Joshua Oppenheimer: The Act of Killing

The Real of Reality | International Conference on Philosophy and
Film


Wed, 02.11.2016 – Sun, 06.11.2016
ZKM_Media Theater, ZKM_Lecture Hall, ZKM_Media Lounge, ZKM_Cube


After the 1965 military coup in Indonesia more than one million
people were murdered. Until today the victims and their
descendants didn’t dare tell their story, because the
perpetrators are still in power. Not only are they in power, they
boast about being the winners of history. The American
documentary director Joshua Oppenheimer decided, together with
his colleague Christine Cynn, to talk to the murderers. In a
country which celebrates these murderers as heroes, the
filmmakers dared to face the taboo and the terror. Free from any
regret, the murderers tell about their deeds and are willing
happily to reenact and restage them. Eventually, the film project
gets the men to talk and think about their atrocities which they
haven’t reflected hitherto. Through this reflection, the
retroactive restating of reality becomes more real than the
actual deeds ever had been for those men. The Real forges ahead
through the “imitation” of the past events. The movie, which
needed ten years for production, struggled with funding for a
long time, but is now considered to be one of the most important
filmic works of contemporary cinema. The movie was awarded more
than 30 awards.


International Conference on Philosophy and Film
Photography and film in particular paved the way for complex
philosophical questions regarding the nature of reality and its
mechanical reproduction. What does film reproduce and how can we
grasp this element, which has the transactive ability to form
reality although originating in reality? This shaping takes palce
through a complex interaction of image, action and narration and
tends to permeate reality completely. It is an inconspicuous
process that already affects our everyday life profoundly and is
based on a revolution of the real. What does film show? Do we
have access to reality that is not based on images or narrations?
And what can film and its analysis contribute to philosophical
debates on the real?
These are questions we are asking to engage in a dialogue between
philosophy and film. For five days, one hundred and fifty
philosophers, media scholars and filmmakers will connect
philosophical theory with cinematic practice and open up new
ideas and concepts. To accompany the program, there will be film
screenings of documentaries of the invited filmmakers.
The participation at the conference is also possible without the
presentation of a paper.
The conference will be held in English.