By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

THE LOOK OF SILENCE AVAILABLE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD AND STREAMING IN INDONESIA

Posted Thursday, December 10th, 2015 - Comments Off on THE LOOK OF SILENCE AVAILABLE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD AND STREAMING IN INDONESIA
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DRAFTHOUSE FILMS, PARTICIPANT MEDIA, VHX & FILMMAKERS COLLABORATE TO MAKETHE LOOK OF SILENCE AVAILABLE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD AND STREAMING IN INDONESIA

To Encourage Truth, Justice And Reconciliation, The Year’s Most Critically Acclaimed Documentary Will Be Made Available In Indonesia For Free

December 9, 2015 – To commemorate International Human Rights Day on December 10, the award-winning documentary The Look of Silence will be made available as a free download to the people of Indonesia in perpetuity. The free access to the film is orchestrated by director Joshua Oppenheimer, producer Signe Byrge Sørensen and Indonesian producer Anonymous, in collaboration with US distributors Drafthouse Films and Participant Media, integrated digital platform VHX and Danish film production company Final Cut for Real ApS. The Indonesian-language version of the film will also be available to stream for free on YouTube.

 

The Look of Silence, Oppenheimer’s companion piece to his Oscar®-nominated The Act of Killing––and the film he initially set out to make nearly a decade ago––has won over 45 international awards, including the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, the Gotham Award for Best Documentary of 2015, the IDA Award for Best Feature of 2015 and is a Best Feature Documentary entry for 2015 Oscars®. In The Look of Silence, a family discovers how their son was murdered in the 1965 Indonesian genocide, as well as the killers’ identities. The family’s youngest son, an optometrist named Adi, confronts these men who remain in power; while testing their eyesight, he asks them to accept responsibility for their actions, ending 50 years of silence.

 

By making the film available for free in Indonesia on VHX and YouTube, Oppenheimer hopes thatThe Look of Silence will be accessible to many more people, and will open an ever-wider space for discussion of the 1965-66 genocide, where previously there was silence. “This is the first film in history in which survivors confront perpetrators of atrocities while the perpetrators remain in power,” says Oppenheimer. “By giving the film to all Indonesians, we hope to support the national conversation so urgently needed to end this terrifying impunity, and make healing possible.”

 

The Oscar®-nominated The Act of Killing has also been available for free online since 2013, and has since been viewed by millions of Indonesians. Since then, Oppenheimer’s two films have helped break 50 years of silence on the genocide, and catalyzed a national conversation about the genocide’s terrible legacy of fear, corruption, and violence. Regarding both films, Oppenheimer says, “They are my love letter to Indonesia. As such, they belong to all Indonesians.”

 

Oppenheimer hopes that a wider digital distribution of The Look of Silence will inspire and energize a popular movement demanding the Indonesian government acknowledge and address the genocide (as well as subsequent atrocities), and take urgent steps to end impunity, as Indonesian President Joko Widodo promised to do when he was running for office in 2014.

 

The protagonist of The Look of Silence, Adi Rukun hopes that all Indonesians will download or stream the film and demand an official national acknowledgment of the atrocities. “I hope that if enough people watch the film, the government will be forced to acknowledge the truth, and we as a nation will acknowledge how we still live under the dark shadow of genocide, so healing can begin,” says Rukun.

 

In the United States, the two films prompted Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) to introduce a resolution urging Indonesia to acknowledge the genocide and initiate a process of truth, justice, and reconciliation, while also demanding that the United States take responsibility for its role in these massacres and declassify all documents detailing that role. Tens of thousands of Americans have signed a petition urging their senators to support this resolution.

 

The petition can be found here: www.thelookofsilence.com/participate/

 

Starting on December 10, The Look of Silence can be downloaded for free from Indonesia onwww.thelookofsilence.com and its Indonesian sister site, www.filmsenyap.com. The Indonesian-language copy of the film can be viewed on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcvH2hvvGh4.

 

The Act of Killing can also be downloaded for free from Indonesia from www.jagalfilm.com andwww.actofkilling.com. The Indonesian language copy can be viewed on YouTube atyoutube.com/watch?v=3tILiqotj7Y

 

For theatrical bookings of The Look of Silence contact Sumyi Khong Antonson, VP of Marketing and Distribution, at sumyi.antonson@drafthouse.com.

 

For more information on The Look of Silence: www.thelookofsilence.com

 

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About Joshua Oppenheimer, Director

Born in 1974, USA, Oscar®-nominated film director Joshua Oppenheimer is recipient of a MacArthur “Genius Grant” (2015-2019). His debut feature film, The Act of Killing (2012, 159 min and 117 min), was named Film of the Year in the 2013 by the Guardian and the Sight and Sound Film Poll, and won 72 international awards, including the European Film Award 2013, BAFTA 2014, Asia Pacific Screen Award 2013, Berlinale Audience Award 2013, and Guardian Film Award 2014 for Best Film. It was nominated for the 2013 Academy Award® for Best Documentary, and has been released theatrically in 31 countries. His second film, The Look of Silence (2014, 99 min), premiered In Competition at the 71st Venice Film Festival, where it won five awards including the Grand Jury Prize, the International Critics Award (FIPRESCI Prize) and the European Film Critics Award (FEDEORA Prize). Since then, The Look of Silence has received the Danish Academy Award for Best Documentary and the prestigious Danish Arts Council Award. It screened at the Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Busan International Film Festival (Best World Documentary), the Copenhagen Documentary Festival (Grand Prize), Festival d’Angers (Audience Award for Best Film), and the Berlin Film Festival (Peace Film Prize). Oppenheimer is a partner at Final Cut for Real in Denmark, and Artistic Director of the Centre for Documentary and Experimental Film at the University of Westminster in London.

 

About Signe Byrge Sørensen, Producer

Signe Byrge Sørensen is CEO and producer at Final Cut for Real, which she founded with Anne Köhncke in 2009. Signe Byrge Sørensen has a Masters degree in International Development Studies and Communication Studies, RUC, (1998). She did EURODOC in 2003 and EAVE in 2010. Byrge Sørensen has produced documentaries since 1998, first at SPOR Media (1998-2004), then at Final Cut Productions (2004-2008), and then she founded Final Cut for Real in 2009. Amongst the films she has produced are The Look of Silence, by Joshua Oppenheimer; Last Dreams (2013), by Estephan Wagner; The Act of Killing (2012), by Joshua Oppenheimer (CPH Dox Award, BAFTA, Asia-Pacific Film Award, European Film Award and 2013 Oscar® nomination plus 60 other awards); The Human Scale, (2012), by Andreas Dalsgaard; The Kid and the Clown (2011), by Ida Grøn; and Football is God (2010), by Ole Bendtzen. Byrge Sørensen has also produced and co-directed (with Janus Billeskov Jansen) Voices of the World (2005) and The Importance of Being Mlabri (2007), and in 2008 she post-produced the fiction feature Everlasting Moments by Jan Troell. Her most recent co-productions are Night Will Fall (2014), by André Singer; The Pirate Bay – Away from Keyboard, by Simon Klose (2012); Gulabi Gang, (2011), by Nishtha Jain and Char – No Man’s Island, by Sourav Sarangi (2012). The Final Cut for Real films are produced in collaboration with Anne Köhncke and the other producers at Final Cut for Real. Byrge Sørensen has also given lectures at EAVE, ESODOC, and Nordic Forum, and was the Danish co-producer for the first Steps for the Future project in Southern Africa. She received the Danish Documentary Award, the Roos Award, in 2014.

 

About ‘Anonymous’, Indonesian Producer

Due to the nature of this film—its subject matter, production methods and the context in which it has been made—it has unfortunately been necessary to credit numerous Indonesian partners and collaborators, working across all aspects of the film (from Co-Direction and Cinematography to Sound Recording, Production Management, Make Up, Music, Choreography, and Technical Support) as Anonymous. Behind this honourable and historically resonant naming stand many remarkable people, who have worked tirelessly to bring these profoundly disturbing stories to wider attention. Their courage has made this film possible. Without them, it could not have been more than an idea, a wish. We share with them a deep hope that our collective labour might contribute in some way to a shift in the forces currently shaping and governing Indonesia and towards a justice for both individuals and communities. We thank them for their trust in us and the extraordinary commitment they have brought to this project.

 

About Final Cut for Real, Copenhagen, Denmark

Final Cut for Real is dedicated to high-end creative documentaries for the international market. The company’s policy is to be curious, daring and seek out directors with serious artistic ambitions. They do not from the outset set any limits on subjects or locations. They look for interesting stories, great characters and in-depth social, cultural and political analysis – and also try to give the films a twist of humour. Final Cut for Real’s method is for their producers to work closely with “their” directors from the first idea to the final film and keep on exchanging ideas and feedback. Together they cover a wide range of development and production expertise – and work with younger talent as well as established filmmakers. Final Cut for Real tries to create a productive mixture of experience and new approaches to documentary filmmaking. www.final-cut.dk

 

About Drafthouse Films

Drafthouse Films, the film distribution arm of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, is a curated brand of provocative, visionary and artfully unusual films new and old from around the world. Following the earnestly simple motto of “sharing the films we love with widest audience possible,” Drafthouse Films debuted in 2010 with the theatrical release of Four Lions, which was named one of Time Magazine’s “Top 10 Films Of The Year.” Their diverse and unique slate includes Joshua Oppenheimer’s highly-acclaimed, Oscar® nominated documentary, The Act Of Killing produced by Errol Morris and Werner Herzog; Ari Folman’s post-apocalyptic meta-sci-fi The Congress starring Robin Wright, Paul Giamatti and Jon Hamm; Michel Gondry’s surrealist romance Mood Indigostarring Audrey Tautou; Midnight Movie sensations Miami Connection and The Visitor; and rediscovered classics Wake In Fright and Ms. 45.

 

Recent and upcoming releases include romance-horror hybrid Spring; 70s-set true crime epic The Connection starring Oscar®-winning Best Actor Jean Dujardin (The Artist), the European flipside to William Friedkin’s The French Connection; The Keeping Room, from director Daniel Barber (Harry Brown), based on Julia Hart’s acclaimed Black List screenplay, starring Brit Marling, Hailee Steinfeld and Sam Worthington; the multiple Cannes award winning The Tribe, filmed entirely in Ukrainian Sign Language with a cast of deaf, non-professional actors; and a remastered re-release, in conjunction with Olive Films, of the 1981 disasterpiece Roar, the most dangerous film ever made, starring Tippi Hedren, Melanie Griffith and a cast of 150 untrained lions, tigers, and exotic animals.

 

Drafthouse Films distributes films theatrically, through home video, VOD and their direct-to-consumer platforms integrating into the ever-growing Alamo Drafthouse entertainment lifestyle brand, which along with Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas includes: Mondo, the collectible art boutique; Fantastic Fest, the largest international genre film festival in the US; and the pop culture website Birth.Movies.Death.

 

About Participant Media

Participant Media (http://www.participantmedia.com/) is a leading media company dedicated to entertainment that inspires and compels social change. Founded in 2004 by Jeff Skoll, Participant combines the power of a good story well told with opportunities for viewers to get involved. Participant’s more than 70 films include Spotlight, Contagion, Lincoln, The Help, He Named Me Malala, The Look of Silence, CITIZENFOUR, Food, Inc., and An Inconvenient Truth. Participant has also launched more than a dozen original series, including “Please Like Me,” “Hit Record On TV with Joseph Gordon-Levitt,” and “Fortitude,” for its television network, Pivot (http://www.pivot.tv/). Participant’s digital hub, TakePart (http://www.TakePart.com), serves millions of socially conscious consumers each month with daily articles, videos and opportunities to take action. Follow Participant Media on Twitter at @Participant and on Facebook.

 

About VHX

VHX (http://www.vhx.tv) is a digital distribution platform that enables anyone to easily sell video content from their own website and connect directly with their fans. The open platform also provides its artists and creators with robust sales data and free digital marketing tools to build a business around selling video and film. Recent releases include investigative and impactful documentaries such as Cowspiracy, Codegirl, The True Cost, Girl Risin

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