CONVICTION Selected as a Gala Presentation at FIN: Atlantic International Film Festival

After a successful world premiere at the Hot Docs Film Festival earlier this year, co-directors Nance Ackerman (Four Feet Up, Cottonland), Ariella Pahlke (Burning Rubber, What You Did Before You Were Born) and Teresa MacInnes (Buying Sex, Norm) are very pleased that their empowering documentary collaboration, Conviction, has been officially selected as a Gala Presentation at FIN: Atlantic International Film Festival, on Monday, September 16, 2019, 6:30 PM.

Following the screening in Halifax, the Conviction team will host a reception and an exhibition of the women's artwork and photography at the Exhibition Room, Dalhousie School of Architecture, 5410 Spring Garden Road, Halifax.

In Conviction, Ackerman, Pahlke, and MacInnes, collaborate with women on the inside, Bianca Mercer, Treena Smith, Laura Toney, Caitlin Hill, as well as prison guard, Tanya Bignell, to imagine what they would have needed in their lives to avoid incarceration. They paint, draw, sing, photograph, and film, envisioning a more ideal world, authoring their own narratives through art. They join advocates and Senator Kim Pate in a worldwide movement questioning the ideas of punishment and prison.

As each woman gives voice to her experiences, the 'big picture' comes to life in the stories they choose to share. Soon, it becomes painfully clear that these women are a stark reflection of the troubling worldwide tendency to criminalize and warehouse those most affected by poverty, addiction, childhood sexual and physical trauma, and mental illness. 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.

"Our hope is to compel audiences to consider why we imprison the most vulnerable among us and at what cost. Ultimately, we want viewers to engage with governments at all levels to shift the billions of dollars currently being used to imprison and punish, to supportive resources within our community," said Ackerman, MacInnes and Pahlke in a joint statement.

Conviction was written and directed by Nance Ackerman, Ariella Pahlke, and Teresa MacInnes, and produced by Teresa MacInnes from Sea to Sea Productions and Annette Clarke (The Boxing Girls of Kabul, Love, Scott, Theater of Life) for the NFB's Quebec and Atlantic Studio in Halifax.

Conviction was produced in association with documentary Channel, with the participation of Canada Media Fund, SRC and with the assistance of the NS Production Incentive & the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit.

Photo credit: Nance Ackerman/Bianca Mercer

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