[Marxism] Justice

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

?Justice? is a documentary about the Brazilian court system that is clearly 
indebted to Frederick Wiseman?s brand of cinéma vérité, especially his 1973 
?Juvenile Court.? Shown at the NY Human Rights Film Festival last year, it 
is now available from First Run/Icarus Films, a prime outlet for 
challenging documentaries.

While Wiseman?s films have a kind of Foucauldian insight into institutions 
as institutions, director Maria Ramos makes it clear that it is a class 
system that turns young people into criminals and that subjects them to a 
draconian legal system bent more on revenge than rehabilitation.

Ramos dramatizes the deep gulf between the judges and the judged by simply 
training her camera and microphone in the right direction. The judges tend 
to assume the worst about the accused young people in the courtroom before 
them. When a youth in a wheelchair charged with selling drugs asks to be 
put in a hospital since the crowded jail cell makes it impossible for him 
to go to the bathroom, she instructs him that he would need to be examined 
by a doctor first despite the obvious evidence of his disability.

One can understand anyone?s reluctance to be jailed in Brazil, let alone 
someone in a wheelchair. It is one of the most brutal and overcrowded 
systems in the world that spawns rebellions on a regular basis. The 
municipal jail seen in ?Justice? is as crowded as a NYC subway car during 
rush hour. The inmates are literally elbow-to-elbow.

full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2006/08/31/justice/

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