Kristy Weddel

When I first started watching I Love Your Work by Jonathan Harris I was very intrigued because I have developed a growing interest in the porn industry. Why do people decide to become adult film stars? How does it effect their lives? How are the films made? Etc. Although a multi-billion dollar industry, I believe many people, myself included, often know very little about the inner workings of the business and those who participate both on screen and behind the scenes in the production of porn. I found the style of this interactive film/documentary as unique, participatory, and innovative, while on the other hand quite frustrating and somewhat limiting. Just as you become absorbed or enthralled by a particular clip you are cut short. The technique used (filming the lives of each woman every five minutes for only ten second segments) is arguably creative and definitely unusual, but I believe that it also creates a limited audience. As a form of digital storytelling it forces the viewer to take the reigns, and actively participate in our consumption of this film, and may deter those who are looking to escape, relax or simply prefer a more linear form of storytelling and/or viewing.

The director of the hard-hitting documentary The Act of Killing says it isn't safe for him to return to Indonesia after the release of his film.

“I have not seen a film as powerful, surreal, and frightening in at least a decade… unprecedented in the history of cinema.” – Werner Herzog “Like all great documentaries, The Act of Killing demands another way of looking at reality. It starts as a dreamscape, an attempt to allow the perpetrators to reenact what they did, and then something truly amazing happens. The dream dissolves into nightmare and then into bitter reality. An amazing and impressive film.” – Errol Morris “If we are to transform Indonesia into the democracy it claims to be, citizens must recognize the terror and repression on which our contemporary history has been built. No film, or any other work of art for that matter, has done this more effectively than The Act of Killing. [It] is essential viewing for us all.” ‐ National Human Rights Commission of Indonesia “An absolute and unique masterpiece.” ‐ Dusan Makavejev “The Act of Killing is the most powerful, politically important film about Indonesia that I have ever seen. The arrival of this film is itself a historical event almost without parallel. [It] witnesses the bloody destruction of a foundation of this nation at the hands of Indonesians themselves. On top of a mountain of corpses, our fellow countrymen rolled out a red carpet for the growth of gangster capitalism and political Islam. In documenting this, The Act of Killing exposes the hypocrisy at the heart of this country’s notions of ‘patriotism’ and ‘justice.’ The film achieves all this thanks to the director’s genius and audacious choice of filmmaking method.” ‐ Ariel Heryanto, Historian and Cultural Critic, Tempo Magazine (Indonesia’s premier newsmagazine) “Every now and then a non-­‐fiction film comes along that is unlike anything else I have seen: Buñuel’s LAND WITHOUT BREAD, Werner Herzog’s FATA MORGANA, Hara’s THE EMPEROR’S NAKED ARMY MARCHES ON. Well, it’s happened again. Here, Joshua Oppenheimer invites unrepentant Indonesian death-­‐squad leaders to make fiction films reenacting their violent histories. Their cinematic dreams dissolve into nightmares and then into bitter reality. Like all great documentary, THE ACT OF KILLING demands another way of looking at reality. It is like a hall of mirrors––the so-­‐called mise-­‐en-­‐abyme––where real people become characters in a movie and then jump back into reality again. And it asks the central question: what is real? Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in a Paris Review interview, wrote about reading Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” for he first time, “I didn’t know you were allowed to do that.” I have the same feeling with this extraordinary film.” ‐ Errol Morris “THE ACT OF KILLING invents a new form of cinematic surrealism.” ‐ Werner Herzog

The Act of Killing - Official Trailer

Frederick Wiseman 

Titicut Follies (1967) 

Accepting his 2007 TED Prize, war photographer James Nachtwey shows his lifes work and asks TED to help him continue telling the story with innovative, exciting uses of news photography in the digital era. 

- James Nachtwey

Survivor of Hutu death camp Rwanda, 1994 Photography by James Nachtwey