The Ineffability of Suffering and Its Images in Rithy Panh’s “The Missing Picture”
Abstract
The text approaches the problem of ineffability of suffering presented in the documentary autobiographical film The Missing Picture (L’Image manquante, 2013) by Rithy Panh. The director, in the absence of photographs of atrocities committed in the period of 1975-1979 by Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, from the perspective of the victims, staged shots that could act as a substitute visual representation. The author analyses and interprets the character given to the missing picture by the director, using the ideas of Georges Didi-Huberman on the Holocaust, presented in Images malgre tout. The article, in the light of John Burke’s work, shows how archival propaganda material can be used as a historical evidence. The author relies on Susan Sontag’s and Judith Butler’s work on photographic representation of suffering, and Andre Rouille’s approach to war photographs as a historical context.
Keywords:
Rithy Panh, Georges Didi-Huberman, Cambodia, photography, representationReferences
Bradshaw, Nick. “Memories of murder: Rithy Panh on “The Missing Picture””. Sight & Sound 24:1 (2014).
Google Scholar
Burke, Peter. Naoczność. Materiały wizualne jako świadectwa historyczne. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, 2012.
Google Scholar
Butler, Judith. Ramy wojny, tłum. A. Czarnacka. Warszawa: Książka i Prasa, 2011.
Google Scholar
Didi-Huberman, Georges. Obrazy mimo wszystko, tłum. M. Kubiak Ho-Chi. Kraków: Universitas, 2012.
Google Scholar
Jelonek, Adam W. Kambodża. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo TRIO, 2008.
Google Scholar
Jelonek, Adam W. Rewolucja Czerwonych Khmerów 1975-1978. Studium autarkicznego rozwoju. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe „Scholar”, 1999.
Google Scholar
Kleinen, John. “Mass killings represented: the movies of Panh and Oppenheimer”. IIAS Newsletter 68 (2014).
Google Scholar
Leśniak, Andrzej. Obraz płynny. Georges Didi-Huberman i dyskurs historii sztuki. Kraków: Universitas, 2010.
Google Scholar
Oppenheimer, Joshua. “Perpetrators’ Testimony and the Restoration of Humanity: S21, Rithy Panh”. W: Killer Images: Documentary Film, Memory and the Performance of Violence, red. J. T. Brink, J. Oppenheimer. Columbia University Press, 2012.
Google Scholar
Podsiadło, Magdalena. Autobiografizm filmowy jako ślad podmiotowej egzystencji. Kraków: Universitas, 2013.
Google Scholar
Rouillé, Andre. Fotografia. Między dokumentem a sztuką współczesną, tłum. O. Hedemann. Kraków: Universitas, 2007.
Google Scholar
Sontag, Susan. Widok cudzego cierpienia, tłum. S. Magala. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Karakter, 2010.
Google Scholar
Zylberman, Lior. “The Missing Picture - Film Review”. Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal 8:3 (2014).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5038/1911-9933.8.3.10
Google Scholar
Authors
Gabriela Sitekkwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Jagiellonian University Poland
Doktorantka w Instytucie Sztuk Audiowizualnych Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego. Absolwentka filologii polskiej na Uniwersytecie Warszawskim i podyplomowych studiów Wiedza o Kulturze w Polskiej Akademii Nauk. Interesuje się kinem dokumentalnym, found footage, autobiografizmem, perspektywami pamięci. Współpracowała z kwartalnikiem „Res Publica Nowa” jako sekretarz redakcji, publikując recenzje filmowe i artykuły z zakresu audiowizualności. Współpracuje z portalem Gazeta.pl jako redaktorka. Członkini Grupy Okołofotograficznej prowadzącej działania z zakresu animacji kultury.
Statistics
Abstract views: 47PDF downloads: 27
License
Copyright (c) 2016 Gabriela Sitek
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The author grants the publisher a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY 4.0) to use the article in Kwartalnik Filmowy, retains full copyright, and agrees to identify the work as first having been published in Kwartalnik Filmowy should it be published or used again (download licence agreement). The journal is published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. By submitting an article, the author agrees to make it available under this licence.
In issues from 105-106 (2019) to 119 (2022) all articles were published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. During this period the authors granted a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in „Kwartalnik Filmowy”, retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.
Most read articles by the same author(s)
- Paulina Haratyk, Gabriela Sitek, Found Footage as the Cinema of Renewal of Meaning of Home Movies in Films “A Song of Air” and “Sea in the Blood” , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 104 (2018): Essay, Found Footage, Compilation Film
