The Truths/Fictions/Traumas of Marikana: Exploring Violence and Trauma in Three Films,The Marikana Massacre: Through The Lens (2013), Miners Shot Down (2014), and Night is Coming: A Threnody for the Victims of Marikana (2014)

ABSTRACT

By exploring three films that centre on the Marikana strikes and killings of 2012, I seek to examine both the representations of violence as trauma, and the trauma of representing violence, within the context of visual, cinematic texts. I position Marikana, and the trauma of Marikana, as both a highly significant moment, and also as representative of deeper social and political traumas and injustices. I ask whether and how these films create a narrative context for this pivotal moment in South African history. I also question the effects of cinematic style and genre in the depictions of trauma and violence. The institutional context in which each film originated and developed is important, and I argue that the audience's expectations of the genre of documentary film also play a significant role in the way in which the films process trauma. I situate my paper in conversation with previous articles by Lucy Graham and Helene Strauss among others, that deal with cinematic portrayals of Marikana. By examining the selected films alongside each other, and through the lens of Decolonial Trauma Studies, I hope to elucidate the ways in which these South African films deal with and work through trauma.     

Painful Pleasure: The Politics and Aesthetics of Psychosocial Trauma in Impunity

Abstract

Continuous trauma syndrome (CTS) is the foundation for the characters in the film Impunity. The aesthetic choices in the narrative structure are an exploration of the discursive nature of violence and trauma in contemporary South African society. The theorising of continuous stress trauma provides the necessary challenge to the more conventional understanding of post-traumatic stress syndrome and informs the underlying analysis of the film. This analysis is offered in an interlocutory manner with psychology theorist Garth Stevens who provides a hermeneutic reading of Impunity that draws directly from his own research and others in the field of psychology. The paper is offered as an examination of an artistic research, film practice. The practice itself constitutes a theoretical expression which connects the aesthetic and structural choices of the film with the disciplinary observations made by Stevens. It suggests two theoretical approaches from different disciplines brought in conversation with each other to inform the reading of Impunity as artistic expression. The paper puts at its centre the discursive approach to the study of violence and trauma to suggest how the film’s structure and its aesthetics may be connected to research in the field of psychology.     

Zimbabwean Indigenisation and the Shadow Economy of Cinematic Production

ABSTRACT

In recent years, Zimbabwe has suffered a political and economic crisis, which has generated impulses that have traumatised the country's film industry, among many other sectors. Resultantly, Zimbabwe's cinematic context of production has been reimagined and reconfigured in recent years. The southern African country's ruling elite, during former president Robert Mugabe's tenure, championed controversial policies of indigenisation in economic sectors, partly as a way of countering external economic and political hostilities. This article explores how the Zimbabwean film economy has responded to postcolonial indigenisation impulses and how the production context has developed parallel to or in tandem with this reality. It teases out the challenges and prospects posed by impulses of indigenisation in Zimbabwe to the country's fledgling film production industry by analysing the video-film production value chain post-2000, when the indigenisation agenda emerged and was consolidated. Informed by the theorisation of the shadow economies of cinema, the study employed in-depth interviews to collect data from purposively selected Zimbabwean filmmakers and policymakers. Thematic analysis was used to analyse this data. The study shows that indigenisation has been a pragmatic response to the economic trauma facing the film industry, although it has, in turn, sent out its own traumatic impulses that continue to affect the industry's structure and aesthetic.     

Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing for offence-related trauma in a mentally disordered sexual offender

Abstract

Research demonstrates a high incidence of offence-related trauma in mentally disordered offenders convicted of violent and sexual offences. The adaptive information processing (AIP) model offers a theoretical framework for understanding the hypothesised relationship between offence-related trauma and reoffending. Evidence suggests that for a sub-population of offenders presenting with offence-related trauma: (1) therapy may retraumatise them, and (2) unresolved trauma severely blocks the positive benefits of talking therapies. Thus, it is postulated that traumatised violent and sexual offenders may be released into the community when they are still at risk of reoffending. A single case study is presented, which describes the application of eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) for a sexual offender presenting with offence-related trauma, whose offences occurred in the context of serious mental disorder. The identification of offence-related trauma and subsequent resolution of trauma symptomatology are discussed in regard to effective offender rehabilitation. Furthermore, the idiosyncratic nature of offence-related trauma and the application of the standard EMDR protocol for a single traumatic event are considered.     

Ramchand Pakistani,Khamosh Pani and the traumatic evocation of Partition

This article will address the themes of partition, gender and trauma within two independent films from Pakistan, Sabiha Sumar's Khamosh Pani (2003) and Mehreen Jabbar's Ramchand Pakistani (2008). The article will consider how the events of 1947 – partition of India and creation of Pakistan – recur within the films as disruptive trauma. The article will consider what an engagement with the characteristics of trauma such as involuntary recall and disruption can bring to my readings of the films. Connections are established between women's experiences of ethnic tensions within the contemporary settings of the films and the gendered experiences of 1947. These are expressed in distinct ways, however; the prominence of the themes of trauma within both work to create a powerful presentation of women's subjectivity in Pakistan. Further to this, they draw attention to the possible inevitability of trauma being central to identities and locations forged out of a partition that entailed border creation, large-scale disruption, and violence. The article will conclude that close readings of both films highlight the role of the traumatic in the formation of gendered national identities.     

SEM and Stereomicroscopic Analysis of Cut Marks in Fresh and Burned Bone

This study documents the prevalence of cut mark characteristics in fresh and burned domestic pig ribs. Stab wounds from single edge serrated and smooth‐edged knives were inflicted in the vertebral and sternal regions of each fresh rib. Each rack of ribs was then divided into vertebral and sternal units. Vertebral units were defleshed and their associated cut marks were examined using a stereomicroscope. Sternal units were burned in an outdoor fire pit and examined with the addition of a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Linear cuts, V‐shaped cross‐sections, mounding, hinge fractures, and wastage were all observed on burned ribs. There was an overall decrease in the prevalence of all features (up to a 40% decrease), regardless of knife type, in burned ribs. Striations within cut marks were not observed in either fresh or burned ribs. Oblique faulting and bone lifts could only be observed using the SEM. Mounding and wastage were obliterated during the burning process. Therefore, cut marks in burned bone should ideally be examined for their characteristics utilizing an SEM.     

Microscopic Analysis of Sharp Force Trauma in Bone and Cartilage: A Validation Study,,

Sharp force trauma research lacks agreement on reported error rates for correctly identifying toolmark characteristics on bone and cartilage. This study provides error rates for determining blade class (serrated, partially serrated, nonserrated) and type of edge bevel (left, right, even). Three analysts examined cuts to a wax medium, cartilage, and bone using two types of microscopes. Additionally, the observers examined impressions taken from the wax medium and the cartilage. Overall, a total of 504 observations were performed. Serrated blades were distinguishable from nonserrated blades due to their patterned striations. Some difficulties were encountered in distinguishing serrated and partially serrated blades; however, when these groups were considered together as one classification type (serrated), classification accuracy improved from 79% to 96%. Classification accuracy for edge bevel was 65%. Error rates were similar when comparing direct observation of the cut marks versus indirect observation (impressions). Additionally, the type of microscope used did not affect error rates.     

A Call for Help: Women Offenders' Reflections on Trauma Care

Female prisoners have extensive trauma histories and complex treatment needs that contribute to their criminality, yet trauma screening and treatment is not widespread in prisons. This article examines qualitative data gathered from face-to-face interviews with 31 female offenders in Canadian prisons. Using a grounded theory approach we demonstrate an unmet need for trauma-specific services for female offenders. These services go beyond trauma-informed practice and treat the psychological and behavioral sequelae of trauma exposure (e.g., mental illness and addictions) to facilitate recovery. The findings suggest that women in prison want and need specific treatment for trauma exposure. Integrating trauma-specific services involves a cultural shift within the prison environment that might be achieved by positioning trauma within the risk–need–responsivity model as an additional risk factor for criminality. Although counter to the public health perspective that trauma is a health concern, it is a way to ensure that trauma becomes part of the battery of care in corrections so that the needs of traumatized women are addressed while they are in custody. This was a unique opportunity to learn about what women would like to help deal with their experiences of trauma.     

Biparietal Thinning: Accidental Death by a Fall from Standing Height

Biparietal thinning resulting in bilateral and symmetrical resorption and loss of thickness of the parietal bones is an uncommon to rare condition in the anthropological and clinical literature. This enigmatic condition of unknown etiology was first reported in the 18th century and has been variously described as a nonmetric trait, anatomical variant, anomaly, and pathology. Biparietal thinning presents grossly and radiographically as oval‐shaped depressions in 0.25–0.8% and 0.4–0.5% of individuals and with a higher frequency in females over the age of 60 years. A review of the literature revealed only one example of cranial trauma associated with biparietal thinning and none of fatal trauma associated with this condition. This case reports a rare example of fatal trauma in an elderly man that resulted from a backward fall from a standing height and highlights the increased risk of craniocerebral trauma in individuals with this condition.