Corrections (2001, U.S., 60min)

Centered on prison privatization, Corrections is the story of profits and massive imprisonment, how the histories of racial and economic inequality in the U.S. are emerging today from the walls of its prisons, and how this crisis has become the base for an entire industry. Weaving together stories of the leading corporations, testimony from experts and the lives of ordinary people, Corrections takes audiences behind the walls of prisons where they might not want you to leave. Official Selection Slamdance Film Festival. Directed by Ashley Hunt.

Corporate Lockdown (2001, Canada, 22min)

From the privately operated SuperJail in Penetanguishene, Ontario, to Nashville's detention centre, operated by Corrections Corporation of America - the second largest private prison operator in the world - multinational corporations are turning prisoners into commodities. This hard-hitting documentary juxtaposes former prisoners and prison activists with corporate moguls and corrections officials, demonstrating how Ontario’s experiment with private prisons is leading to a U.S. style prison crisis. Directed by Sarah Zammit.

Q&A with Sarah Zammit (Director, Corporate Lockdown) and Julia Sudbury (Critical Resistance and UofT Faculty of Social Work).

Education Not Incarceration (2004, US, 10min)

With California facing unprecedented budget deficits, the state is balancing the budget by slashing education and other social services, while prison spending has remained largely untouched. The Education Not Incarceration Coalition is a grassroots initiative to bring prison activists and educators together to lobby for better education and for reducing prison spending by reducing the number of people in prison. This organizing video is designed to help create coalitions between prison activists, students and educators. For more information: www.may8.org

System Failure: Violence, Abuse and Neglect in the California Youth Authority. (2004, US, 30min).

The California Youth Authority (CYA) is California's youth incarceration system for youth in serious or repeat trouble with the law. After a string of scandals, the CYA has come under increasing attack from parents, lawmakers, and media for utterly failing in its mission to rehabilitate youth. Created by activists from Books Not Bars, System Failure details rampant human rights violations in these institutions with stories from children and families who have been inside. Giving voice to the rising tide of opposition, the film advocates closing CYA's nine facilities and replacing them with community-based alternatives that give youth a chance to succeed on the outside. Directed by Renee Byrd.

A Prison in the Fields: False Progress in the Central Valley (2001, U.S. 20 minutes)

Produced by Critical Resistance as part of its campaign to stop construction of a 5,160 bed prison slated for Delano, California, this documentary debunks the myth that prisons are economic drivers for impoverished rural communities and exposes the environmental racism at play in prison siting today. The film documents the involvement of Mexican farmworkers in the struggle against prison expansion, and demonstrates the legacy of racism and resistance that culminated in the Delano campaign. Directed by Ashley Hunt.

Q&A on Youth Justice and the Campaign against Ontario’s youth superjail with Marika Schwandt, Julia Sudbury (Critical Resistance).

* With a display of art by Pete Collins (Lifer at Bath Institution, www.buriedaliveillustrations.com)

Blind Eye to Justice (1998, US, 34min)

Portrays the injustices of the California prison system as seen through the eyes of incarcerated HIV+ women. Animation and found footage create a powerful montage that evokes the atmosphere in women's prisons--the violations as well as the hope and courage of prison activists who fight quietly, and from the inside. Countless numbers of women prisoners have died of AIDS, but no one yet has documented the numbers or their names. Blind Eye to Justice is dedicated to prisoner activist Joann Walker and "to those women who have died, and those who are surviving." Narrated by Angela Y. Davis. Directed by Carol Leigh.

Tattoo: Art Beneath the Skin (1996, Canada, 22min)

The Correctional Services of Canada has always viewed tattooing in prison as an illegal activity. It is a punishable offence to either give or to receive a tattoo while inside. This has made tattooing in prison a covert and costly activity, in terms of personal freedoms and the health risks involved. In this documentary made by The Lifer’s Group at Joyceville Penitentiary, prisoners and health care professionals question the reasoning behind the prison system's reluctance to set-up safe tattoo sites within each prison. Edited by Dave Fenwick, Laurence Stocking.

Eyes in the Back of Your Head (2003, Canada, 33 min)

Federal women ex-prisoners take photographs at the recently closed Prison 4 Women in Kingston, Ontario. The women are members of Womyn 4 Justice, a group of prisoners and ex-prisoners who are currently organizing to build a transition house for women leaving prison. Telltales Media Production, Dir: Clarke Mackey, Produced with Kingston Insights Project.

Q&A with Giselle Dias (Prisoners’ HIV/AIDS Support Action Network), Adrian Maloney (PASAN), Gerry Gray (Lifer at Joyceville Penitentiary, Big House Productions), Ann Hansen, Fran Chaisson and Willy Vesterling (Womyn 4 Justice).

Holiday Camp (2002, Australia, 45min)

A powerful documentary that investigates Australia's current immigration policies in the context of two hundred years of colonisation. The pivotal action in the documentary is the dramatic footage of the Easter 2002 outbreak from the Woomera detention centre when 53 detainees escaped. Drive-By Shooting/Tallstoreez Productionz.

Q&A on immigration detention in Canada with Farrah Miranda and Jean McDonald (No One Is Illegal).

Security Consciousness: Detained in Guelph (2004, Canada, 35min)

With no film-making experience six University of Guelph undergraduate students and a Sheridan College student created a project using the medium of film to engage a wide audience in dialogue about the role that post-9/11 security consciousness has had on the detention and deportation of immigrants and refugees in Canada. The film’s starting point is the recently negotiated use of the Guelph correctional facility for detaining immigrants. The film aims to inspire collective opposition to current practices of detention.

Whose Rights, Anyway? Justice for Mohamed (2004, Canada, 15min)

Provides much-needed public information about the security-certificate process by highlighting the case of Mohamed Harkat who has been in detention in Ottawa 18 months. Director/ Producer Anice Wong.

Q&A with members of Justice for Mohammed Harkat Committee

* With a display of art work by detainees at the Heritage Inn Detention Centre provided by No-One Is Illegal-Toronto's Prison Art Group for Women.

Circles (1997, US, 57m)

A film about justice and community healing, Circles is an inside look at sentencing circles- an alternative approach to justice in the Yukon. For many Aboriginal men in the North, going to jail was an extension of attending residential schools run by missionaries. For some, sentencing circles are a way to re-connect to spiritual traditionals and break the cycle. Some of the former prisoners and victims portrayed in Circles are now helping to set up circle sentencing in US inner cities and suburbs. Directed by Shanti Thakur.

Johnny Greyeyes (2001, Canada, 76min)

Johnny Greyeyes is the powerful story of a Native woman struggling to maintain strength, love and spirit within the walls of a women’s prison. Since the shooting death of her father, Johnny has spent most of her life in prison where she falls in love with her cellmate Lana. But her responsibilities to the outside world weigh heavily as she attempts to pull together her fractured natural family. The first feature film focusing on Native lesbians, Johnny Greyeyes is a deeply humanizing portrait of life behind bars. An official Sundance selection, the movie was also nominated for Best Picture at the American Indian Motion Picture Awards, and Jorge Manzano won Best Director. It also won the Freedom Award at Los Angeles Outfest 2000. Directed by Jorge Manzano.

Q&A with Gail Maurice (actor, Johnny Greyeyes), Randy Charboneau (Ex-prisoner & artist), Joey Twins (Native Sisterhood, Grand Valley Institution).

* With artwork by Randy Charboneau.

Out!: The Making of a Revolutionary (2000, USA, 60min)

In 1985, lesbian activist Laura Whitehorn was convicted of bombing the United States Capitol building and "conspiring to influence, change and protest policies of the United States government through violent and illegal means." This is a story of the making of a revolutionary. OUT chronicles the life of this courageous woman. From growing up in a liberal middle-class Jewish household, to involvement with radical leftist organizations of the 1960's and 1970's, to her 20 year sentence in prison (of which she served 14), Whitehorn has seen the twentieth century evolve, while the injustices surrounding class, race and gender remain the same. Articulate, candid interviews interwoven with compelling archival footage help OUT capture the portrait of an uncompromising radical. Directed by Rhonda Collins and Sonja de Vries.

Q&A with Laura Whitehorn.

Stolen Youth (2004, UK, 20min)

A hard-hitting documentary on the experiences of Palestinian child prisoners. The documentary includes interviews with ex-child detainees, their families and their lawyer as well as exclusive footage from the inside an Israeli military court. The film highlights the personal pain experienced by the children and their relatives during the period of their incarceration, as well as placing this suffering within the wider context of Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories. DCI/PS and Dar Productions. Directed by Saed Andoni

The Corridor (2004, UK, 25min)

The story of a young Iranian woman who becomes politically active in opposing Ayatollah Khomeini's regime in the 1980s. She is made to pay a heavy price, not only in terms of her immediate suffering, her torture and imprisonment at the hands of the regime, but the deeper pain of having her daughter, born in prison, taken away by the authorities, to be brought up by her husband's family. Directed by Zohreh Neirizi.

Q&A with Zohreh Neirizi (Director, The Corridor), Members of SUMOUD political prisoner support group.

- Institute for Women's Studies and Gender Studies, U of T
- Faculty of Social Work, U of T
- Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE)
- LGBTQ Resources and Programs, UofT
- PASAN (Prisoners' HIV/AIDS Support Action Network
- John Howard Society, Toronto
- Metro Network for Social Justice
- U of T, Criminology Dept
- Global Justice Working Group of First Unitarian Congregation, Ottawa
- Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies
- New Socialist Group

CIUT89.5fm and CKLN88.1fm

- Womyn 4 Justice
- Innocence Project
- Lifers Group, Bath Institution
- Native Brotherhood, Bath Institution
- Native Brotherhood, Joyceville Institution
- Rittenhouse: Transformative Justice
- Lifers Group, Joyceville Institution
- Sumoud, Political Prisoner Support Group
- Toronto Action for Social Change
- No One Is Illegal, Toronto
- The Coalition Against War and Racism
- John Howard Society of Kingston
- John Howard Society, Collins Bay
- Resistance on the Soundial, CIUT89.5fm
- Buried Alive Illustrations
- Sexual Diversity Studies, U of T
- The Justice for Mohamed Harkat Committee
- Toronto Action for Social Change
- Edmonton Chapter to Stop Secret Trials and Deportations
- Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
- Al-Awda Toronto
- Don't Ask, Don't Tell Coalition
- Inmate Pen Pal Connection
- Christian Inmate Pen Pal Connection
- Strength in SISterhood
- Free the Cuban 5 Committee, Toronto
- Criminology Department, York University
- The June 30th Coalition

- Women's Coordinating Committee, Chile-Canada
- Black Youth United
- Joint Effort, Vancouver
- Vancouver's Prisoners' Justice Day Committee
- Books 2 Prisoners, Vancouver
- Inmate Committee at Fenbrook Institution
- 'Underground' peer health at Warkworth Institution
- Coalition for Accessible Identification and Services (CAIS)
- ID Prison Working Group
- Pardons Canada