Upcoming Screenings in Kolkata : June 1 (Sunday) and June 26 (Thursday)
Dear Friends,
Please reserve the dates: JUNE 1 and JUNE 26
Cinema of Resistance (Kolkata) Monthly Screening - 1st June (Sunday), 5 pm - 8 pm
THE ACT OF KILLING
Dir: Joshua Oppenheimer/122 minutes/Documentary/2013/
SYNOPSIS: When the government of Indonesia was overthrown by the military in 1965, Anwar and his friends were promoted from small-time gangsters who sold movie theatre tickets on the black market to death squad leaders. They helped the army kill more than one million alleged communists, ethnic Chinese, and intellectuals in less than a year. As the executioner for the most notorious death squad in his city, Anwar himself killed hundreds of people with his own hands.
Today, Anwar is revered as a founding father of a right-wing paramilitary organization that grew out of the death squads. The organization is so powerful that its leaders include government ministers, and they are happy to boast about everything from corruption and election rigging to acts of genocide.
The Act of Killing is about killers who have won, and the sort of society they have built. Unlike ageing Nazis or Rwandan génocidaires, Anwar and his friends have not been forced by history to admit they participated in crimes against humanity. Instead, they have written their own triumphant history, becoming role models for millions of young paramilitaries. The Act of Killing is a journey into the memories and imaginations of the perpetrators, offering insight into the minds of mass killers. And The Act of Killing is a nightmarish vision of a frighteningly banal culture of impunity in which killers can joke about crimes against humanity on television chat shows, and celebrate moral disaster with the ease and grace of a soft shoe dance number.
The film won the 2013 European Film Award for Best Documentary, the Asia Pacific Screen Award, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 86th Academy Awards.
The Act of Killing won best documentary at the 2014 BAFTA awards. In accepting the award, Oppenheimer asserted that the United States and the United Kingdom have "collective responsibility" for "participating in and ignoring" the crimes, which was omitted from the video BAFTA posted online. After a screening for US Congress members, Oppenheimer demanded that the US acknowledge its role in the killings.
______________________________
June 26 (Thursday) - TO MARK THE ANNIVERSARY OF IMPOSITION OF THE EMERGENCY
Like our day-long film screening last year, this year too Cinema of Resistance, Kolkata, will mark the day noting in particular the undeclared emergency existing in our country. We will organize a day-long art exhibition and seminar by eminent painter Ashok Bhowmick (Delhi) along with film screening. Details/venues/posters will be posted soon. As of now, mark your calendars!
Warmly,
Kasturi
Website of Kolkata Chapter: http://corkolkata.wordpress.
Dear Friends,
Please reserve the dates: JUNE 1 and JUNE 26
Cinema of Resistance (Kolkata) Monthly Screening - 1st June (Sunday), 5 pm - 8 pm
THE ACT OF KILLING
Dir: Joshua Oppenheimer/122 minutes/Documentary/2013/
SYNOPSIS: When the government of Indonesia was overthrown by the military in 1965, Anwar and his friends were promoted from small-time gangsters who sold movie theatre tickets on the black market to death squad leaders. They helped the army kill more than one million alleged communists, ethnic Chinese, and intellectuals in less than a year. As the executioner for the most notorious death squad in his city, Anwar himself killed hundreds of people with his own hands.
Today, Anwar is revered as a founding father of a right-wing paramilitary organization that grew out of the death squads. The organization is so powerful that its leaders include government ministers, and they are happy to boast about everything from corruption and election rigging to acts of genocide.
The Act of Killing is about killers who have won, and the sort of society they have built. Unlike ageing Nazis or Rwandan génocidaires, Anwar and his friends have not been forced by history to admit they participated in crimes against humanity. Instead, they have written their own triumphant history, becoming role models for millions of young paramilitaries. The Act of Killing is a journey into the memories and imaginations of the perpetrators, offering insight into the minds of mass killers. And The Act of Killing is a nightmarish vision of a frighteningly banal culture of impunity in which killers can joke about crimes against humanity on television chat shows, and celebrate moral disaster with the ease and grace of a soft shoe dance number.
The film won the 2013 European Film Award for Best Documentary, the Asia Pacific Screen Award, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 86th Academy Awards.
The Act of Killing won best documentary at the 2014 BAFTA awards. In accepting the award, Oppenheimer asserted that the United States and the United Kingdom have "collective responsibility" for "participating in and ignoring" the crimes, which was omitted from the video BAFTA posted online. After a screening for US Congress members, Oppenheimer demanded that the US acknowledge its role in the killings.
______________________________
June 26 (Thursday) - TO MARK THE ANNIVERSARY OF IMPOSITION OF THE EMERGENCY
Like our day-long film screening last year, this year too Cinema of Resistance, Kolkata, will mark the day noting in particular the undeclared emergency existing in our country. We will organize a day-long art exhibition and seminar by eminent painter Ashok Bhowmick (Delhi) along with film screening. Details/venues/posters will be posted soon. As of now, mark your calendars!
Warmly,
Kasturi
Convener, Kolkata Chapter,
Cinema of Resistance (Jan Sanskriti Manch)
Mailing Address (in Kolkata): K-231/4 Baishnabghata Patuli Township, Flat No. 32, Kolkata - 700094, West BengalCinema of Resistance (Jan Sanskriti Manch)
Website of Kolkata Chapter: http://corkolkata.wordpress.
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