The Look of Silence

On Friday, Jan. 15, the University of California, Riverside (UCR) Arts Block Culver Center of the Arts, premiered Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The Look of Silence.” The film was one of many films to be screened at the Culver Center this winter. Tickets are $9.99 a person for evening showings and $8.00 for matinee, students have a discounted admission of $5 with student ID. The Look of Silence is a documentary released in 2014. The film focuses on the victims of the death squads in Indonesia after the fall of the government in 1965. It follows the story of Adi Rukun, as he meets face to face with the men responsible for killing his brother. In these meetings, he uncovers the truths of the death squads and learns the details of the killings. “This film [The Look of Silence] tackles a subject that is really not well known, but does it in a unique way,” said Nikolay Maslov, Curator of Film and Media Projects, “In general, we want to show films that are challenging and difficult, films that typically wouldn’t be screened in Riverside.” Previously the Culver Center had screened the companion film “The Act of Killing,” a documentary on the story of Anwar Congo and his friends as they were promoted from small-time gangsters who sold movie theatre tickets on the black market to death squad leaders after the Indonesian military overthrew the government. The piece discusses the fact that unlike Nazi or Rwandan genocidaires, those who were involved with the death squads in Indonesia, have not been forced by history to admit they participated in crimes against humanity. “In general I think it is important to show these films wherever you can, because they are counterpoint to mainstream cinema, but also a good example of cinema creating discourse,” Maslov said. René T.A. Lysloff, an Associate Professor of Music at UCR, was also in attendance. Lysloff spent a great deal of time researching in Indonesia, where he studied rural performing arts and Indonesian modernization. “This is a part of history that isn’t really discussed in Indonesia or even America, and was something I came across when doing my research,” Lysloff said. “UCR Artsblock is an important public face of the university. This is where I feel the community can benefit from having a major university that can bring these kind of events and activities to areas that wouldn’t normally see this.” Emily Wells has been attending film events at the Culver Center for over two years. She started attending regular films events when she was a graduate student. “We are really grateful for everything that Arts Block does. This is virtually the only exposure Riverside gets to independent foreign films and so much of the theme of this particular film was silence. If there is no exposure to it there is silence, which is important to recognize,” said Wells. The Culver Center hosts films each Friday and Saturday. With some of the films screened, the center will bring in experts from campus or the community to lead discussions and Q&A sessions. “The culver center is a part of UCR Artsblock, so we are a part of campus, but we are off campus. We like to think of ourselves as a bridge between campus and community. Hopefully, this peaks peoples’ curiosity in different cultures and in film to get the conversation started,” Maslov said.