Changes in views over judicial accountability, drug-related crimes and systemic racism are at the root of these films, which examine how gaps in the criminal justice system can leave people behind bars for years. (Total Running Time: 68 MIN) The Sentence of Michael Thompson | Directors: Kyle Thrash, Haley Elizabeth AndersonMichael Thompson, the longest serving […]
US PREMIERE Students across the African continent come together for an annual contest of oratory skills and knowledge of the law. The film follows diverse teams of law students as they prepare for this prestigious, high-stakes mock trial, the African Human Rights Moot Competition. In her feature film debut, former lawyer-turned-filmmaker Shameela Seedat gives us […]
WORLD PREMIERE For 30 years, Chef Jimmy Lee Hill has dedicated himself to the gourmet culinary training program he leads at Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater, Michigan. The pioneering program gives incarcerated men. a prestigious skill they can take back into the workforce and provides a sense of purpose as they serve their time. As […]
WORLD PREMIERE Stevan, a 60-year-old, former porn performer from Serbia awaits the outcome of a Kafkaesque trial process in a Maltese prison. The moody landscapes reflect the loneliness and desperate state he was in prior to his arrest for public exposure in this bizarre story, which unspools like an eerie mystery. – Ruth Somalo The […]
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE Ithaka documents John Shipton, father of Julian Assange, in his tireless efforts to stop the British government from extraditing his son to the US to face espionage charges. While Assange’s health deteriorates in a British prison, Shipton wages a fight both political and personal as he works to build support so his […]
NYC PREMIERE In 2005 at Guantanamo Bay, US Air Force JAG Attorney Yvonne Bradley volunteered to defend Binyam Mohamed who was facing a death penalty. She soon finds her world flipped upside down, as she uncovers the harrowing truth about the US legal system and questions whether some detainees are truly terrorists. Bradley’s captivating story […]
NYC PREMIERE The brutal murder of a young investigative journalist and his fiancée in 2018 ignited one of the biggest protests in Slovakia since the fall of communism. As colleagues and family search for answers, a source leaks a secret case file of the murder that reveals corruption at the highest level of government. Filmmaker […]
WORLD PREMIERE Filmed inside California’s oldest state prison, 26.2 to Life explores the transformative power of San Quentin’s 1000 Mile Club, in which incarcerated men train for and run a marathon on the dirt and concrete path circling the prison yard. Through intimate access behind the walls of the infamous correctional facility, the film confronts […]
WORLD PREMIERE In the dangerously overcrowded California State prison system, 50 men serving life sentences are given the opportunity to become substance abuse counselors. As the first-ever participants in the Offender Mentor Program, the group reckons with their own demons as they excavate the deep trauma of their fellow inmates. An intimate study on the […]
Filmmaker Sierra Pettengill begins with footage filmed by the US military in the 1960s of dress rehearsals for show-of-force responses to the domestic unrest that was unnerving America at the time. The material’s horrifying implications quickly settle in, however, as Pentengill digs deep into other archival material to answer the question of how these large-scale […]