Nance Ackerman is a documentary photographer, filmmaker, and multimedia artist. Her films have won awards for direction and cinematography. Her credits include “Cottonland,” “Four Feet Up,” “The Anniversary Project,”  “Little Thunder,” “Redress Remix,” and “Trek of the Titans.”

Ariella Pahlke is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and media artist with extensive experience facilitating collaborative projects. For the past 20 years, she’s directed, written and produced hour-long documentaries, shorts and media projects that have screened around the world. Her credits include “Charlie’s Prospect,” “Rock and Desire,” “Burning Rubber,” and “Strategies of Hope.”

Teresa MacInnes is a director and producer with over 30 years of experience. She has won numerous awards and her films have screened at top festivals, including Hot Docs, VIFF, IDFA, the New York Film Festival and Thessaloniki. Her credits include “Buying Sex,” “Mabel,” “Norm,” “Teaching Peace in a Time of War,” and “Waging Peace: A Year in the Life of Caledonia Junior High.”

“Conviction” will premiere at the 2019 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival on April 28.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

AP: “Conviction” is a film that envisions alternatives to prison through a creative collaboration with women in prison and advocates.

NA: An intimate and artful look at a devastatingly complex societal issue from the inside out.

TM: An honest, raw, and beautiful portrait of a group of women who will change the way you think about punishment, social justice, and equality.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

AP: We are three independent filmmakers who wanted to try working on a complex project together. We’ve each been interested in issues that relate to punishment and social change. Why do we punish people who are often the most vulnerable members of society? Prison doesn’t seem to work, and yet, we as a society have a hard time imagining life without it.

We wanted to explore these questions from the perspective of women inside, since women are the fastest-growing prison population worldwide. We were also inspired by the work of Kim Pate, a longtime prisoners’ rights advocate and prison abolitionist.

W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?

AP: We want people to leave with questions, as well as a more critical and informed perspective about why vulnerable people keep ending up in prison. We want people to feel implicated, to feel emotionally connected to the women in the film, and to feel that they could be part of the solution.

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

AP: Making this film had many challenges: obtaining access to prisons, developing trust in our relationships with everyone involved, not replicating exploitive forms of representation, forming collaborative working partnerships with people in the film that defy the norms of conventional media, and ensuring, to the best of our abilities, that we had meaningful informed consent when people agreed to share sensitive details in their lives. All of these involve one key element: trust. That’s been our biggest challenge, and a defining factor that I believe comes through loud and clear in the film.

This was a massive collaboration in all respects. We trusted the women at the heart of the film to make decisions throughout the process about what they would and wouldn’t share. We gave them cameras. We had intense ongoing discussions for years about what they did and did not want to include in the film, and why. They trusted us to share their lives and their creative work with the world. And, of course, all the partners involved had to trust that this delicate collaborative process would result in a film that was worth supporting.

W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.

TM: It took years to put together the resources to make the film, and in total, it has been a four-year process. Early development support came from the National Film Board of Canada, which also eventually came on as our co-producer.

We were thrilled when the Documentary Channel decided to further develop the film and eventually pre-licensed the production. It was this support that opened up further opportunities with the Canada Media Fund, Société Radio-Canada, Nova Scotia Production Incentive, and the Canadian Film and Video Tax Credit.

W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

AP: I make documentaries in order to explore the world in an intense and creative way, as well as to engage in dialogue with people I don’t know who often think differently. I pretty much question everything, so making documentaries is really an excuse to ask personal and philosophical questions, and send them out to the world to proliferate some kind of change.

NA: After 25 years of traveling the world as a documentary photographer, meeting people who were desperate to tell their story, it felt like film was a natural progression.

TM: I come from a background in social work, and 30 years ago I made a film with a group of people who wanted to tell their story. Once I witnessed the power the process of making a documentary can have and the impact it can have on an audience, I never looked back.

W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?

AP: Best advice: Trust yourself, trust your own intuition, work hard, be honest, treat everyone well. Worst advice: Try to get ahead by pleasing people with influence.

NA: Best advice: The best way to make yourself happy is to actually stop thinking about yourself and help others. Worst advice: Put on a wide lens and shoot at f/8, and you won’t miss a thing.

TM: Best advice: :eap and the net will appear! Worst advice: Make films you don’t want to make in order to make films you want to make.

W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?

AP: Don’t back down if you feel confident. Collaborate—good relationships are the bedrock of great films. Don’t buy into the hierarchies.

NA: Do a bunch of arm curls, push-ups, and crunches to strengthen your upper body. Also, just say thank you when men tell you you’re bossy.

TM: My grandmother once told me, “Never learn to type.”

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

AP: I love the last film made by Agnès Varda, “Faces Places.” This film—like all of her films—is honest, engaging, self-reflexive, and radical in a non-strident way. They creep up on you, with endless surprising twists and turns that speak to her relationship with her subjects, with filmmaking, and with deep concerns and questions about the world she lives in.

NA: I loved “Lost in Translation” by Sofia Coppola and how the crew were treated and the film was made—with such trust and peacefulness.

TM: I don’t pick favorites, and I have much respect for any woman who is brave enough to make a film!

W&H: It’s been a little over a year since the reckoning in Hollywood and the global film industry began. What differences have you noticed since the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements launched?

AP: I’ve noticed surface changes—more news stories, more organizations who pledge to work with more women, more dinner conversation focused on these issues. But honestly, I haven’t noticed any changes in the way women are treated, believed, or acknowledged.

TM: Couldn’t have said it better, Ariella!