Watching The Look
of Silence in Dili
by Pam Sexton
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Watching The Look
of Silence in Dili.
Photo by Zésopol
Caminha. |
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On August
22, 2015, the first
public screening of Joshua
Oppenheimer's film
The Look of Silence drew around 60
people to the Asosiasaun
HAK human rights office
in Dili. The documentary
probes the impact of the
1965/66 mass killings that
brought the
dictator Suharto to
power in Indonesia and the
impunity which continues
to prevail for these
and others crimes by Indonesian
security forces.
Before the film, award-winning
Timorese songwriter Ego
Lemos
sang Balibo and
founders
of HAK spoke. The film was
followed by reflections
and discussion that focused
on the critical importance
of telling stories, challenging
silence and impunity, and
nurturing international
solidarity.
Some of the messages
from the discussion included:
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The brutality that happened
in 1965 in Indonesia was
repeated in Timor-Leste in
1975 and subsequent
years. The same anti-communist
propaganda fed these crimes
against humanity.
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The people of Indonesia
suffered under Suharto,
as the people of Timor
did. Instead of speaking
about how Indonesia
invaded East Timor, we
should say instead
Suharto and the Indonesian
military invaded East
Timor.
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Silencing can happen under
a brutal military presence,
under a censorship of
anything but the official
history. There
is also self-silencing
or the silencing of
friends and family
because 'we all
have our stories.'
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We need to tell and
listen and encourage
storytelling; we need
the bravery to write
history, and to include
the perspectives of
those with the least
power.
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We must be persistent
and be patient and steadfast
in our work for truth,
justice and human rights
and we must build alliances
across borders.
Organizers of this event
are working to organize
a public showing in Dili
of the film The Act of Killing,
also directed by Joshua
Oppenheimer with a largely
anonymous crew.
Join ETAN in its
call to end 50 years of
silence: Sign and share
ETAN's petition:
http://chn.ge/1v50Edj
THE LOOK
OF SILENCE is Joshua Oppenheimer’s
powerful companion piece to the
Oscar-nominated The Act of Killing.
Through a family that lost their
eldest son, the film explores one
of the 20th century’s deadliest
atrocities, still largely hidden
after 50 years—Indonesia’s 1965
army-led purge and killing of as
many as one million people. The
family discovers years later (from
Oppenheimer’s footage) who killed
their son and how, and they must
confront how privileged, dangerous,
and close at hand the killers remain.
The younger son, an optometrist
named Adi, breaks the half-century
of fearful silence with an act the
film calls “unimaginable in a society
where the murderers remain in power.”
While testing the eyesight of the
men who killed his brother, Adi
confronts them. He challenges them
to accept responsibility for their
violence. Oppenheimer writes that
the film depicts “a silence born
of terror,” and “the necessity of
breaking that silence, but also
… the trauma that comes when that
silence is broken." More
information about the film can be
found here:
http://thelookofsilence.com/
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voice of reason, criticizing the
administration's reluctance
to address ongoing human rights
violations and escalating oppression
in West Papua and against religious
minorities throughout Indonesia."
Noam Chomsky
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