Issue 002 — We Refuse to Be Afraid
MONOCHROMATOR deconstructs selected films under a shared monochrome to reconstruct them for social relevance, putting the cinematic, the cultural, the artistic and the political in dialogue.
The second issue of MONOCHROMATOR deconstructs Jonathan Glazer’s 2023 film The Zone of Interest and Joshua Oppenheimer’s 2012 documentary The Act of Killing under the manifesto of We Refuse to Be Afraid.
In this era of terrifying global unrest, MONOCHROMATOR refuses to be afraid. To Theodore Adorno’s statement that writing poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric, we say writing poetry after Auschwitz is a necessity.
MONOCHROMATOR 002 brings together a documentary-like fiction film and a fiction film-like documentary to examine how the realities of violence are constructed on screen, deconstructing the political powers embedded in the act of representation.
In “Refraction,” we look at wildflowers of Palestine. We talk about resistance, resilience, and courage.
In “Wavelength,” we bring forth the zones of killing that are normalized in plain sight and we stress acts of interest persist. We look at the performative, the intertextual, the non/fictional modes of representation.
In “Interference,” we talk with Joshua Oppenheimer and Dolorosa Sinaga. 3EZWA tells us about the absurdity and the brutality of repression. We say the subaltern can speak.
Refraction
We Refuse to Be Afraid / Alex Heeyeon Kil
Wavelength
Static Thinking / Rehearsing the Unspeakable / Ed Luker
Let the Ghosts Out of the Machine / Savina Petkova
Zones of Killing / Bayan Abu Nahla
Acts of Interest / Anindya Anugrah
Propagandistic Image, Why Such Beauty? / Will DiGravio
Interference
We Squander Our Only Chance to Be Fully Human When We’re Afraid / Joshua Oppenheimer
From the River to the Sea, from the Courts to the Streets / 3EZWA
The Promise of Proximity: Witnessing, Memory, and the Specter of Complicity / David Duindam
Violence Is Not One Thing, It Is Many Things Working Together / Rosalia Namsai Engchuan
Between 1965 Indonesia and Gaza: Dolorosa Sinaga on Truth, Trauma, and Justice / Dolorosa Sinaga
MONOCHROMATOR 002
Publisher: Veronica Jinseon Yu
Editor-in-Chief: Alex Heeyeon Kil
Design: Cleo Tew and Alex Walker
Contributors: 3EZWAAnindya AnugrahWill DiGravioDavid DuindamRosalia Namsai EngchuanEd LukerBayan Abu NahlaJoshua OppenheimerSavina PetkovaDolorosa SinagaStudio Reyes & Israela
Press: Matter Press
Website: OKOK Services
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