Post-Khmer Rouge Documentary and the New Paradigm in Genocide Studies

Abstract

Perpetrator Cinema: Confronting Genocide in Cambodian Documentary is the third installment in Raya Morag’s trilogy on violent pasts and trauma as seen through the camera lens.1 In it she argues that the Cambodian cinema of the last two decades sheds light upon some of the major paradigm shifts in genocide studies, particularly with regard to the figure of the perpetrator. What is more, in spite of its modest scope, this set of documentaries issued after the complete destruction of the film industry under the Khmer Rouge comes to epitomize what is unimaginable in any other film production dealing with mass murder. In contrast to the 20th century pattern modelled on the Holocaust and revolving around survivor testimonies and victim trauma,2 more recent approaches have reframed genocide studies in relation to other cases and concerns. These, although of course heterogeneous, have determined a shift in perspective on account of a series of historical developments: the establishment of Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in the wake of South Africa’s TRC, which resignified the notions of justice, forgiveness, and reconciliation; the constitution of the International Criminal Court and its first trials (ICTY and ICTR); as well as the introduction – certainly controversial – of colonial crimes into the genocidal agenda, in particular the extermination of indigenous peoples and slavery. If these developments constitute a turning point,