Michael M. J. Fischer examines documentary filmmaking, literature, and innovative dance from Southeast Asia and Singapore for their para-ethnographic insights into politics, culture, and aesthetics.

Acknowledgments  ix
Introduction. Reader’s Guide and Manifesto  1
1. Oiled Hinges: Sounds and Silences in Documentary Films of Social Change  47
2. Filmic Stutter, Taped Counter-Truths, and Musical Sutures: Knots of Recovery  76
3. White Ink, Family Systems, Forests of Illusion, and Aging: Knots of Passion  111
4. Miniatures: Small Kindnesses across Poisonous Knowledges  141
5. Blue Widow with Green Stripes: Pivots in Widening Horizons  155
6. Filmic Obsessive Repetitions, Dissociations, and Power Relations  194
7. Meritocracy Blues, Chimeras, and Analytic Monsters  212
Afterword. Portals to the Future: MRT Stations, Universities, and the Peopling of Technologies  243
Exergue. Bangarra Dance Theatre and the Historical Hinge in Australia  257
Notes  269
References  313
Index  337