The Making of Justice

synopsis

A consistently out-of-focus visual record tracking seven men as they discuss the screenplay for a film about the life path of Tom, a young murderer who, after twelve years in prison, returns to the village where he lived, and tries to prove – to himself and others – that he has changed. The camera slides down the walls, snoops between chair legs, and captures useless details of the individual body parts of the participating figures. The schematic story of Tom’s guilt, punishment, and new beginning, which the film’s director guides her consultants through step by step, gradually gains in plasticity and becomes a surprisingly effective tool for thinking about the image of a criminal and the concept of justice.

"Fiction is a powerful tool to re-imagine oneself and the world, a place where judgement can be suspended. This is a rare occasion to hear the voices of perpetrators as human beings, in an increasingly revengeful society."  S. Vanhee

biography

Visual artist, performer, and essayist Sarah Vanhee (1980) has put on a number of happenings, including a public auction of ideas and the stage performance Oblivion (2015), which culminated her year-long effort to preserve and subsequently exhibit every trace of her own existence. She is a founding member of the Manyone artistic group and currently lives in Brussels. The Making of Justice is her first film.

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