07/31/2026
In light of Ford’s new “Protect Ontario” initiative, set to spend billions on jails while our social services get cut, we invite you to attend:
The Prisoners’ Justice Film Festival
During the first week of August there will be 5 screenings, each looking at a different aspect of the carceral system, along with guest speakers to speak to some of these issues. There will also be the opportunity to have a community discussion to unpack some of what we get to watch.
London has already spent millions on police and is set to spend another 1/4 Billion on a new police training facility. This is not what London needs.
The Prisoners' Justice Film Festival has a historic legacy in London, ON having run for 4 years in the 2010s. This year we are running it in the lead up to the International Prisoners' Justice Day, Aug. 10 where we will join Atlohsa at the Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre at 10AM in solidarity with all prisoners around the world who are suffering unjust punishment and inhumane conditions
Please come out to a screening, listen, and share your voice in these troubling times.
All screening will take place at 7pm on their respective dates, read below for brief summaries of their content:
Aug 01:
"STOP COP CITY" is about the militant occupation of Atlanta's South River Forest. For over a year, a coalition of militant anarchists, community organizers, and eco-activists have been resisting police and contractors to halt the deforestation of hundreds of acres of urban forest.
We will be having a local speaker to start the event, Barry Jacklin, who suffered at the hands of the London Police while his boyfriend died of a heart attack. After the film we will have an activist from Atlanta, Jadelynn Zhang, speak of her experience fighting against the construction of a similar training facility there. We will learn about successes and failures and hopefully come away with ideas on how to prevent our prospective facility from being built.
Aug 04:
"Conviction" envisions alternatives to prison through the eyes of women behind bars and those fighting on the front lines of the decarceration movement. Not another ‘broken prison’ film, this collaboration is a ‘broken society’ film—an ambitious and inspired re-build of our community, from the inside out. The film compels viewers to examine why we imprison the most vulnerable among us, and at what cost.
We will have some time for community discussion and thoughts about the film.
Aug 06:
"A Healing River" is an indepth look at a restorative justice approach; "designed to be viewed either in segments or at one time, it deals with issues such as trauma, recovery, and the psychology of the restorative process. The 84-minute documentary uses the voices of practitioners, victims and offenders to explore the meaning and values of restorative justice. Personal experiences are intermixed with comments from practitioners and academics discussing the problems in the criminal justice system and the potential of restorative justice to foster change."
Aug 07:
"Circles" is another look at restorative justice from an indigenous lense. In the Yukon, an innovative program is bringing a traditional form of Aboriginal justice--circle sentencing--to the Canadian justice system. Sentencing circles don't focus on punishment. Instead, they bring together the perpetrator of a crime, his or her victims, and peers and family in an effort to bring healing to the community. This will be another opportunity for folks to discuss the film and what options we have in London to move our society away from carceral practices.
Aug 08:
"The Palestine Laboratory" looks at how "Israel punches way above its weight when it comes to arms sales. The 97th country by population, it is the ninth largest arms dealer in the world with a $13bn military-industrial complex. Award-winning journalist Antony Loewenstein goes on a journey to investigate how these weapons and surveillance technologies are used to control and repress Palestinians in Palestine before being sold all over the world."
Since 1967 when Israel established military occupation in Gaza and the West bank they have been a crucial contributor to surveillance and suppression technologies that have been exported the world over. These technologies are used in prisons and will be adopted by the London police force in their new training facility. We have watched in horror at the on-going genocide happening in Palestine over the past 3 years, this is the culmination of decades worth of military testing on a confind civilian population.
We will have a guest speaker from the Canadian Palestinian Social Association, Samah Al Sabbagh is the president of the CPSA, a PhD candidate in Critical Policy, Equity, and Leadership Studies at Western University, and a vocal advocate for justice, dignity, and inclusion. Samah will be sharing her insight on Canada's involvement in the surveillance trade with Israel.
