Seeing Violence in Indonesia Cinema: 1965 and its Memories
Krishna Sen
Professor, Asia Media, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
Wed 27 July 2006, 7-9 pm
The Salon, National Museum of Singapore, Free
“While there are frequent outbreaks of moral panic about screen violence generating the real stuff, the reverse question is rarely raised: how does communal experience of violence translate on to the screen? While my seminar cannot answer that question in any universal way as a theory of cinematic violence, it goes some distance in thinking of the relationship between political and cinematic violence in Indonesia. How do we explain the relatively infrequent violence in the cinema that emerged in the shadows of the mass killings of 1965-66? How should we think about the new (late 90s on) and strange fascination with violence in recent Indonesian cinema?
Krishna Sen is Chair of Asian Media at Curtin University of technology in Perth, Australia and internationally recognised for her work on the Indonesian media. Her first book Indonesian Cinema: Framing the New Order (Zed, 1994) was one of the earliest published English language scholarly works on a national cinema in Southeast Asia. She is the author of about 45 articles, book chapters, working papers and encyclopaedia entries and dozens of conference papers.
Getting To the Museum
National Museum of Singapore
93 Stamford Road Singapore 178897
By MRT City Hall / Dhoby Ghaut (10-minutes walk)
Parking Nearest parking facilities are available at YMCA, Singapore Management University.
Upcoming Seminars
From April to November, this annual series of monthly public lectures will focus on an emerging trend of development in Asia. Delivered by researchers in the field from major relevant sites in Asia, the 2006 seminar series will focus on the rapidly globalizing Asian Cinemas and specifically on violence in contemporary Asian films. The seminar is co-presented by the Asia Research Institute and the National Museum of Singapore and will be held every last Thursday of the month.
31 August
The Supernatural and Violence in Modern Life: Ghosts and Spirits in Singapore Cinema
Assistant Professor Kenneth Paul Tan, National University of Singapore
28 September
Violence in New Thailand Cinema
Anchalee Chaiworaporn, Independent Film Critic, Thailand
26 October
Rules of the Forbidden Game: Violence in Contemporary Chinese Cinema
Associate Professor Ma Ning, Shanghai University, China
30 November
Gangland Bombay
Associate Professor Ranjani Mazumdar, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India
