The Act of Killing: Investigative strategies for a ‘Post-Political’ Age

Unusually for a political documentary, The Act of Killing provides its audiences with little information, no overarching argument, nor a call-to-action. Instead, director Joshua Oppenheimer uses two unconventional investigative strategies—reenactment and an examination of media affect—to uncover the...

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Autor principal:	Alex Edney-Browne
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Asia Pacific Network 2015
Materias:	Communication. Mass media P87-96 Journalism. The periodical press, etc. PN4699-5650
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/e8cbbe1b32cf4563a19440f4bd7b1795
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:e8cbbe1b32cf4563a19440f4bd7b17952021-12-02T08:57:09ZThe Act of Killing: Investigative strategies for a ‘Post-Political’ Age10.24135/pjr.v21i2.1151023-94992324-2035https://doaj.org/article/e8cbbe1b32cf4563a19440f4bd7b17952015-10-01T00:00:00Zhttps://ojs.aut.ac.nz/pacific-journalism-review/article/view/115https://doaj.org/toc/1023-9499https://doaj.org/toc/2324-2035Unusually for a political documentary, The Act of Killing provides its audiences with little information, no overarching argument, nor a call-to-action. Instead, director Joshua Oppenheimer uses two unconventional investigative strategies—reenactment and an examination of media affect—to uncover the 1965 Indonesian genocide and the shadow it casts over present-day Indonesia. Although these techniques have been used previously in documentary cinema, Oppenheimer employs them in innovative ways to dig under Indonesia’s social unconscious and expose the artifice of the ‘official’ history of the genocide. This article provides a close analyses of The Act of Killing’s use of these strategies. It argues that they are not only integral to the documentary’s political success in the Indonesian context, but can also be used by political documentarists and committed journalists to mobilise otherwise disengaged audiences in our ‘non-ideological’ and ‘post-political’ age.Alex Edney-BrowneAsia Pacific NetworkarticleCommunication. Mass mediaP87-96Journalism. The periodical press, etc.PN4699-5650ENPacific Journalism Review, Vol 21, Iss 2 (2015)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Communication. Mass media P87-96 Journalism. The periodical press, etc. PN4699-5650
spellingShingle	Communication. Mass media P87-96 Journalism. The periodical press, etc. PN4699-5650 Alex Edney-Browne The Act of Killing: Investigative strategies for a ‘Post-Political’ Age
description	Unusually for a political documentary, The Act of Killing provides its audiences with little information, no overarching argument, nor a call-to-action. Instead, director Joshua Oppenheimer uses two unconventional investigative strategies—reenactment and an examination of media affect—to uncover the 1965 Indonesian genocide and the shadow it casts over present-day Indonesia. Although these techniques have been used previously in documentary cinema, Oppenheimer employs them in innovative ways to dig under Indonesia’s social unconscious and expose the artifice of the ‘official’ history of the genocide. This article provides a close analyses of The Act of Killing’s use of these strategies. It argues that they are not only integral to the documentary’s political success in the Indonesian context, but can also be used by political documentarists and committed journalists to mobilise otherwise disengaged audiences in our ‘non-ideological’ and ‘post-political’ age.
format	article
author	Alex Edney-Browne
author_facet	Alex Edney-Browne
author_sort	Alex Edney-Browne
title	The Act of Killing: Investigative strategies for a ‘Post-Political’ Age
title_short	The Act of Killing: Investigative strategies for a ‘Post-Political’ Age
title_full	The Act of Killing: Investigative strategies for a ‘Post-Political’ Age
title_fullStr	The Act of Killing: Investigative strategies for a ‘Post-Political’ Age
title_full_unstemmed	The Act of Killing: Investigative strategies for a ‘Post-Political’ Age
title_sort	act of killing: investigative strategies for a ‘post-political’ age
publisher	Asia Pacific Network
publishDate	2015
url	https://doaj.org/article/e8cbbe1b32cf4563a19440f4bd7b1795
work_keys_str_mv	AT alexedneybrowne theactofkillinginvestigativestrategiesforapostpoliticalage AT alexedneybrowne actofkillinginvestigativestrategiesforapostpoliticalage
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The Act of Killing: Investigative strategies for a ‘Post-Political’ Age

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