Killer Images: Documentary Film, Memory and the Performance of Violence

The genesis of this volume is the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council-supported research project ‘Genocide and Genre’, awarded to us through the University of Westminster. At the core of the project was the making of the film The Act of Killing (2012) which, alongside the present volume, examines cinema’s unique position in exploring both the routines of violence as well as the rhetoric and imagination that begets violence. The film and the critical reflections in turn grew out of the explorations of the filmmaking collective Vision Machine Film Project. To Vision Machine collaborators Christine Cynn, Andrea Zimmerman and Michael Uwemedimo, words cannot express our debt. Also, deserving special mention is The Act of Killing’s lead producer, Signe Byrge Sørensen.

At the University of Westminster, special thanks must be offered to Rosie Thomas and Peter Goodwin who have been a reliable source of encouragement and guidance throughout.

We are grateful to innumerable colleagues – academics and filmmakers – for their support, inspiration and advice over the three years we have been preparing this book. We would also like to thank the Goethe Institute in London and Birkbeck College of the University of London for hosting several of the events that contributed to the production of this volume.

We cannot praise enough the hard work and dedication of Lia Na’ama ten Brink in transcribing and editing the interviews in this volume through the different stages of the book’s development. She offered endlessly inspiring and wise insights throughout the process. It is fair to say there would be no book without her help. We would also like to thank the tireless efforts of Yoram Allon and Jodie Taylor of Wallflower Press in bringing this book to print. And, of course, last but not least, to all the contributors to this volume, for their insight, original research and patience, a very, very special thank you.