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<p>In a world saturated with perpetrator images that have evolved from private trophies into viral tools of psychological warfare, this paper examines the relationship between perpetrator images, shame, and documentary film. Using Tamar Yarom’s 2007 film <i>To See If I’m Smiling</i> as a case study, I introduce the concept of “suspended shame,” a delayed retrospective experience of shame that surfaces not during the act of violence itself but emerges powerfully and uncontrollably afterward, becoming a unique category of perpetrator bodily testimony. This phenomenon disrupts the normalization of violence, prompting viewers to confront complicity, a process intensified by the film’s choice to withhold the perpetrator image. Drawing on psychoanalytic theories of shame and testimony, the paper explores documentary film’s role in facilitating the working-through of often-silenced collective perpetrator experiences.</p>

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Suspended shame in perpetrator images: documentary film as psychosocial working-through

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年6月17日

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  • Adva Balzam

摘要

In a world saturated with perpetrator images that have evolved from private trophies into viral tools of psychological warfare, this paper examines the relationship between perpetrator images, shame, and documentary film. Using Tamar Yarom’s 2007 film To See If I’m Smiling as a case study, I introduce the concept of “suspended shame,” a delayed retrospective experience of shame that surfaces not during the act of violence itself but emerges powerfully and uncontrollably afterward, becoming a unique category of perpetrator bodily testimony. This phenomenon disrupts the normalization of violence, prompting viewers to confront complicity, a process intensified by the film’s choice to withhold the perpetrator image. Drawing on psychoanalytic theories of shame and testimony, the paper explores documentary film’s role in facilitating the working-through of often-silenced collective perpetrator experiences.