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Oscars 2014: Act of Killing passed over, but leads to change in Indonesia
The Guardian (Australia) - March 4, 2014
The winner, 20 Feet from Stardom, is an affecting, heartfelt tribute to the normally unsung lot of the backing singer. But among the films overlooked was The Act of Killing, the extraordinary account of mass murder in 1960s Indonesia directed by Joshua Oppenheimer. The documentary has had a seismic effect from the moment it was premiered at the Toronto film festival in September 2012.
Oppenheimer, speaking to the Guardian hours after missing out at the Academy awards, is in no mood to be downhearted. "I honestly feel we have already won," he says. "The film has caused a level of change in Indonesia beyond anything we could have hoped for three years ago. We didn't make the film to win an Oscar; but to open up possibilities for real change."
The Act of Killing is a long way from a straightforward historical treatment of its subject, the mass purges targeting communists carried out in 1965 and 1966 after a failed coup. Oppenheimer interviews several key perpetrators at considerable length; they re-enact their brutality, and even stage scenes of an elaborate film of their own that they are making. What is clear is that men responsible for large-scale murder are living openly without fear of prosecution or reprisal, and indeed with the tacit support of current government officials.
The Act of Killing is not without its critics. Nick Fraser, editor of the BBC's Storyville documentary strand, has accused the film of being "a high-minded snuff movie", suggesting that "getting killers to script and restage their murders... feels wrong and it certainly looks wrong".
Errol Morris, a respected documentarian himself and one of the film's executive producers (along with Werner Herzog), defended the film on the grounds that "by re-enacting the murders... [we] could become reconnected to a history that had nearly vanished into a crepuscular past."
Oppenheimer, however, says the film was not as divisive as this might suggest. "Our biggest challenge was getting people to actually watch the film. When they do the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. Fundamentally, the film takes people to an uncomfortable place and asks them to look at painful truths. In the end that's what art is all about – but of course any film will have its detractors."
In Indonesia, official acknowledgement of the massacres had hitherto been almost non-existent. However, government officials were forced to respond to the film, not least when an outcry in China following the film's Oscar nomination shone a spotlight on the Chinese victims of the death squads.
Says Oppenheimer: "Whether or not we won the award, the nomination led the government to acknowledge what happened was wrong. That's a significant about-face in the struggle against impunity and that's something that wouldn't have happened without the attention from the Oscars.
"There's no sour grapes in this, but it's pretty clear that an uplifting tale about backup singers is a safe option. It would be nice if the Oscar voters knew they had the power to make a real difference."
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/mar/03/the-act-of-killing-change-indonesia-oscar.
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