George Lemaître <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1018855621348">showed</a> that this impenetrability was only an illusion that a distant observer would have. Using the now famous Alice and Bob illustration, the physicist hypothesised that if Bob stood still while Alice jumped into the black hole, Bob would see Alice’s image slowing down until freezing just before reaching the Schwarzschild radius. Lemaître also showed that in reality, Alice crosses that barrier: Bob and Alice just experience the event differently.</p>
<p>Despite this theory, at the time there was no known object of such a size, nothing even close to a black hole. So nobody believed that something similar to the dark stars as hypothesised by Michell would exist. In fact, no one even dared to treat the possibility with seriousness. Not until World War II.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-would-happen-if-earth-fell-into-a-black-hole-53719">What would happen if Earth fell into a black hole?</a>
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<h2>From dark stars to black holes</h2>
<p>On September 1 1939, the Nazi German army invaded Poland, triggering the beginning of the war that changed the world’s history forever. Remarkably, it was on this very same day that the first academic paper on black holes was published. The now acclaimed article, <a href="https://journals.aps.org/pr/abstract/10.1103/PhysRev.56.455">On Continued Gravitational Contraction</a>, by J Robert Oppenheimer and Hartland Snyder, two American physicists, was a crucial point in the history of black holes. This timing seems particularly odd when you consider the centrality of the rest of World War II in the development of the theory of black holes.</p>
<p>This was Oppenheimer’s third and final paper in astrophysics. In it, he and Snyder predict the continued contraction of a star under the influence of its own gravitational field, creating a body with an intense attraction force that not even light could escape from it. This was the first version of the modern concept of a black hole, an astronomical body so massive that it can only be detected by its gravitational attraction.</p>
<p>In 1939, this was still an idea that was too strange to be believed. It would take two decades until the concept was developed enough that physicists would start to accept the consequences of the continued contraction described by Oppenheimer. And World War II itself had a crucial role in its development, because of the US government’s investment in researching <a href="https://theconversation.com/first-atomic-bomb-test-may-mark-the-beginning-of-the-anthropocene-36912">atomic bombs</a>.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250671/original/file-20181214-185249-11wrp18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250671/original/file-20181214-185249-11wrp18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250671/original/file-20181214-185249-11wrp18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250671/original/file-20181214-185249-11wrp18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250671/original/file-20181214-185249-11wrp18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=645&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250671/original/file-20181214-185249-11wrp18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=645&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250671/original/file-20181214-185249-11wrp18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=645&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Einstein and Oppenheimer, around 1950.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Robert_Oppenheimer#/media/File:Einstein_oppenheimer.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<h2>Reborn from the ashes</h2>
<p>Oppenheimer, of course, was not only an important character in the history of black holes. He would later become the head of the <a href="https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/manhattan-project">Manhattan Project</a>, the research centre that led to the development of atomic weapons.</p>
<p>Politicians understood the importance of investing in science in order to bring military advantage. Consequently, across the board, there was wide investment in war-related revolutionary physics research, nuclear physics and the development of new technologies. All sorts of physicists dedicated themselves to this kind of research, and as an immediate consequence, the fields of cosmology and astrophysics were mostly forgotten, including Oppenheimer’s paper.</p>
<p>In spite of the decade lost to large-scale astronomical research, the discipline of physics thrived as a whole as a result of the war – in fact, military physics ended up augmenting astronomy. The US left the war as the centre of modern physics. The number of PhDs <a href="http://web.mit.edu/dikaiser/www/Kaiser.ColdWarReq.pdf">skyrocketed</a>, and a new tradition of postdoctoral education was set up. </p>
<p>By the end of the war, the study of the universe was rekindled. There was a renaissance in the once underestimated theory of general relativity. The war changed the way we do physics: and eventually, this led to the fields of cosmology and general relativity getting the recognition they deserve. And this was fundamental to the acceptance and understanding of the black holes.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-detections-of-gravitational-waves-brings-the-number-to-11-so-far-107962">New detections of gravitational waves brings the number to 11 – so far</a>
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<p>Princeton University then became the centre of a new generation of relativists. It was there that the nuclear physicist, John A Wheeler, who later popularised the name “black hole”, had his first contact with general relativity, and reanalysed Oppenheimer’s work. Sceptical at first, the influence of close relativists, new advances in computational simulation and radio technology – developed during the war – turned him into the greatest enthusiast for Oppenheimer’s prediction on the day that war broke out, September 1 1939. </p>
<p>Since then, new properties and types of black holes have been theorised and discovered, but all this only culminated in 2015. The measurement of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-are-gravitational-waves-53239">gravitational waves</a> created in a black hole binary system was the first concrete proof that black holes exist.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107298/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carla Rodrigues Almeida does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The crucial phase of our discovery of black holes took place in a suitably dark period of human history – World War II.Carla Rodrigues Almeida, Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow, Max Planck Institute for the History of ScienceLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/891192017-12-14T13:29:34Z2017-12-14T13:29:34ZNetflix CIA conspiracy documentary Wormwood: how to find truth while tearing up the rules<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199223/original/file-20171214-27593-1b34on0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Frank Olson under the microscope. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/165779">Netflix</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>First things first: <a href="https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80059446">Wormwood</a>, Errol Morris’s new six-part CIA conspiracy series on Netflix, is a documentary. But this did not appear to be the view of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which <a href="http://www.indiewire.com/2017/11/wormwood-errol-morris-oscars-netflix-documentary-1201897145/">deemed</a> it ineligible for the Oscars’ documentary category. </p>
<p>One can see how some might reach this conclusion. This story of Eric Olson and his decades-long investigation into his scientist father Frank’s mysterious death plunge from a New York hotel window in 1953 uses reenactment sequences featuring recognisable, excellent actors like Peter Saarsgard, Molly Parker and Bob Balaban. </p>
<p>It is a story about an alleged government cover-up, CIA involvement and drugging victims with LSD. This is all given stylistic emphasis with clips from Laurence Olivier’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040416/">Hamlet</a> and near kaleidoscopic split-screen interview sequences. As such, the series’ form matches the hallucinatory and byzantine characteristics of its protagonist’s quest for truth. </p>
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<p>Yet the Academy’s objection has little to do with the reenactments – in fact, actors in reenactments <a href="http://variety.com/2017/film/in-contention/errol-morris-wormwood-netflix-oscar-chances-1202593066/">are eligible</a> for acting nominations. Rather the issue is Wormwood’s serialised format. After the <a href="http://oscar.go.com/news/winners/o-j-made-in-america-is-the-2017-oscar-winner-for-documentary-feature">Best Documentary Feature</a> win earlier this year for OJ: Made in America, the Academy <a href="http://deadline.com/2017/04/oscars-academy-new-documentary-eligibility-rules-disqualify-o-j-made-in-america-1202064536/">disallowed</a> multi-series nominations. </p>
<h2>What a documentary is</h2>
<p>Critics have muddied the waters too, <a href="https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/12/netflix-wormwood-trailer.html">saying</a> Wormwood is “not quite a documentary and not quite a drama”. But treating Wormwood as docudrama disregards much of the history of documentary. Fictional elements have played a key role in truth telling in the genre, starting with when Louise Lumière <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-era-of-fake-news-honest-documentary-makers-have-never-mattered-more-80595">instructed his</a> workers to exit his factory for a second time as he filmed them in his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEQeIRLxaM4">celebrated 1895 short</a>. </p>
<p>Even if one disregards <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0013427/">Nanook of the North (1922)</a> as documentary for casting Inuit man Allakariallak in the title role, plenty other examples with fictional elements should be included. Ethnographic filmmaker Jean Rouch involved his participants in the production of their own stories in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051942/">Moi, Un Noir (1954)</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0196879/">La Pyramide Humaine (1960)</a>. He believed the stories people told for themselves revealed far more than interviews or observation. And Sarah Polley’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2366450/">Stories We Tell (2012)</a> emphasises the ways such stories construct a life. </p>
<p>Hoaxes, too, can reveal valuable things in a documentary. <a href="http://beautifultrouble.org/case/the-couple-in-the-cage/">The Couple in the Cage (1992)</a> chronicles the response of audiences to Coco Fusco and Guillermo Gomez-Peña’s tour as “undiscovered Amerindians”, granting insights into deep and continuing colonialism in museums, art galleries and indeed documentary. </p>
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<p>One can see similar playful revelations even in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443453/">Borat (2006)</a>, where Sasha Baron Cohen’s provocations as the eponymous reporter expose Americans’ response to an Eastern other. This fake newsman yields real information. </p>
<p>And the list of documentaries that challenge a reliance on shaky handheld, fly-on-the-wall footage or authoritative voiceover continues. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1185616/">Waltz with Bashir (2008)</a> uses animation to depict filmmaker Ari Folman’s investigation into his repressed memories. In <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2852470/">The Missing Picture (2013)</a>, Rithy Panh uses clay figurines to help recall a childhood of extreme loss in the Cambodian genocide. Joshua Oppenheimer’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2375605/">The Act of Killing (2012)</a> (Morris was executive producer) chronicles men producing and performing in a film about the genocide in which they took an active role. </p>
<h2>Morris major</h2>
<p>Wormwood therefore shares a lot with the documentary tradition, in both its experimentations and its preoccupations with an elusive truth. Additionally, it is <a href="http://errolmorris.com">Errol Morris</a> all over. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199215/original/file-20171214-27568-1ln7zjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199215/original/file-20171214-27568-1ln7zjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199215/original/file-20171214-27568-1ln7zjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199215/original/file-20171214-27568-1ln7zjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199215/original/file-20171214-27568-1ln7zjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199215/original/file-20171214-27568-1ln7zjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1074&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199215/original/file-20171214-27568-1ln7zjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1074&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199215/original/file-20171214-27568-1ln7zjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1074&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Errol Morris.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Errol_Morris_by_Bridget_Laudien.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
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<p>Eric Olson stands at the centre of the story, his life and obsessions having been shaped by the loss of his father. A trained clinical psychologist, he has drawn on a collage method as a means of repairing trauma and its distorting effects on the memory. </p>
<p>These fervent pursuits make Eric a familiar figure within the Morris oeuvre – predominantly documentary and typically compelling. The American filmmaker has delivered a range of eccentrics and experts including the residents of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083281/">Vernon Florida (1981)</a>; the execution designer and Holocaust denier in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0192335/">Mr Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A Leuchter (1999)</a>, and the delightful photographer Elsa Dorfman in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5952468/">The B-Side (2016)</a>. </p>
<p>More familiar might be Morris’s character studies of US secretaries of defence Robert McNamara (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317910/">The Fog of War, 2003</a>) and Donald Rumsfeld (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2390962/">The Unknown Known, 2013</a>), both of whom are deemed responsible for leading the nation into unpopular wars. </p>
<p>Wormwood also shares with other Morris productions a preoccupation with piecing together a history. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0896866/">Standard Operating Procedure (2008)</a>, for instance, tells of the events at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq while addressing how digital photographs can become evidence, both for documentaries and trials. This calls attention to a larger system that decides on what is a crime (and not standard operating procedure). </p>
<p>Similarly, Morris’s break-out film, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096257/">The Thin Blue Line (1989)</a>, reconstructed the shooting death of police officer Robert Woods by scrutinising evidence, reports and testimonies; and using them alongside reenactments. </p>
<p>These experimentations with documentary style highlighted the challenge of recovering the past, though Morris <a href="http://archives.cjr.org/behind_the_news/recovering_reality.php">emphatically stated</a> that the film was not a disavowal of the truth. There is the fact of an occurrence. Someone was shot. Someone pulled the trigger. Not everything is a matter of perspective. Astoundingly, The Thin Blue Line aided in the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/us/26adams.html">exoneration</a> of Randall Adams (below), who had been imprisoned for the crime. </p>
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<p>Wormwood takes up similar pursuits with delirious flourish, resulting in a multi-layered experience. “I was told that your father has had an accident,” says Eric during an interview. “But that was the cover story told by the CIA”. </p>
<p>The reenactments echo and sometimes anticipate details that appear in onscreen reports or congressional testimonies. Each fact offers itself to necessary scrutiny over its origins, how it came about, whether it is corroborated, and generally its status as evidence. </p>
<p>The series encourages the viewer to watch with a critical gaze. But it neither rushes to the kind of reactionary scepticism that leads people to cry “fake news!”, nor trusts unquestioningly anything that appears as an authoritative fact. Wormwood achieves what all the best documentaries do: it challenges the idea that filmmakers can only establish facts through techniques like straight observation or an authoritative voiceover, but without for a moment compromising its commitment to uncover the truth. </p>
<p><em>Wormwood premieres on Netflix on December 15.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89119/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leshu Torchin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Errol Morris’s new series is not a traditional documentary, but it’s doggedly committed to discovering what happened to Frank Olson.Leshu Torchin, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies, University of St AndrewsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/706172016-12-20T15:02:42Z2016-12-20T15:02:42ZThe future of TV – where documentary meets fiction meets mocumentary<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150787/original/image-20161219-24271-1vxivct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A scene from the TV mini-series, 'Mars'.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Geographic</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="http://www.natgeotv.com/za">National Geographic Channel</a> is known for its nature documentaries, not for fictional television programming. But the recently launched TV mini-series <a href="http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/mars/">“Mars”</a> seems to mark a distinct move away from their regular programming. This series combines “real” documentary with fiction and mocumentary in a formula that is not only different from NatGeo’s regular offering, but also from other series currently available on conventional broadcast and streaming platforms.</p>
<p>The six-episode series stands at the centre of a multi-platform, multimedia Mars-focussed project. National Geographic magazine’s November issue featured a Mars <a href="http://press.nationalgeographic.com/2016/10/10/national-geographic-magazine-november-2016/">cover story</a>. NatGeo has made an eight-lesson Mars school <a href="http://media.nationalgeographic.org/assets/file/MARS_CURRICULUM_GUIDE_FORMSVERSION_ALL_FINAL.pdf">curriculum guide</a> available for free online. </p>
<p>They have published <a href="https://shop.nationalgeographic.com/product/books/books/space/mars">two books</a> about Mars, one aimed at adults and one at children. Their website offers a slew of online resources including interviews with the cast and crew, exclusive <a href="http://www.spacex.com/">SpaceX</a> <a href="http://www.makemarshome.com/">rocket test footage</a> and an interactive Mars surface map.</p>
<h2>From bird hide to premium TV?</h2>
<p>In recent years the number of television series available on conventional broadcast and streaming platforms has <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/9/14/9301867/peak-tv">grown exponentially</a>. The downside for TV channels of the <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/21/there-s-too-much-damn-tv.html">over-abundance of choice</a> has been that audience attention and viewing loyalty has become diluted. It has become increasingly challenging to capture and retain viewers.</p>
<p>Mainstream Hollywood movies have grown progressively <a href="http://europe.newsweek.com/movies-suck-now-and-theyre-only-going-get-worse-334582?rm=eu">more formulaic</a>. Big studios and distributors hedge their bets on sequels, remakes, tested formats and building so-called “universes” like that of the <a href="http://marvel.com/movies/all">Marvel</a> superheroes. These formulas are supposed to draw audiences that want to repeat past positive experiences rather than be challenged by new perspectives in independent films.</p>
<p>Enter premium television. The big-budget, high production-value, star-studded television series that exemplify this phenomenon completely changed previously held perceptions that A-list actors, writers and directors simply don’t work in TV. <a href="http://www.kevinspacey.com/">Kevin Spacey</a>, though he has had a stellar feature film career, has now become almost synonymous with <a href="https://www.netflix.com/za/">Netflix</a>’s <a href="https://www.netflix.com/za/title/70178217">“House of Cards”</a>.</p>
<p>Award winning <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/stevensoderbergh">Stephen Soderbergh</a> produced and directed <a href="http://www.cinemax.com/the-knick/">“The Knick”</a> for Cinemax. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/stranger-things">“Stranger Things”</a> (also Netflix) captured the imaginations of young and nostalgic viewers. Most recently <a href="http://www.hbo.com/westworld">“Westworld”</a> blazed a trail to the top of HBO’s production slate and became an overnight phenomenon with fans around the world.</p>
<h2>Capturing primetime audiences</h2>
<p>So, is the ambitious, expensive and multi-layered fiction-nonfiction hybrid production “Mars” an attempt by NatGeo to capture some of this premium TV audience? What differentiates the series is the combination of three narrative layers to tell the story of manned missions to Mars. The first layer – real documentary – is set in 2016 and makes use of the <a href="https://epowdocumentary.wordpress.com/documentary-modes/expository-mode/">expository mode</a> to combine sit-down interviews with archive and contemporary B-roll (cutaways or visual evidence).</p>
<p>The second layer is fictional – a projection of what a future manned mission to the red planet may look like. Set in the 2030s, it starts in 2033 with the launch of the first mission.</p>
<p>The third layer can be characterised as mocumentary, since it uses the conventions of expository documentary (interviews and B-roll). But the interviewees are fictional characters and the B-roll is scripted and fictionalised. The amount of screen time devoted to this layer diminishes as the series progresses, so that there is only one mocumentary interview clip by the final of the six episodes. Arguably this layer forms part of the second, fictional layer, but I believe it’s worth highlighting because it occupies a position between layer one and two – though the content is fictional like that of layer three, the form is borrowed from documentary, mirroring that of layer one.</p>
<h2>Layer 1: Documentary</h2>
<p>For the 2016 segments the views and experiences of scientists, researchers, thinkers, entrepreneurs and others involved in space travel are woven together. It paints a picture of the history of space travel, where we find ourselves right now, and the manned space travel that is planned for the not too distant future.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150796/original/image-20161219-24276-9mf8lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150796/original/image-20161219-24276-9mf8lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150796/original/image-20161219-24276-9mf8lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150796/original/image-20161219-24276-9mf8lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150796/original/image-20161219-24276-9mf8lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150796/original/image-20161219-24276-9mf8lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150796/original/image-20161219-24276-9mf8lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">SpaceX founder Elon Musk outlines his plan to design spacecraft to aid in the human colonisation of Mars within 40 to 100 years. He was speaking at the International Astronautics Congress in Mexico, 27 September 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ulises Ruiz Basurto/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s clear from quite early in the 2016 segment that it’s in fact a real documentary when entrepreneur, inventor and space explorer <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/">Elon Musk</a>, a man with designs on <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/27/13067376/elon-musk-spacex-mars-event-watch-live-stream-schedule-iac-2016">colonising Mars</a>, is interviewed. </p>
<h2>Layer 2: Fiction</h2>
<p>The fictionalised manned space mission, set in the 2030s, is scripted, making use of actors, sets, visual effects and the other conventions of fictional film and television production. The scenarios are clearly based on thorough and extensive research, however. </p>
<p>In relation to the first layer, these scenarios fulfil the same function that dramatisations of past events, or reenactments, would in conventional documentary. But, since the events are projected rather than historical, it would be more appropriate to call them “pre-enactments” instead. </p>
<h2>Layer 3: Mocumentary</h2>
<p>The third narrative layer, which includes scripted “interviews” with the characters of the fiction layer, serves to inform one’s understanding of the personal experiences of the Mars mission crew. These “interviews” are used to provide an excuse for exposition and as a short cut to establishing the characters before the audience is launched into the drama of the Mars mission.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150795/original/image-20161219-24276-hd1yub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150795/original/image-20161219-24276-hd1yub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150795/original/image-20161219-24276-hd1yub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150795/original/image-20161219-24276-hd1yub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150795/original/image-20161219-24276-hd1yub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150795/original/image-20161219-24276-hd1yub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150795/original/image-20161219-24276-hd1yub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">South Korean-born singer Jihae (L), Canadian actor Ben Cotton and French actress Clementine Poidatz pose during a photocall for the TV series ‘Mars’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Here documentary devices are used in the service of fictional storytelling. This layer is, arguably, the least compelling and most dispensable of the three. </p>
<h2>Juxtaposition and the suspension of disbelief</h2>
<p>The effects of combining the narrative layers and their respective storytelling modes are multifold. The 2030s pre-enactments visualise the science and technology discussed by interviewees in the 2016 documentary segments, showing their applications and implications.</p>
<p>The 2016 documentary lends credence to the 2030s fictionalised projection. The latter becomes more believable because we know that the technology to achieve what we see in the fictional scenes is already in development in 2016. And in the inter-cutting of the two layers a conversation is created that highlights various themes and dynamics that are explored in both.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oxfVCafkdPk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The soundtrack for ‘Mars’.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is a strange tension in the series between suspension of disbelief, as one would expect from fiction, and intellectual engagement, as one would expect from a scientific documentary. This stems from the constant interaction between the documentary and fiction segments.</p>
<p>When watching a fiction segment, scientific research comes to life in a way that encourages suspension of disbelief. Drama conventions like interpersonal conflict and internal struggles are combined with action devices. These include visual effects, dynamic camera movements, fast cutting and suspenseful build-ups to climaxes. </p>
<p>The score enhances the dramatic and thrilling moments in the film. The haunting <a href="http://www.stereogum.com/1907425/nick-cave-warren-ellis-mars-theme/mp3s/">theme song</a> by singer and composer <a href="http://www.nickcave.com/">Nick Cave</a> that accompanies the aesthetically pleasing title sequence sets this up from the beginning of each episode as high production value fictional television programming. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150797/original/image-20161219-24271-12tise8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150797/original/image-20161219-24271-12tise8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150797/original/image-20161219-24271-12tise8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150797/original/image-20161219-24271-12tise8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150797/original/image-20161219-24271-12tise8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150797/original/image-20161219-24271-12tise8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150797/original/image-20161219-24271-12tise8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Composer of the score for ‘Mars’, Nick Cave.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Toby Melville/Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Blurring the lines between fiction and nonfiction</h2>
<p>The idea of combining fiction and nonfiction is, of course, not new. Errol Morris pioneered the use of dramatic reenactments to illustrate interviewee testimony in his groundbreaking 1988 documentary <a href="http://www.errolmorris.com/film/tbl.html">“The Thin Blue Line”</a>. The feature film <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1136608/">“District 9”</a> (2009) uses mock interviews with fictional “experts” to set the scene for its science fiction action.</p>
<p>Recently documentary filmmakers have questioned the divide between fiction and nonfiction through their choices of subject matter and application of form. In the documentary <a href="http://elenafilm.com/">“Elena”</a> (2012), for example, Petra Costa shifts effortlessly between history and memory, fact and fantasy to tell the story of, and process her own feelings about, the disappearance of her sister. </p>
<p>What makes “Mars” worth taking note of is that it combines fiction and nonfiction elements in a way that places them in balance. They inform and enhance each other without the one being foregrounded over the other. And the end result is both entertaining and scientifically grounded. </p>
<p>I’ll hazard my own projection here: we’ll be seeing more high budget, thoughtfully scripted and well acted pre-enactments in conversation with actual documentary in television series and films in the not too distant future. Certainly before we walk on Mars.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70617/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liani Maasdorp does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The recently broadcast TV mini-series, “Mars”, combines fiction and nonfiction in a way that places them in balance. This kind of combination is likely to feature in more television series and films.Liani Maasdorp, Lecturer in Screen Production and Film and Television Studies, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/543212016-02-25T00:48:48Z2016-02-25T00:48:48ZThe Look of Silence and prequels bring Indonesia’s dark legacy of 1965 killings into the light<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112835/original/image-20160225-14489-12faceb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2000%2C1125&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Adi Rukun questions Commander Amir Siahaan, one of the death squad leaders responsible for his brother’s death during the Indonesian genocide, in Joshua Oppenheimer’s documentary The Look of Silence. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Drafthouse Films and Participant Media.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A series of Oscar-nominated documentaries on the aftermath of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-indonesias-1965-1966-anti-communist-purge-remade-a-nation-and-the-world-48243">the 1965 massacres</a> in present-day Indonesia attempts to change the way we remember the history of global right-wing political violence. </p>
<p>Before <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-look-of-silence-and-indonesias-dark-mirror-34005">The Look of Silence</a>, nominated for an Oscar to be announced this Sunday, and its prequel <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-act-of-killing-oscar-nod-lifts-the-lid-on-indonesias-dark-past-22163">The Act of Killing (2012), which was nominated in 2014</a>, the 1965 massacres of leftists by the Indonesian army and civilian militias had been one of the world’s bloodiest yet least talked about episodes of political violence. </p>
<p>We may be familiar with <a href="http://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/resources/collections/truth_commissions/Chile90-Report/Chile90-Report.pdf">the bloody overthrow of Chilean socialist president Salvador Allende in 1973 by General Pinochet</a> as a famous example of oppression against the left. But few know that the anti-communist pogrom in Indonesia eight years earlier helped inspire the coup. Pinochet even named his takeover plan <em>Operación Yakarta</em>. </p>
<p>The documentaries of Joshua Oppenheimer and an anonymous Indonesian co-director show how the 1965 events shaped Indonesia’s history, bringing to light the country’s experience as part of a global narrative.</p>
<p>To grasp the big picture, viewers should watch The Look of Silence as part of a trilogy, starting with The Globalisation Tapes (2003), followed by The Act of Killing. </p>
<h2>Decolonisation sabotaged</h2>
<p><a href="http://thelookofsilence.com/">The Look of Silence</a> follows <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/13/movies/adi-rukun-neither-silent-nor-intimidated.html?_r=0">Adi Rukun</a>, an optometrist whose brother was killed in the US-backed anti-communist massacre before he was born. He confronts the perpetrators, members of civilian militias who see themselves as patriots, about their complicity. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aA_ZHAs4M9k?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Look of Silence trailer.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s prequel, <a href="http://theactofkilling.com/awards_distinctions/">the Bafta-winning documentary Act of Killing</a>, shocked viewers with boastful killers re-enacting how they murdered their victims in 1965. </p>
<p>But The Act of Killing was not Oppenheimer’s first film on the effects of the 1965 violence. He had touched on them in <a href="http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-globalization-tapes/">The Globalisation Tapes</a>. </p>
<p>Largely incorporating 1960s agitprop style, it depicts the struggle of workers in a Belgian-owned plantation in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Some of them are descendants of 1965 victims. Their stories reveal the impact of forced economic globalisation on their livelihood. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Xo2OOIMkYOE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Globalisation Tapes.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Oppenheimer may not have intended to frame his works as a trilogy. But through these three films he provides a picture of the long-term impact of a sabotaged decolonisation. From the first instalment to the next, he embarks on tackling the issue of a global political economy and shifts to local and more personalised problems. </p>
<h2>Historical references</h2>
<p>Some critics debated whether <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/23/act-of-killing-dont-give-oscar-snuff-movie-indonesia">The Act of Killing is exploitation cinema</a>. Some argue it is an <a href="http://www.themalaymailonline.com/what-you-think/article/the-act-of-killing-and-the-ethics-of-documentary-film-making-badrul-hisham">orientalist picture about the atrocities</a>, attributing the carnage to the presupposed “Asiatic nature” of the killers. </p>
<p>Some view the lack of historical context in The Look of Silence and The Act of Killing as overlooking the complicity of Indonesian military and Western countries. </p>
<p>The films do, however, bring historical context to the viewers.</p>
<p>Oppenheimer had chosen the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Cinema">direct cinema approach</a> that focuses more on the here-and-now, limiting explicit historical description that fully describes the relationship between the armed forces and the civilian killers. He chose this approach to show that legacies of the 1965 violence remain in the present. </p>
<p>However, the films embody the sense of the past within different characters, expressed through their speech and gestures.</p>
<p>Oppenheimer also presents obvious Cold War references in his films. In The Look of Silence, Adi Rukun is exposed to NBC-produced newsreel from 1967 that relates Sukarno’s overthrow.</p>
<p>The film thus interrogates Western collaborators in the same way it interrogates the Indonesian killers. It shows viewers how the West spoke grandiosely of their anti-communism and their role in the slaughter. </p>
<p>The NBC narrator Ted Yates says: “Indonesia has a fabulous potential wealth and natural resources. Goodyear Sumatran rubber empire is an example. The rubber workers’ union was communist-run. So, after the coup many of them were killed or imprisoned. Some of the survivors – you see them here – still work the rubber plantation, but this time as prisoners and at gunpoint.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112702/original/image-20160224-16459-tcjv5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112702/original/image-20160224-16459-tcjv5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112702/original/image-20160224-16459-tcjv5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112702/original/image-20160224-16459-tcjv5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112702/original/image-20160224-16459-tcjv5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112702/original/image-20160224-16459-tcjv5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112702/original/image-20160224-16459-tcjv5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Adi Rukun watches footage of interviews conducted by Joshua Oppenheimer with perpetrators of the 1965-66 Indonesian genocide in The Look of Silence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Drafthouse Films and Participant Media</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The NBC footage, uncompromising in its demonisation of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukarno">Sukarno</a> and the Communist Party, shows plantation workers literally marching at army gunpoint. </p>
<h2>Anti-communism remains a force</h2>
<p>Oppenheimer’s team has effectively use several online platforms to promote the films and organise screenings by sending free copies of the films to hundreds of communities.</p>
<p>The public response to the documentaries has triggered screenings of related films. Between 2000 and 2011, at least 25 films (shorts, documentaries, features) have been made about the subject. <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=VdZ1BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA102&lpg=PA102&dq=Lexy+Rambadeta+Mass+Graves&source=bl&ots=BpoHvZ2gQ4&sig=6kjacjwslSaYrInrt_EHCxweMCA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZ8NuG0JHLAhVme6YKHU3tAy4Q6AEINDAE#v=onepage&q=Lexy%20Rambadeta%20Mass%20Graves&f=false">Lexy Rambadetta’s Mass Grave</a> (2001), for instance, deals with resistance from communities to families wishing to provide proper reburial for victims. </p>
<p>The increasing production of 1965-themed films shows that Indonesians are speaking up about the murders. Some screenings are banned by authorities and attacked by right-wing mass organisations. This also suggests violent legacies of the 1965 killings live on. </p>
<p>Influential members of the armed forces still retain links to militia groups notorious for their street violence. The anti-communist narrative – “they wage war on us”, “they corrupt the youth”, “we have no choice but to kill them or be killed” – can be found in many different translations, being handy to dismiss minority groups such as Ahmadis and Shiites, and having featured in recent attacks on members of the Gafatar religious cult and <a href="https://theconversation.com/onslaughts-against-gays-and-lesbians-challenge-indonesias-lgbt-rights-movement-54639">LGBT people</a>. </p>
<h2>Duty to truth</h2>
<p>Oppenheimer’s trilogy challenges us to take on a different kind of engagement with past atrocities. That means casting a light on more and more perpetrators, some of whom live next door. </p>
<p>The military and its street proxies aside, the 1965 massacre involved sections of religious leaders, artists and intellectuals. </p>
<p>When the state keeps silent and wants us to be silent about its unpleasant past, the duty to expose past collaborators is ultimately left to us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54321/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Windu Jusuf does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Oscar nominated documentary The Look of Silence follows an optometrist whose brother was killed in Indonesia’s 1965 massacre. But to understand the bigger picture, viewers should watch its prequels.Windu Jusuf, Lecturer of Film Studies, Binus UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/340052014-11-21T04:28:11Z2014-11-21T04:28:11ZThe Look of Silence and Indonesia’s dark mirror<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64234/original/vxgg2z53-1415692558.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Like its prequel The Act of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer's documentary The Look of Silence holds a mirror to its subjects and viewers who are forced to face a horrifying truth. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lars Skree/Final Cut for Real</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>With eyes fixed on his television screen, Adi Rukun, the main character followed by documentary maker Joshua Oppenheimer in his new film, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3521134/">The Look Of Silence</a>, seems to face a mirror that resurrects a nightmarish past.</p>
<p>In the footage that he is watching, two old men sit by the bank of the Snake River and proudly narrate the various killing methods they deployed in Indonesia’s 1965-66 anti-communist massacre. Oppenheimer and his crew were behind the camera, filming. </p>
<p>The men, Amir Hasan and Inong, explain in grisly detail how they murdered Ramli, Adi’s brother. Adi and Ramli never met. Attempting to describe Adi’s reaction would only reveal the limits of our capacity to understand the pain of others. This is, perhaps, the look of silence.</p>
<h2>The screen as a mirror</h2>
<p>Oppenheimer’s The Look of Silence premiered in Indonesia earlier this month. The companion piece to his Oscar-nominated 2012 film <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-act-of-killing-oscar-nod-lifts-the-lid-on-indonesias-dark-past-22163">The Act of Killing</a> deals with a survivor’s quest for justice.</p>
<p>Adi, a 44-year-old optometrist, decides to confront his brother’s murderers. The particular scene in which Adi watches Oppenheimer’s footage lingers in my mind as it evokes questions around the concept of the “mirror”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64232/original/jpzz9ck3-1415690512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64232/original/jpzz9ck3-1415690512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64232/original/jpzz9ck3-1415690512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64232/original/jpzz9ck3-1415690512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64232/original/jpzz9ck3-1415690512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64232/original/jpzz9ck3-1415690512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64232/original/jpzz9ck3-1415690512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Adi Rukun’s expression as he silently watches footage from Joshua Oppenheimer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lars Skree/Final Cut for Real</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That TV screen on which he watches his brother’s killers works something like a mirror. It presents a horrifying truth and gives him a deeper access to the perpetrators’ story. </p>
<p>Oppenheimer has used the analogy of the mirror in interviews to describe his films. The Act of Killing, according to him, held up a <a href="http://newdirectors.org/blog/new-directors-new-films-joshua-oppenheimer-the-act-of-killing">“dark mirror”</a> to Anwar Congo and to Indonesian society as a whole. </p>
<h2>Rejection and reconciliation</h2>
<p>Some viewers <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/23/act-of-killing-dont-give-oscar-snuff-movie-indonesia">criticised </a> Oppenheimer for allowing killers to indulge in their morbid fantasies in The Act of Killing. The Look of Silence is more piercing in its subtlety than The Act of Killing and offers something of a response to this criticism.</p>
<p>Adi’s profession as an optometrist is a powerful metaphor for his bold but forgiving character. He wishes to fix the way we see the world rather than to take an eye for an eye. </p>
<p>In the film, the killers and their families deny their guilt – except for one occasion when Adi visits a man and his daughter. This man admits drinking the blood of his victims to stay sane. Shaken by this chilling confession, the daughter apologises for him. In an awkward, painful moment, Adi embraces her. It is one of the most moving scenes in the film and it might serve as what Oppenheimer calls “a model for reconciliation.”</p>
<p>This embrace wouldn’t have been possible, of course, without Oppenheimer orchestrating the meetings – even if Adi initiated the idea of facing his brother’s killers.</p>
<p>In a village where the killers won, the power relation between survivors and the perpetrators is straightforward. What’s not clear on screen is the power relation that exists between the filmmaker and his subjects. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64233/original/27s8kqpk-1415691816.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64233/original/27s8kqpk-1415691816.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64233/original/27s8kqpk-1415691816.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64233/original/27s8kqpk-1415691816.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64233/original/27s8kqpk-1415691816.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64233/original/27s8kqpk-1415691816.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64233/original/27s8kqpk-1415691816.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Joshua Oppenheimer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel Bergeron</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What conditions enable the director to hold up the mirror? What if we can’t see the mirror-holder reflected on screen?</p>
<p>Power relations in the production process, especially involving subjects who are economically and culturally less privileged, has been a central concern of debates about documentary film-making. Consent and cooperation do not guarantee that documentary subjects possess knowledge that equals that of the filmmaker about the implications of camera angles, shot-to-shot relations, and the overall narrative structure. </p>
<p>The Act of Killing had a significant political impact in Indonesia and internationally – and The Look of Silence may make a similar impression. Is this kind of film-making ethical?</p>
<p>Southeast Asian historian Gerry van Klinken argues that The Act of Killing is not unethical because its aim is not to exploit <a href="http://criticalasianstudies.org/issues/vol46/no1/no-the-act-of-killing-is-not-unethical.html">“the moral cretinism”</a> of a particular group but, instead, to pose a critique of Indonesia as a whole. </p>
<p>But I can’t ignore the power of the director holding up the mirror. He offers a particular frame for me to interpret the image – which implicates me in the power relation. The frame, as I understand it, is that The Act of Killing opens up the space, breaking the silence after 47 years, and The Look of Silence fills the space with further actions.</p>
<h2>Indonesians have not been silent</h2>
<p>The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence project “Indonesia as a whole” as a coherent image, a country where the killers rule. It maps a continuity rather than a conclusive break with the authoritarian period of our history. </p>
<p>Yet, the face of Indonesia that I know and experience, as <a href="http://intanparamaditha.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/tracing-frictions-in-the-act-of-killing_paramaditha_filmquarterly2013.pdf">I’ve written previously</a> in relation to The Act of Killing, is cracking. Various national debates demonstrate a highly divided society and distrust over state institutions. </p>
<p>Shifting ideas of the nation, existing in tension with the remnants of authoritarianism, result in counter-discourses about 1965-66 that have been circulated since the fall of former president Suharto. Indonesians, to borrow from scholar Leslie Dwyer’s phrase, “<a href="http://criticalasianstudies.org/issues/vol46/no1/picturing-violence.html">have not been silent</a>”.</p>
<p>It is this rupture – and not the cohesiveness of the “Indonesia as a whole” that explains why so many are invested in Oppenheimer’s project, why “Anonymous” crews support the production, and why it was possible to screen The Act of Killing more than 1,000 times throughout the country.</p>
<h2>A need for structural change</h2>
<p>Despite the persisting cultural movement since Suharto’s downfall, the infrastructures that prevent Indonesians from contesting the official narrative of 1965-66 remain unchanged. We need structural changes within Indonesia to do this. </p>
<p>I share a restlessness for change with Oppenheimer. And yet how do I reconcile the distance between myself and the man who holds up the mirror for me? </p>
<p>We need to position Oppenheimer’s films within the network of cultural activism that already exists in Indonesia. This, however, requires a more open discussion about the ramifications of power as part of the process of making and circulating documentaries such as The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence – and the limitations of activists and filmmakers in creating cultural interventions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34005/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Intan Paramaditha has worked with a network of cultural activists in Indonesia, which informs her views on public engagement and citizen-state relations in this article.</span></em></p>With eyes fixed on his television screen, Adi Rukun, the main character followed by documentary maker Joshua Oppenheimer in his new film, The Look Of Silence, seems to face a mirror that resurrects a nightmarish…Intan Paramaditha, Lecturer at the English Department , Universitas IndonesiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.