The 6th Annual Justice on Trial Film Festival will be held at Loyola Marymount University September 19 – 30, 2018. Through telling the stories of those who are incarcerated, the film festival seeks to educate and reframe how we envision both the system and the people impacted by it. The first Justice on Trial Film Festival was held in 2013, in conjunction with the Bellarmine College of Liberal Art’s Bellarmine Forum, and has since been held at LMU for four of its six years.
The festival grew out of a conversation between Michelle Alexander, award-winning author, and Susan Burton, founder of A New Way of Life Re-Entry Project, on the attention that is given in film and the media to prisons and jails, as well as law enforcement or prosecutor perspectives. Both women were interested in refocusing this attention by giving voice to the millions of people who are incarcerated or impacted by incarceration.
Some in our society know all too well the pain and injustices faced by incarcerated people —the jailhouse beatings, the solitary confinement, the stop-and-frisk humiliations, the selective prosecutions with plea bargains, and the unreasonably long sentences. They are painfully familiar with the school-to-prison pipeline that puts so many youth, particularly those of color, at risk. But, these voices are often unheard beyond certain communities.
You are invited to engage with the Justice on Trial Film festival and benefit in the following ways:
- Connect with LMU’s social justice mission
- Participate in engaged learning and internship opportunities
- Build connections with community-based organizations
- Incorporate films into class discussions
- Experience activism in action
Students are able to screen one film for free and have reduced cost of entry to the full festival. For more information and tickets, please visit: https://justiceontrialfilmfestival.net/
