By this point, some adventurous cable channel could probably
carve a pretty substantial reality series out of the recent spate of
fly-on-the-wall documentaries about international criminal justice. Since
Frederick Wiseman's Florida-bound epic Domestic Violence five years ago, we've had a look at
the French court system in Raymond Depardon's 10th District Court, Cameroon's in Florence Ayisi and
Kim Longinotto's Sisters In Law, and now Brazil's in Maria Ramos' Justice. Like the rest of the
Wiseman-inspired flock, Justice dedicates most of its running time to scenes of people
sitting in public offices and courtrooms, trying to hash out what they did wrong
and what the punishment should be, while the officials on the other side of the
desk offer varying degrees of sympathy. By the time everyone's done talking,
viewers are more likely to be interested in whether the process is fair and
humane than in the cases' actual truth.
Justice carries that question even further by giving glimpses of
Rio De Janeiro's holding cells, where prisoners are jammed in like factory
chickens, and their loved ones wait outside in long lines for visitation. Ramos
follows two defendants in particular–a juvenile accused of being a lookout for
drug dealers, and a young man who was a passenger in a stolen car–and she
implies that while both boys are likely guilty, neither deserves the punishment
in store, and neither should have to endure a trial process that has the judge
dictating biased statements for them.
Because Justice is from the Wiseman school of documentaries, there's no
narration and people don't share their thoughts with the camera, which means
the movie can come off as a little hollow. But Ramos fills some of the gaps
with artful slice-of-life scenes of urchins and fervent churchgoers, to give
some sense of the mix of poverty, religion, and overpopulation that informs
Rio's legal process. She also visits the homes of the judges and lawyers,
listening to them complain to their families about a system more concerned with
tallying up convictions than, as one judge says, determining "the truth of an
intention." As a result, Rio's jails are packed to the walls with people who are
technically criminals, though some are hardcore, and some just took a ride with
the wrong friend at the wrong time.