About the seminar
Reenactment, Memory, and Witnessing: Cinematic Ethics in The Look of Silence and S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine
The Act of Killing (Oppenheimer 2012) and The Look of Silence (2014) are powerful works of cinematic ethics. The former is a ‘perpetrator documentary’ that invites killers to make movie re-enactments of their crimes, the latter a case of ‘ethical witnessing’ in which a victim’s descendant questions his brother’s killer. In what follows, I explore The Look of Silence as case of ‘ethical witnessing’, focusing on the emotional dynamics of memory, recognition, and reconciliation, and contrast this with Rithy Panh’s perpetrator/witness documentary, S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine (2003), focusing on the genocide perpetrated by the Pol Pot regime (1975-1979).
Both films examine a range of moral emotions, solicited through interview sequences and stylised re-enactments. These strategies enable the perpetrators to expose their traumatic violence, but also allow survivors to question the perpetrators, staging an ethical encounter wherein the social recognition of political violence and historical trauma might become possible
This is a FREE event hosted by Film Studies at the University of Edinburgh. It will take place via Zoom. Once you register via Eventbrite, you will be emailed a link on the day of the event to gain access.
If you have any queries, please email Dr Chiara Quaranta.
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About the speaker
Robert Sinnerbrink is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Macquarie University, Sydney. He is the author of New Philosophies of Film (Second Edition): An Introduction to Cinema as a Way of Thinking (Bloomsbury, 2021), Terrence Malick: Filmmaker and Philosopher (Bloomsbury, 2019), Cinematic Ethics: Exploring Ethical Experience through Film(Routledge, 2016), New Philosophies of Film: Thinking Images (Continuum/Bloomsbury, 2011), and Understanding Hegelianism (Acumen, 2007/Routledge 2014). He is also a member of the editorial boards of the journals Film-Philosophy, Film and Philosophy, and Projections: The Journal of Movies and Mind.
Are you interested in studying film?
Home to a renowned arts scene and the longest continuously running film festival, the Edinburgh Internatonal Film Festival, the city offers excellent art house cinemas, galleries, theatres, a vibrant film culture and many job opportunities. The academic staff in Film Studies are published researchers with a focus on film theory, film-philosophy and national cinemas, while Film, Exhibition and Curation staff combine critical expertise with extensive experience in curating and making film. We offer one year taught Masters degrees in either Film Studies or in Film, Exhibition and Curation. The MSc in Film Studies is designed for students particularly interested in theory, film-philosophy and art house cinema, while the MSc in Film, Exhibition and Curation combines critical and project based approaches to screening film and developing audiences.
