PRISONER’S JUSTICE FILM FESTIVAL 2006
Toronto's Prisoner's Justice Action Committee presents
The Second Annual
Prisoner's Justice Film Festival
February 23-26, 2006
This event is generously supported by the Social Justice Cluster,
University of Toronto
The first Toronto Prisoner's Justice Film Festival was held in January of
2005 and drew hundreds of community members, abolitionists, youths,
activists, students, educators, artists, ex-prisoners, family members and
allies from across Ontario. This year's festival will build on the first,
as we work to build a movement that challenges the prison-industrial
complex, and demands justice, not jails.
Join us for an exciting selection of informative films including Canadian,
U.S., and international submissions. Films will be accompanied by guest
panels including current and ex-prisoners, families of prisoners,
activists and advocates, film-makers, researchers and writers. Audiences
will be encouraged to join in the discussion. Between films, participants
will have the chance to enjoy musical performances, take in displays of
prisoners' art, and check out ally organizations at our community info
fair.
Thursday February 23, 2006 6-9.30pm
Friday February 24, 2006 7pm to late
Saturday February 25, 2006 12noon-10pm
Sunday February 26, 2005 2-9.30pm
All film screenings at Innis Town Hall - University of Toronto
Located at the corner of Sussex Ave and St. George St.
Friday Party at the Multipurpose Room, Student Campus Center
Ryerson University, 55 Gould St.
Festival Schedule
Thursday, February 23rd
6:00 – 9:30pm Health in Prison
Opening with Manitou Kwe Singers (Women Spirit Singers)
Manitou Kwe Singers (Women Spirit Singers), founded in 1995 by Amber
O'Hara (Waabnong Kwe) is an all women's hand drum group. All members of
Manitou Kwe Singers are of Native ancestry. Herstorically, they have sung
for the missing or murdered women in Canada, for prisoners, justice and
against violence in general.
Exceptional People’s Olympiad
(Canada, 2000, 15min, Big House Productions/CBC)
This film was shot and produced by a film production group inside Collins
Bay Federal Jail near Kingston. This film highlights the annual weekend
Olympics for athletes with disabilities organized and paid for by
prisoners at Collins Bay. This film highlights some of the relationships
that have developed over the course of this event. An interesting
snap-shot of two communities so often made invisible by our society.
Prison Lullabies (USA, 2003, 83min, Brown Hats Productions)
Dirs: Odile Isralson, Lina Matta
Prison Lullabies is the remarkable portrait of four women living on the
bad side of luck, struggling with drug addiction, arrested for dealing and
prostitution, and serving prison time with one common bond – arrested
pregnant, Amy, Monique, Joann, and Anne Marie have all given birth behind
bars. One of only five prisons in the U.S. to provide a nursery program
for inmates, Taconic Correctional Facility in New York State allows the
women to keep their babies for the first 18 months of their lives while
insisting that the mothers participate in a rigorous series of classes
that range from basic child care to anger management and drug counseling.
Each woman is released in the course of filming. Each must choose, minute
to minute, whether to find a job, break the cycle of relapse and re-arrest
that has led to the loss of her other children, or pick up the crack pipe,
abandon the child, and return to the streets. Shot in cinema-verité style,
Prison Lullabies addresses these issues by allowing the audience the
opportunity to observe and listen as the stories of the inmate mothers
unfold in their own time and in their own words. Prison Lullabies is an
extraordinary tale – that of four women making life-altering choices and
seizing the glimmer of possibility the prison nursery program is holding
out for them and for the future of their children.
Q&A with
Ayden Scheim, prison activist
Psychiatric survivor, OCAB Speakers Bureau
Friday, February 24th
7:00pm "LYRICIST LINKUP 6: Poetik Justice"
Presented by 8 Rooks Enlightenment & I.S.I.S. CIRCLE ENTERTAINMENT
Ryerson University Multi-Purpose Room (Student Campus Centre), 55 Gould St.
Hosted by Soul-R & EvE! Featuring Spin, Lady Loxx, Leviathan, Jah Paul &
Elisha, Blak Child, EvE, Soul-R and El Machetero
Open-Mic! Cultural Catering! Vendor's Market!
Sponsors: Ryerson Students' Union, Big It Up International, Lite It Up
Candles, Dogon Star Productions
Music: DJ El Machetero
Contact: 8Rooks.Com
Saturday, February 25th
12:00 - 2:00pm Networking Forum
An opportunity to share information about what various individuals and
groups are currently doing in the area of prisoners’ justice activism –
both for new folks who want to get involved, and for folks who are already
involved but want to build stronger connections. Come and identify
networking /collective support needs for prisoner’s justice activists and
to brainstorm ideas for keeping each better connected. Explore the
possibility of forming a radical prison workers network and discuss ideas
around organizing a prisoner’s justice week and/or other actions which
will help build collective solidarity in the prison abolition movement.
2:00 - 5:00pm Youth Incarceration
Juvies (USA, 2004, 66 min, Chance Films Inc.)
Dirs: Leslie Neale
From award-winning documentary filmmaker Leslie Neale (Road to Return)
comes this riveting look at a world most of us will never see: the world
of juvenile offenders who are serving incredible prison sentences for
crimes they either did not commit or were only marginally involved in. For
two years, Neale taught a video production class at Los Angeles Central
Juvenile Hall to 12 young people who were all being tried as adults.
Juvies is the product of that class, which was a learning experience for
both students and teacher - and becomes a learning experience for all of
us, as
we witness the heartbreaking stories of children abandoned by families and
a system that has disintegrated into a kind of vending machine justice.
Narrated by actor Mark Wahlberg, himself a former juvenile offender, and
poetry read by Mos Def.
Sun Up ‘till Sun Down (USA, 2005, 22 min, Prison Moratorium Project)
Dir. Tania Cuevas
A lively documentary produced by the Prison Moratorium Project about their
campaign against the construction of youth prisons and the growing
movement in New York to end imprisonment. Imaginative techniques of
conveying the startling reality of the prison industry make this film
engaging as well as informative.
Performances by
Spin, spoken word artist, community organizer
Toronto Underground Street Journalist Mr. Bones
Q&A with
Veronica Salvatierra, Community Youth Worker, St Stephen’s Community House
Lee Ann Chapman, B.A. LL.B, staff lawyer at Justice for Children and Youth.
Jagjeet Chhabra, 81 Reasons Campaign
Representative, Black Youth Taking Action
5:00 - 7:15pm Women Political Prisoners of the Middle East
Women in Death Castles (Palestine, 2004,13min)
Dir: Balata Film Collective
A high proportion of Palestinian women prisoners in Israeli Occupation
prisons are from the Nablus region. In this film, recently released women
from Balata and Nablus speak out about their pain and struggle while
imprisoned. Testimonies describe interrogation, physical and mental
torture, loneliness. The film Includes interviews with ex-prisoners,
children of current prisoners and officials from the Prisoners’ Society.
Red Names (Canada,1999, 12min)
Dirs: Amin Zarghami, Shahrzad Arshadi
This is a short video celebrating the legacy of thousands of women who
lost their lives in Iran between 1979 and 1999 due to their political,
social and religious beliefs. For Amin Zarghami & Shahrzad Arshadi,
working on this video was an opportunity to pay tribute to the memory of
these women - some of whom they knew personally - and grieve their loss.
It is intended as a testament both to their suffering and to the political
tyranny that led to their execution.
Women in Struggle (Palestine, 2004, 56min)
Dir: Buthina Canaan Khoury
This film documents the lives of Palestinian women who are ex-political
detainees, depicting their struggle during years of imprisonment in
Israeli jails and exploring the effect on their present-day life. The film
focuses on the lives of four women who became involved in the Palestinian
national struggle for independence. The women testify in their own words
about their histories, and about daily life in the current Palestinian
Intifada at a time of the “war on terror” and the apartheid wall. The film
seeks to understand the women’s efforts to preserve their dignity and
integrate into Palestinian social and political life. Although these four
women are no longer physically incarcerated, they actually find themselves
in a bigger prison carrying their imprisonment within them in every aspect
of their life.
Q&A with
Shahrzad Mojab, Director, Women and Gender Studies Institute, University
of Toronto
Shahrzad Arshadi, filmmaker
Rafeef Ziadeh, Sumoud
Performance by Faith Nolan, singer-songwriter, blues guitarist and prison
activist http://www.faithnolan.org
7:30 - 10:00 Resistance Caged (Political Prisoners)
Mission Against Terror (Cuba/Ireland, 2004, 48 min, Canal Education and
Two Islands Productions)
Dirs: Bernie Dwyer, Roberto Ruiz Rebo
As Havana wakes up to another day, five Cuban men are serving their time
in prisons scattered throughout the United States. Their crime? Protecting
their country and people against terrorism. Arrested on Sept. 12, 1998 and
subjected to a trial, which US civil rights lawyer, Leonard Weinglass,
calls a "violation" from start to finish, the Cuban five were locked away
for a total of three life sentences plus 68 years. There are very few
cases that are political by their nature. This was one. "Mission Against
Terror" charts Cuba's 45-year struggle against terrorism and the five
men's fight to win justice.
Souha Surviving Hell (Lebanon, 2001, 60min)
Dir: Randa Chahal Sabbag
From the director of Civilisees, which opened the 2000 Human Rights Watch
International Film Festival and received its Nestor Almendros Prize, Randa
Chahal Sabbag now turns her lens on South Lebanon. The subject of Chahal
Sabbag's film is the charismatic Souha Becharre, whom many call the
"fiance du Liban." In 1989 at the age of twenty-one, Souha - a devoted
communist - agreed to attempt the assassination of Lebanese General
Antoine Lahad, who was collaborating with the Israeli Army in the South of
Lebanon. Lahad survived, but Souha was quickly arrested and thrown in the
Khiam prison where she spent ten years for the attempt on Lahad's life.
Conditions in Khiam were horrific, and Souha endured six of those years in
solitary confinement. Chahal Sabbag follows Souha in the months following
her release, as she tirelessly travels Lebanon - speaking about her
experiences at Khiam and searching out others who were imprisoned there.
And despite all she suffered in Khiam, Souha is a survivor who shares her
story with a sense of hope for the future - both her own and that of
Lebanon.
Q&A with
Representative from Sumoud Political Prisoners Solidarity Group.
Tom Keefer - Seth Hayes Support Committee, Autonomy & Solidarity
Morteza Gorgzadeh, Toronto Forum on Cuba
Patrick Elie, Former Secretary of State for National Defense, Haiti,
President of Foundation Eko Vwa Jan Dominique
Sunday, February 26th
2:00 - 4:00pm Immigration Detention and the Secret Trials
Rising Up: the Alams (USA, 2005, 12min)
Dir: Konrad Aderer
An immigrant family, the Alams, are picked up during the special
registration program in the United States after 911. Faced with removal to
persecution they decided to resist with the revolutionary organization -
Desis Rising Up and Moving, a South Asian working class organization.
Don't Ask Don't Tell (Canada, 2005, 11min)
Dirs: Jean McDonald and Alex Rotalski
Approximately 200,000 non-status immigrants who live in Canada face
deportation and detention. Women abused by the spouse cannot call police,
lesbian couples are refused community housing. In Toronto immigrant
communities are fighting back. This film documents their struggle.
Whose Rights, Anyway? Justice for Mohammed (Canada, 2005, 23 min)
Dir: Anice Wong
Provides public information about the security-certificates process by
highlighting the case of Mohamed Harkat who has been in detention in
Ottawa for over 18 months.
L'echo du Silence (Echo Of Silence) (Canada, 2003, 23 min)
Dir: Chloe Germain-Therien
In 1997 two Basque men, Gorka Perea and Eduardo Plagaro, sought refugee
status in Canada after being charged with arson in Spain. They claimed
that their confessions to the crime were signed under torture. In 2001 the
two men were detained as suspected terrorists in a prison in Rivière des
Prairies, Quebec. The Echo of Silence documents their experience in
Canada: their detention, their temporary release, and finally their
extradition in June 2005, despite an active grassroots movement to keep
them in Canada.
Q&A with
Chloe Germain-Therien, film-maker
Mac Scott - No One is Illegal
Sima Zerehi - Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
Matthew Behrens - Toronto Action for Social Change
Family members - Friends and Family of Gary Freeman
4:30 - 6:30 The Politics of Prison
Torture Inc - America’s Brutal Prisons (UK, 2005, 24 min)
Dir: Deborah Davies
Savaged by dogs, Electrocuted With Cattle Prods, Burned By Toxic
Chemicals, Does such barbaric abuse inside U.S. jails explain the horrors
that were committed in Iraq? They are just some of the victims of
wholesale torture taking place inside the U.S. prison system that we
uncovered during a four-month investigation for the UK’s Channel 4. It’s
terrible to watch some of the videos and realise that you’re not only
seeing torture in action but, in the most extreme cases, you are
witnessing young men dying.
This Black Soil - A Story of Resistance and Rebirth (USA, 2004, 58 min,
Working Hands Productions)
Dir: Teresa Konechne
This inspiring and provocative new film chronicles the successful struggle
of Bayview, Virginia, a small and severely impoverished rural
African-American community, to pursue a new vision of prosperity.
Catalyzed by the defeat of a state plan to build a maximum-security prison
in their backyard, the powerful women leaders and residents created the
Bayview Citizens for Social Justice, a non-profit organization, secured
$10 million in grants, purchased the proposed prison site land and are now
building a new community from the ground up. Under the leadership of
visionary women, this new rural village challenges all conventional ideas
of community development and includes not only improved and affordable
housing, but a sustainable economic base to earn a living wage, a
community center for educating its residents, a daycare center,
laundromat, and a community farm, which not only provides jobs and income
for the organization, but returns them to their roots, working on the
land.
Q&A with
Julia Sudbury, Canada Research Chair in Social Justice, Equity and
Diversity, University of Toronto
Rai Reece, PJAC
Giselle Dias
7:00 - 9:00 Indigenous and First Nations Prisoners
The Heart Has Its Own Memory (Canada, 2005, 13 minutes)
Dir: Audrey Huntley
This short film looks at violence against First Nations Women in Canada,
the lack of justice for missing Aboriginal women and racist police
inaction and impunity. Huntley creates a collage of the women’s stories
and interviews with family members and friends. The film plays with native
oratory and is a testimony to the pain and grief of the community as a
whole and a message of no more silence.
To Heal The Spirit (Canada, 1991, 47 min)
Why Not Productions Inc.
An emotionally charged documentary that focuses on First Nations women in
prison and the way in which many women discover spirituality and gain a
sense of identity within the oppressive confines of prison walls.
My Name is Kahentiiosta (Canada, 1995, 30 min)
Dir: Alanis Obomsawin
This affecting film profiles a young, courageous Kahnawake Mohawk woman
who was arrested after a 78 day armed standoff in 1990 between the Mohawks
and the Canadian federal government. Kahentiiosta is detained four days
longer than other women because the court refuses to accept her aboriginal
name. This is a compelling look at a people’s movement for
self-determination and one young woman’s refusal to capitulate in the face
of great adversity.
Q&A with
Jonathan Rudin, Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto
Chief Leo Friday, Kashechewan First Nations
Representative from No More Silence
Amber O'Hara (Waabnong Kwe)
9:00pm: Closing Ceremony with Musical Guests
How to get there:
All Film Screenings at Innis Town Hall - University of Toronto, 2 Sussex
Avenue. Corner of Sussex Ave and St. George Street, just south of Bloor
Street.
5 minute walk from St. George Station.
Friday Party at the Multipurpose Room, Student Campus Center, Ryerson
University, 55 Gould St, Near Yonge and Gerrard.
5 minute walk from Dundas Station.
All film programmes $5 suggested donation.
Friday night pay-what-you-can $5-$10. This is an all-ages event and all
venues are wheelchair accessible.
About the Prisoner's Justice Action Committee:
The Prisoner's Justice Action Committee believes that prisons do not make
our communities safer or more secure. We believe that the prison
industrial complex perpetuates violence and oppression, including racism,
classism, sexism, colonialism, and homophobia. PJAC works to end
incarceration and detention and to create healthy communities built on
social justice.
Please contact us with your questions, comments or ideas.
Pjac_committee@yahoo.com
Visit our website: http://www.pjac.org
Many thanks to our sponsors
CKLN 88.1fm
Criminology Department, University of Toronto
Defense for Children International, Canada
Equity Studies Department, University of Toronto
Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto
John Howard Society Toronto
Ontario Public Interest Research Group, York University
Prisoner's HIV/AIDS Support Action Network
Sexual Diversity Studies Program, University of Toronto
Social Justice Cluster, University of Toronto
Toronto Forum on Cuba
Trans Identified/Woman Identified Caucus, CUPE 3903, York University
Women and Gender Studies Institute, University of Toronto
Women Political Prisoners of the Middle East Project (Shahrzad Mojab)
Endorsers
81 Reasons Campaign
8Rook Productions
Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto
Al-Awda Right of Return Coalition (Toronto)
BIFA, Bath Penitentiary
Black Action Defense Committee
Black Inmates and Friends Assembly
Buried Alive Illustrations
Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada
CKLN
Coalition to Stop the War Toronto
Colours of Resistance - York University
Friends and Family Gary Freeman
Gavel Club, Bath Penitentiary
Isis Entertainment
Justice for Children and Youth
Justice for Mohamed Harkat Committee
Lifers Group, Bath Penitentiary
Lifers Group, Joyceville Penitentiary
Lifting as We Climb
Native Brotherhood, Bath Penitentiary
No One Is Illegal
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
Prison Talk Online
Resistance on the Sound Dial
Rittenhouse
Satan Macnuggit
St. Clare's Multifaith Housing Society
Strength in SISterhood
Sumoud
Toronto Action for Social Change
Toronto Don't Ask Don't Tell Campaign
Womyn4justice - Kingston
Words Action Resistance
