40 Years of Silence: An Indonesian Tragedy
40 Years of Silence: An Indonesian Tragedy tells the story of one of the largest unknown mass-killings of the 20th century. In 1965-66, an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 people were secretly killed when General Suharto began a bloody purge of suspected communists throughout Indonesia. For decades, the Indonesian government repressed all memory of this event, and the world looked away.
Based on the research of prominent anthropologist Robert Lemelson and edited by two time Academy Award winner, Pietro Scalia, this film follows the compelling testimonies of four individuals and their families from Central Java and Bali, as they break their silence for the first time. Told in understated detail, the cumulative effect of their stories is heartbreaking, profound and ultimately redemptive.
Film Festivals/Screenings:
International Association for Genocide Scholars (IAGS) 2009 Annual Conference, Arlington, VA, 2009
Boston International Film Festival, Boston, MA, 2009
Warning: This video contains footage that some viewers may find disturbing.
Running Time
139 mins
Nb videos
2 videos included
Kanopy ID
1049248
Filmmakers
Languages
Subjects
Show More
2 videos in this playlist
40 Years of Silence
0 Years of Silence: An Indonesian Tragedy tells the story of one of the largest unknown mass-killings of the 20th century. In 1965-66, an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 people were…
40 Years of Silence - Abridged
In the highlands of North Vietnam lies the remote town of Sapa, home to a mosaic of colourful hill tribes. Sapa opened to tourism in the late 1990s, and now…
Related videos
Punitive Damage - The Story of A Death in East Timor & the Power of A Mother’s Grief
Kamal Bamadhaj, a 20-year-old New Zealander and student activist was shot dead during the Dili massacre in East Timor in 1991 by the Indonesian military that had occupied the small former Portuguese colony since 1975. Over 270 young Timorese were also killed that day. Punitive Damage tells the story of…
Forsaken Cries: The Story of Rwanda
In 1994, close to one million people were killed in a planned and systematic genocide in the African country of Rwanda, the largest systematic murder of a single race since the Holocaust. How did this carnage occur when the world declared after WWII that it would never tolerate such mass…
The Reckoning - The Battle for the International Criminal Court
Late in the 20th century, in response to repeated mass atrocities that convulsed the world, more than 120 countries united to form the International Criminal Court (ICC)--the first permanent, independent (treaty based) international criminal court created to prosecute perpetrators (no matter how powerful) of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and…
The Last Survivor
The Last Survivor is an award winning, feature-length documentary film that presents the stories of genocide Survivors and their struggle to make sense of tragedy by working to educate a new generation, inspire tolerance and spark a civic response to mass atrocity crimes. Following the lives of survivors of four…
DUCH: Masters of the Forges from Hell
From Rithy Pahn, director of the notorious documentary S21: the Khmer Rouge Killing Machine, comes his searing follow-up: Duch: Master of the Forges of Hell. Between 1975 and 1979, the Khmer Rouge was responsible for the death of nearly 2 million people - a quarter of the Cambodia population. Kaing…
Indonesia - Unity in Diversity
Nationalism, with its sense of unity, is something third world nations and those that have lived under colonialism don't take for granted. For many it is still an ambition. Made in 1976, this film examines the basic philosophies of President Soekarno and the nationalistic principals that no one had as…
The Healing Of Bali
For Australian documentary filmmaker John Darling, the tragic events of 12 October 2002 compelled him to re-establish his links with Bali that spanned some 30 years. John had lived, researched and made films in Bali for 17 years from the 1970s to the 1990s, and THE HEALING OF BALI is…
Afflictions Series - Shadows & Illuminations
Shadows & Illuminations follows an older Balinese man, Nyoman Kereta, as he struggles with the intrusion of spirits into his consciousness. Kereta says he has been living in two worlds, the world of his family and community and the world of the spirits, for the past 40 years. His experiences…
Afflictions Series - The Bird Dancer
The Bird Dancer explores a young woman's struggle with her odd movements and behaviors, and how these are interpreted and understood by her family and community.
The film follows the life of Gusti Ayu Suartini, a young Balinese woman with Tourette's Syndrome, as she struggles to create a life for…
Watchers of the Sky
With his provocative question, "why is the killing of a million a lesser crime than the killing of an individual?" Raphael Lemkin changed the course of history.
An extraordinary testament to one man's perseverance, the Sundance award-winning film Watchers of the Sky examines the life and legacy of the Polish-Jewish…
Bomb Hunters - Consequences of War in Cambodia
Bomb Hunters is an engrossing examination of the micro-economy that has emerged in Cambodia from untrained civilians harvesting unexploded bombs as scrap metal. The film explores the long-term consequences of war and genocide in an attempt to understand the social, cultural, and historical context and experiences of rural villagers who…
Verdict on Auschwitz - The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial
The only documentary on the Auschwitz Trial held in Frankfurt am Main, West Germany, from 1963 to 1965. Based on 430 hours of original audiotapes, this production is an unparellel document of the first Auschwitz Trial. In one of the most significant trials in German legal history, 360 witnesses from…
Comments (3)
Powerful
Fantastic, if gut-wrenching, documentary. An important topic (made of millions of important stories) that requires much more work.
My husband grandfather was murdered during this time. He had no idea what communism even was. He was certainly not a communist himself, just a rice farmer.