The Rencontres internationales du documentaires de Montreal Film Festival is working with women incarcerated at Tanguay and Joliette

Women Inmates’ Award

Every year, the Joliette institution provides a jury of five prisoners. The women screen eight films from the festival’s program and award a prize to one of them, presented at the November festival’s closing ceremony. In 2011, the Women Inmates’ Award was given to the movie Bouton by Res Balzli. In 2012, to 5 Broken Cameras by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi and in 2013 to the movie Expedition to the End of the World by Daniel Dencik.

2014 Women inmates’ award: Examen d’état by Dieudo Hamadi.

Screenings And Writing Workshops

The Bordeaux, Rivière-des-Prairies, Tanguay and Thérèse Casgrain institutions host RIDM screenings twice a month: the first visit includes a film screening and a discussion with the director. For the second visit, the RIDM team is accompanied by a specialist, Helen Faradji, Daniel Racine, Serge Abiaad or Bruno Dequen, who leads a two-hour writing workshop with a small group of prisoners. The workshops help inmates learn about the steps involved in making a film and help them develop their critical faculties. The writing produced in the workshops can be read on the RIDM’s blog.

To learn more about this initiative, see Martin Bilodeau’s June 14, 2013 article in French in Le Devoir.

To learn more about the program, you can also read the article published by Culture pour tour, Le documentaire à travers les murs. (in French only)

These activities are supported by the Quebec chapter of the Elizabeth Fry Society, the Ville de Montréal’s culture and community program, Telefilm Canada and the Solstice Foundation.