JoshuaOppenheimer

I cannot safely return to Indonesia, so it would be difficult for me to make a film there now. If The Act of Killing is Chapter 1, it has helped the people of Indonesia acknowledge the 1965 killings as a crime against humanity - and the criminal regime that's been in power ever since 1965. If The Look of Silence is Chapter 2, it has entered the space opened by The Act of Killing to show how torn the fabric of Indonesian society is, how urgently truth, justice, and reconciliation are needed. It has energized the struggle against impunity. Chapter 3 will be that struggle. It is just beginning, and in that sense it is the future, so it has yet to be written - and it won't be written by me, it will be written by the people of Indonesia.

One should be honest, not objective. Objectivity is often the opposite of honesty. And to know people honestly means becoming intimate, close. I try to immerse my viewers in the spaces that I film, and to depict those spaces in a way where you feel their deep truth: in The Look of Silence, this means finding a way of making the ghosts, fear, guilt, and silence palpable. I want you to perceive these spaces from the distance of objectivity, but from the intimacy of total immersion.

The anonymous crew is like a second family to me. They're all well, and we're in touch all the time.

I didn't move to Indonesia. I couldn't have handled that emotionally, given what we were doing there. Nor would it have been safe - it was important we could get out of the country (and bring my crew along if necessary). I would film for 2-4 months at a time, and then return home (to London and then Copenhagen, where I live now) for around six months. I would need this time to work through footage, and figure out what we should do next. And to heal, emotionally.

Musicals. But then, The Act of Killing is a musical, especially the director's cut (on Netflix and DVD/BluRay).

The survivors pointed me in the direction of first perpetrator I filmed. I pretended to be interested in the history of his village, and he responded with boastful stories of killing. From that point on, I never had to dissemble again. I asked him to introduce me to others who were in his death squad, and to his commanders. I slowly worked my way up the chain of command, always introduced by others.

We shot The Look of Silence after editing The Act of Killing but before it had its first screenings - after which I knew I couldn't safely return to Indonesia at all. As far as safety, when Adi proposed we confront the perpetrators, I first said 'Absolutely not. It's too dangerous. There has never before been a film where survivors confront perpetrators who are still in power.' We knew that the production of The Act of Killing was well known across that region of Indonesia (North Sumatra) because I had filmed with the most powerful men in the country - the Vice President, the governor, ministers in the cabinet, army generals, paramilitary leaders - and nobody had seen the film yet. The men Adi wanted to confront were regionally, not nationally powerful, and they would not dare even detain us, let alone physically attack us, because they wouldn't want to offend their superiors, whom they believed were my friends. So the production of The Act of Killing offered us the political cover to carry out the confrontations in The Look of Silence.