“The Making of Justice” is a movie about seven prisoners working on the scenario for a crime film together with Sarah Vanhee. Like the main character in the film they are making up, they are all guilty of murder. To shape the story, they draw on their own experiences, ideas and desires. We, the viewers, can only guess whether they are using fiction as a means of confirming, transcending or transforming their present situation. In the course of the film they discuss criminality as a parallel reality, what the nature of justice is, and what a society would be like if it was oriented towards healing rather than retribution. ‘The justice system is not synonymous with justice itself. The justice system means the application of rules, but justice is a human capacity’, says one of the men. The image of ‘the criminal’ is always elusive, both in terms of form (because the lens always remains out of focus) and content, because the authors and their character appear first as people and only then as offenders.
2017 - Film
Credits
Directed by Sarah Vanhee | Camera Fairuz | Editing Jan De Coster | Sound recording and mix Kwinten Van Laethem | Transcription Sabien Van Moorter | Translation Patrick Lennon |
Produced by Sarah Vanhee & Manyone vzw | Co-production Kunstencentrum BUDA | Thanks to Bart Schoovaerts, Kevin De Coster, Marie Logie, Kristof Jonckheere, Agnes Quackels, Franky Devos, Berno Odo Polzer, Francis van Remoortel, Marika Ingels, Sarah Vanagt, Christine de Smedt, Pieter-Paul Mortier, Susanne Weck, Mette Edvardsen | Special thanks to the seven participants60 min
Dutch spoken
English, French and Spanish subtitles
Screenings
BUDA art centre - Kortrijk (BE)OPEK - Leuven (BE)
STUK icb COURTISANE - Leuven (BE)
Centrale Fies/Supercontinent - Dro (I)
Theater Aan Zee - Oostende (BE)
Alpbach Forum - Alpbach, Tirol (A)
Idem Festival/La Casa Encendida - Madrid (E)
HAU - Berlin (DE)
Noorderzon Festival - Groningen (NL)
Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival - Jihlava (CZ) (Official World Premiere)
Every Body's Spectacular - Reykjavik (IS)
Restorative Justice week - Leuven (BE)
Kaaitheater - Brussels (BE)
Push Festival - Vancouver (CA)
VORMING PLUS - Kortrijk (BE)
BAK - Utrecht (NL)
ARGOS - Brussels (BE)
Transforming Leeds @ Barbican Center - London (UK)
CINE TOO - Guelatao de Juarez, Mexico (MX)
CAI - Campamento Audiovisual Itinerante, Analco, Oaxaca, Mexico (MX)
Catedra Bergman - UNAM, Mexico City (MX)
Theaterfestival Basel (CH)
Kanuti Gildi SAAL - Talinn (EE)
4 + 4 Days in Motion - Prague (CZ)
CC Belgie - Sint Niklaas (BE)
El Conde de Duque - Madrid (ES)
Veem House of Performance - Amsterdam (NL)
BIT Teatergarasje - Bergen (NO)
Quarantine - Manchester (UK)
Kaos - Brussels (BE)
APAP - Brussels (BE)
Rondom Prison - Kortrijk (BE)
see calendar
Awards
At Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival (CZ), "The Making of Justice" was granted an award by the student jury: "The student jury of the First Lights section grants the award to a filmmaker whose clear vision, confident directing style and a profoundly human insight allowed her to defy the conventional portrayal of those who have been sentenced to prison. The stories of the individual characters combined with minimalist filmic language compel us to reflect on the general character of justice."
Press and texts