CONVICTION

What would you have needed in your life to avoid going to prison? Bianca, Treena, Laura and Caitlin, four inmates from Nova Scotia, address that question through different art forms and a filmic collaboration with this documentary’s three directors. The creative process brings out their thoughts, which join those of prisoners’ rights activists; together they imagine a better future, where communities would support, rather than punish, their most vulnerable members. How can we break the unjust cycle of convictions and recidivism, if society keeps ignoring poverty, mental illness and addiction? Unlike conventional (read voyeuristic) prison films, Conviction takes an authentic perspective that makes us up-close witnesses to a fundamental struggle.