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