FAQ for Director Robert Lemelson

1. What inspired you to make this film?

Being trained as both a clinical psychologist and psychological anthropologist, I have long been interested in studying the long-term effects of trauma on people’s lives and experiences in different cultures. I felt that only by understanding these issues could we come up with better ways to treat people who have experienced trauma in their lives. 

2. When did you start this project, and did you anticipate that it would take so long to complete?

Although a few shots in the film are from 1997, most of the footage comes from 2001-2006. Each year, several times a year, my film crew and I returned to Indonesia to follow the subjects' lives. It took this long to complete because we wanted a long enough scope in the characters' lives to really track their development.

3. Did you have a personal connection to Indonesia?

I have been working in Indonesia every year since 1993. I was a Fulbright scholar to Indonesia from 1996 – 1997, and have conducted thousands of interviews with subjects throughout the country, all focusing on issues relating to personal experience, culture, and mental illness.

4. How did you find the individuals and families for the film? Was it difficult convincing them to participate?

Some of them were patients in the clinics where I was conducting anthropological research, some were colleagues, and others were informants. I now consider all of them my close personal friends. Some feared for their personal safety but ultimately, they all felt that their stories should be told. It was only after I knew them well that they agreed to speak about their experiences during 1965 and afterwards.

5. Are you still in contact with them? How are their lives today?

Yes, and their lives are largely the same as they were depicted in the film.

6. Have the individuals you interviewed for the film seen it? If so, what was their response?

They have seen various cuts of the film throughout the editing process. They have given their consent for it to be shown.

7. I want to see your film. Is it available in theaters, on television or DVD?

Currently, the film is going through the film festival circuit. We are in discussion with distributors about having the film more widely shown.

8. Do you intend to make other films? If so, what subject matter do you plan on addressing?

We are currently in production of a series of films that tells the stories of three people with mental illnesses in Indonesia. The film explores each individual's way of coping with their illness, and their community's response to it. See www.elementalproductions.org for more information. 

9. How do the events of 1965 in Indonesia apply to other regions in the world?

There are both similarities and differences between the mass killings of 1965 and other mass killings of the 20th century. One of the striking features of the violence under General Suharto's regime was the degree to which the government successfully repressed all memorials, remembrances, and recollections of the event. The Suharto regime created a monolithic state narrative, and thus the world knows very little of this event. There was an enforced silence in Indonesia because the perpetrators remained in power for decades afterwards.

It is only now that Indonesians are beginning to speak out, and this film represents part of that effort. Whenever I have given talks about this, even to highly educated audiences, rarely do people even know about this event even though it was the among the largest mass killings of the 20th century. This brings to mind the quote from Hitler, where he said "Who remembers the Armenians?" in reference to the practically non-existent international memory of the Armenian genocide.

10. What do you hope audiences will take away from the film?

There are many paths to recovering from a childhood of violence and trauma. This film illustrates this by showing characters that all learn to cope with their trauma in different ways. Secondly, it is crucial to understand the social and cultural setting in which trauma occurs. Without this understanding, the meanings and implications of trauma and violence could be misinterpreted