Interview: Joshua Oppenheimer, The Look of Silence

“Joshua Oppenheimer has dedicated the last decade of his life to exposing the Indonesian genocide that occurred between 1965 and 1966, but he first began to tell his story to the world back in 2013, when Drafthouse Films released Oppenheimer’s film The Act of Killing to critical acclaim and an eventual Oscar nomination. The doc acquaints its viewers with Anwar Congo, formerly a leader of one of North Sumatra’s most powerful death squads, and today an old man who spends his days drinking, smoking, and dancing to stave off his personal demons. Most docs follow a stock pattern in terms of construction. The Act of Killing blew that pattern apart while informing audiences, in great detail, of unimaginable atrocities committed with appalling informality.” (Via Paste Magazine.)