Carceral Cinema, Act 1: Women in Prison + Q&A

Curated by Misha Zakharov

The guest-curated project Carceral Cinema (2025–26) aims to spark conversations about carcerality, representations of prisons, and race and gender in the context of incarceration through the lens of film.

The first Carceral Cinema screening will take place at Flatpack 2025, showcasing accounts of women in North American prisons, created by iconic social justice filmmaking duos in the wake of the Liberation era.

Pioneering in its depictions of lesbian relationships, Janis Cole and Holly Dale’s P4W: Prison for Women (1981) primarily focuses on white Canadian subjects, whereas Christine Choy and Cynthia Maurizio’s Inside Women Inside (1978) offers a more intersectional perspective, crafted by the path-breaking Chinese-American filmmaker and examining the experiences of women from diverse ethnic backgrounds within the American carceral system.

The screening will be accompanied by a discussion with Dr Linzi Stauvers (Artistic Director (Education) at Ikon Gallery) and artist Jessica Ostrowicz plus a curated book stand, where guests can familiarise themselves with key texts on prisons and abolitionist theory.

Films

P4W: Prison for Women
(Dir. Janis Cole, Holly Dale, Canada, 1981, 82 mins)

Inside Women Inside
(Dir. Christine Choy, Cynthia Maurizio , US, 1978 , 21 mins)