Last night I saw ‘In Prison My Whole Life’ (www.inprisonmywholelife.com ). Yes executive producer and international heart-throb Colin Firth was there, but it was the feature that will stay with me.

I had heard of Mumia abu-Jamal’s case… but I had no clue…

This man – known as ‘the voice of the voiceless’ – has become the poster-boy for everything that is wrong with the American justice system’s love-affair with the death penalty.

‘In Prison’ takes you on a an inspirational and shocking journey through the history of the civil rights movement in Philadelphia and the racist state-structures which attempted to violently repress its dissenting voices.

The story of the Move 9 (http://onamove.com/move9/), for example, characterises the beyond-extreme lengths that Philadelphia’s Mayoral office – with more than a little help from the FBI – went to in order to silence those who threatened the status quo.

The film shows a state-forces helicopter dropping a bag of C4 explosives onto a house in Osage Avenue – a street in the heart of a middle-class black neighbourhood. The resulting explosion killed 6 adults and 5 children and, being allowed to burn for hours, the resultant fire destroyed 61 neighbouring buildings.

The man at the core of the film has been in jail for a quarter of a century. I just saw a films-worth of evidence demonstrating – in legal terms – the myriad of discrepancies that brand the original trial unjust. Yet, in 2008, he was again refused a re-trial. This film exposes both the culture of racism that continues to pervade the American justice system and the ability of those in power to circumnavigate and manipulate the law to serve their own wants and desires.

This film is both a fierce critique of US history and an inspirational tool for change.

There are no distribution restrictions on this film. Buy it and show to everyone you know.