DocDocs #2 - The Act of Killing: Musical Theater, Politicide, Death Squads, Suharto/Sukarno, East Timor, Interviews with Mass Murderers, American Gangster Movies, and the Aesthetics of Violence

Sabrina is back for the second installment of the Documentary Doctors!

As a reminder, you can sign up for her class on Palestine here. If you can't attend you can also donate! And if you can't donate you can still attend!

This time we are watching (and curling up in a ball after viewing) The Act of Killing, a 2012 documentary about the massacre of the Indonesian PKI (communist party) in 1965 by Western-backed fascist paramilitaries in Indonesia. The events described occurred following the ouster of Indonesia's last (at least until the 90s) democratically-elected president, Achmed Sukarno and was, according to the CIA, "one of the worst mass-murders of the 20th century" and claimed an estimated 1.5 million lives. Vincent Bevins wrote the definitive book on the subject, "The Jakarta Method".

Also there's singing, dancing, stage makeup, women in dresses dancing out of the mouth of a 20 foot tall fish building, karaoke, market stall shakedowns, rape discourse in front of stuffed animal dioramas, glass Swarovski elephants, and a whole host of unspeakable murder-kitsch that you have to see to believe.

Viewer discretion (and listener discretion) is advised.