[deutsch]

Shortcut to Justice

A Documentary Film by Daniel Burkholz and Sybille Fezer

Shortcut to Justice tells about the courageous  "Women for Justice“ from the sprawling city Vadodara in the northwest of India, close to the Pakistan border.

The "Women for Justice“ fight against injustice and violence, many women there are suffering from. Because Police and Justice hardly give any shelter or aid, they founded a court themselves. Every week they gather under a tree, on a dusty place on the edge of the poor quarter Kalyan Nagar and dispense Justice.

With quick-wittedness and creativity they put beating husbands and mean mother-in-laws in their place. And – if necessary – they go in as a "heavy squad” to help a poor widow, who was thrown out of the house with her little daughter after the death of her husband, to regain her belongings.

Original with english subtitles, 41 Minutes, 16  :  9 Version, Germany 2009

Directors: Daniel Burkholz and Sybille Fezer
Camera: Daniel Burkholz
Interviews: Sybille Fezer
Directors Assistance: Runki Mukherjee, Mubasshera Campwala
Editor: Julian Isfort www.julianisfort.de
Production Company: Roadside Dokumentarfilm

The movie is distributed by Roadside Dokumentarfilm. If you are interested, please be so kind to send us a message by using the contact form, or just give us a telephone call.

[Galerie]

Film Festivals

• Human Rights Film Festival Move It! 2009, Dresden
• Human Rights Film Festival Document 7, Glasgow
• Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival 2009, China
• ‚Bollywood and beyond‘ Stuttgart 2009
• Vienna Women‘s Film ­Festival 2009
• Women‘s Film Festival Leipzig 2009
• Terre Des Femmes Film Festival Tübingen 2008
• Film Festival Münster 2008

Comments on the Film

Your sovereign compassion with the destiny of the ­women in „Shortcut to Justice“ reminds me of what Robert Flaherty, a pioneer of the ethnologic film, said  „The task of a film creator is to find an event, and if only a moment, in which the ‚core of greatness‘ is revealed“.
Peter Lilienthal, Filmmaker

A wonderful and encouraging example for women‘s initiatives against violence.
Yakin Ertürk, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women

One has already seen such pictures, but this story is unknown yet. Right here, a platform for social empowerment has been created that could set a precedent for the whole world.
Oliver Händler in Neues Deutschland

Finally good news about India ! This movie doesn´t tell that it has been shot by Western moviemakers.
Ujjwal Bhattacharya, Deutsche Welle

A marvellous movie about the power of solidarity.
Manfred F. Kubiak in Heidenheimer Zeitung

One of the highlights of the „Halbtotale-Filmfestival Münster“ is the documentary movie Shortcut to Justice“ by Daniel Burkholz and Sybille Fezer who walk along with the “Women for Justice” in the northwest of India.
Dr. Hans Gerhold in Westfälische Nachrichten

Genesis of Shortcut to Justice

Actually, the filmmaker Daniel Burkholz had planned to shoot a documentary film about the norwegian­ peace researcher Johan Galtung in Sri Lanka, in January 2007. But then the civil war between the ­Singhalese and the Tamils escalated again. It wasn´t possible any more, to shoot a film in Sri Lanka.All plans had to be changed – this was the prelude for Shortcut to Justice.

The idea to make this film was a matter of the heart for Sybille Fezer, who is also working for the women‘s and human rights organization medica mondiale, which recently was awarded with the Alternative Nobelprize­. Being also a lawyer, the filmmaker Daniel Burkholz  was soon won for this project. Shooting started in February and could be finished in March 2007. Unfortunately the translation of 30 hours of court negotiations and interviews from the Indian regional language Gujarati into German took a little bit longer, but finally the film could be finished in December 2008.

There are only some documentaries worldwide that deal with the legal situation of women in India. There is hardly a documentary film that describes the situation of the women as forceful and respectful as Shortcut to Justice does.