Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
On the Act of Looking: Reading Joshua Oppenheimer's Diptych: The Act of Killing and the Look of Silence

On the Act of Looking: Reading Joshua Oppenheimer's Diptych: The Act of Killing and the Look of Silence

Butler, Rex
Denny, David

Hardcover

DirectorsFilm StudiesFilmmaking

ISBN10: 150134790X
ISBN13: 9781501347900
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: Feb 19 2026
Pages: 296
Weight: 1.23
Height: 0.69 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English

This collection analyzes Joshua Oppenheimer's diptych The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence as a cinematic event that invites interrelated questions on historical memory, truth and reconciliation, and the limits of documentary filmmaking.

On the Act of Looking affirms Oppenheimer's use of fiction and manipulation as a technique to expose, contrary to the classic documentary form, not so much a reality behind the appearance of things, but how appearance as such can become a site of intervention or truth-telling. Contributors to this collection, including film scholars, art historians, historians, political scientists, philosophers, and Indonesian human rights activists, answer why Oppenheimer's documentary films not only have received near universal praise and admiration, but also why this praise is often qualified by surprise and fascination.

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