Watching the Unwatchable: Films Confront Torture

November 1, 2009 - December 6, 2009

S-21, The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine, November 5

To accompany the presentation of Fernando Botero’s paintings and drawings in response to the prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, now on view in the BAM galleries, we have selected a number of films that also address torture. Directors as varied as Alain Resnais, Otto Preminger, Rithy Panh, Andy Warhol, and Errol Morris have taken up this challenge, drawing on narrative imaginings and historical research. Some of their films are concerned with issues of justice and accountability, while others explore the psychological ramifications of torture for victims or perpetrators. Many of the films are damning documents—revealing specific historical instances of abuse, or political positions and power relationships that lead to torture. Only occasionally in these films is torture graphically depicted; rather, it is recalled, suggested stylistically, or reenacted from a distance, yet the memory of abuses and humiliations haunts both fictional characters and actual survivors. Forcefully and skillfully, these films encourage us to think and feel deeply about a dark subject. When the unthinkable happens, we must watch the unwatchable.

Films of related interest are offered in several other PFA series this season, including Muriel and Night and Fog, by Alain Resnais; The Round-Up, by Miklós Jancsó; and Otto Preminger’s Saint Joan. Watching the Unwatchable continues in January and February 2010.


Kathy Geritz
Film Curator

Sunday, November 1, 2009
3:00 p.m. Standard Operating Procedure
Errol Morris (U.S., 2008). Introduced by Laurel Fletcher. Seeking to understand the notorious Abu Ghraib photographs, Errol Morris looks outside the frame. “As a human document of what people are capable of in wartime, it’s indispensable.”—Christian Science Monitor (117 mins)

Sunday, November 1, 2009
5:30 p.m. Quiet Rage: The Stanford Prison Experiment
Ken Musen (U.S., 1988). A documentary on the notorious 1971 psychological experiment that transformed college students into “prisoners” and “guards.” With Vinyl, Andy Warhol’s very loose adaptation of A Clockwork Orange. (114 mins)

Thursday, November 5, 2009
8:15 p.m. S-21, The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine
Rithy Panh (Cambodia, 2002). Victims and perpetrators of state violence in Cambodia together confront the atrocities of the 1970s in Rithy Panh’s moving documentary. “Unforgettable . . . as horrific an exposure to evil as Shoah.”—Village Voice (105 mins)

Sunday, December 6, 2009
3:00 p.m. The Underground Orchestra
Heddy Honigmann (The Netherlands, 1997). A portrait of the buskers of the Paris Métro—a Venezuelan harpist, an Algerian singer, a violinist from Sarajevo—becomes a document of survival in exile. “A splendid example of how illuminating and entertaining a documentary can be.”—L.A. Times (108 mins)

Series curated by Kathy Geritz. Presented in conjunction with UC Berkeley’s Human Rights Center and Center for Latin American Studies, with the support of the Mellon Foundation through its Distinguished Achievement Award to Thomas Laqueur, Helen Fawcett Distinguished Professor, UC Berkeley Department of History. We wish to extend our thanks to Jean-Pierre Gorin, Barbara Grob, Edith Kramer, Beth Perry, and Erik Ulman for their suggestions, assistance, and advice.