The trailer for the new British documentary about US death-row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, titled In Prison My Whole Life, begins with the film's central character, William Francome, explaining that he's been aware of Mumia for as long as I can remember. That's because he was arrested on the night I was born, for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer. As my mom would often remind me, every birthday I had, has been another year that Mumia has spent in prison.... I am going on a journey to find out about the man who has been in prison my whole life.

The 90-minute film premieres on October 25 at both The Times BFI 51st London Film Festival and Rome's International Film Festival. With the acclaimed British actor Colin Firth as an executive producer, In Prison My Whole Life is directed by Marc Evans and produced by Livia Firth and Nick Goodwin Self. The film has interviews with such figures as Alice Walker, Angela Davis, Noam Chomsky, Amy Goodman, Ramona Africa, and musicians Mos Def, Snoop Dogg and Steve Earle. Amnesty International, who concluded in a previous report that Abu-Jamal's original 1982 trial was unfair, is supporting In Prison as part as part of its international campaign to abolish the death penalty. Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen says: It's shocking that the US justice system has repeatedly failed to address the appalling violation of Mumia Abu-Jamal's fundamental fair trial rights.

In this exclusive interview on the eve of the film's premiere, Francome discloses for the very first time, one of the movies biggest surprises: The film will prominently feature the startling Dec. 9, 1981 crime scene photos that were recently discovered by German author Michael Schiffmann, and are published in his new book. Never presented to the 1982 jury, these new photos (taken by press-photographer Pedro Polakoff) bolster claims of Mumia's innocence and unfair trial, according to Black Commentator columnist David A. Love.

Polakoff's photos have been shown on the Journalists for Mumia website since Dr. Schiffmann unveiled the photos in May, the same week that The US Third Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments regarding the fairness of Abu-Jamal's 1982 trial (listen to courtroom audio). While waiting for this important court ruling (expected any week), Abu-Jamal's international support network has initiated a media-activist campaign demanding that the major media outlets acknowledge the new crime scene photos. One of Polakoff's photos will be published for the first time in the US, in this week's issue of The San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper, which has previously reported on Abu-Jamal's case.

Francome cannot reveal any more of the film's big surprises, but he does say that the film interviews people who have never told their story of the events of that night for the first time ever and offers new insight and theories as to what happened on Locust Street in 1981. To learn more about this, people ought to go and watch the film.

Hans Bennett: What can you tell us about the new crime scene photos discovered by German author Michael Schiffmann, and how they appear in your film?

William Francome: The photos of press photographer Pedro Polakoff feature in the film as well as an interview with him and Michael Schiffmann, the German author who found them.

We had been in contact with Michael from the beginning of this project as he is one of the most knowledgeable people on the case. He had been working on his book 'Race Against Death' when he found a photo online that he realized was not taken by the police at the scene. Somehow (Michael is an amazing investigator) he found Pedro who was a press photographer at the time of the shootings in December of 1981. Pedro had arrived on the scene within minutes and captured much of the initial chaos of the scene.

They are quite amazing photographs as they show the complete lack of professionalism by the police who were faced with the task of preserving the crime scene and any forensic evidence that might be inherent within it. There are pictures of a police officer holding both of the weapons at the scene in one hand without gloves, which would therefore completely contaminate any fingerprints or gun powder residue. They also show the police walking in and out of the scene and show that Officer Faulkner's hat was moved from photo to photo. I may just be a layman in terms of crime scene maintenance but it seems to me that these are grave and almost criminally negligent mistakes to make. There is also the issue of bullet holes or the lack thereof in the pavement. The photos should show where bullet fragments would have been found in the surrounding cement according to the prosecution witnesses' account, but this is not the case.

Whether or not these acts were made on purpose remains to be seen, but the photos could have helped clear this case up from the very beginning. Now we are 25 years down the line and we are still asking basic questions of the initial evidence that should not have been left for so long unanswered. Meanwhile, a man is on death row who claims he's innocent and it's been a quarter of a century since a policeman was killed and many feel the killing hasn't been sufficiently solved.

What makes the issue of the photos even more important is that they were purposefully ignored by the prosecution and the District Attorney's Office. Pedro says that he rang them and told them of his photographs and offered them for use in the trial, but that the office never got back to him. It is obvious that the prosecution knew that the photographs of the crime scene could have done their case some damage in court and therefore outright ignored them.

HB: Where does the movie go from here? When can people in the US view it?

WF: The film is about to premiere at the London and Rome film festivals and I'm very happy to say that it's sold out all of its screenings. We are still at the early stages and we have to wait and see if and when it gets taken on by a distributor, what happens next. I'm sure at some point in the near future we'll be screening the film in the US. The film was shot in America and mostly deals with American issues so I look forward to seeing the reaction it gets there. I myself am half American, and spent my teenage years in New York, so I have enjoyed making a film about the country I grew up in as well as having been able to look at it as an outsider.

HB: Why is Mumia's case still so important after 25 years?

WF: I think the fact that Mumia's case is still being debated after twenty five years is an issue in itself. It seems unbelievable to me that you could keep someone in solitary confinement for a quarter of a century as well as having a death sentence hanging over him that whole time. The starting point of this film is that it's been my whole life, and considering all the things that I have done and all the memories I have really helps to put the whole thing in perspective. Try thinking back to what you were doing in 1981 and it might have the same effect. In that time, there have been hundreds of people executed and there are still over 3,000 currently sitting on death row in America. However, despite evidence that people innocent of the crimes they were convicted for have been executed and over 100 people who have been exonerated and released from death row because of new evidence, the death penalty system in America still grinds forward.

After 25 years, the questions of race, cost and inadequate legal representation have yet to be fully and honestly addressed and the issues that caused it to be declared unconstitutional in the 70's persist. In short, as long as there is a death penalty in the United States, Mumia's case and the case of all death row inmates will remain vital and important. People should see this movie because they too seek for answers and honesty from the criminal justice system, and they too, want to gain a greater understanding of the inherent flaws in the death penalty system in the U.S.

Even if people can't relate to the story of Mumia Abu-Jamal or are not affected by it, they might still be able to relate to my story. I think for many people, the journey that I'm going on is enough on its own. This is the story of two lives coming together in a sense, and hopefully it will allow many who have previously been uninterested in the issues surrounding the case to sit up, take notice and find out more on their own. In a ninety minute film, it is hard to comprehensively look into any subject, but you hope that it gives the audience enough to go away and delve further.

On December 9 1981, Mumia Abu-Jamal was arrested for the murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner. He has been languishing on Death Row ever since. Mumia's story forms the focal point of Marc Evans' impassioned and engaging feature-doc. Using computer graphics, animation and music as well as conventional voice-over narration and interviews, In Prison My Whole Life is far livelier than its often grim subject matter may suggest.

Mumia himself remains behind bars and is unavailable to speak on camera. Instead, the central figure here is William Francome, a genial London-born ex-sociology student who was born on the day that Mumia was arrested. He travels around the US, speaking to Mumia's relatives, to lawyers, to musicians, to academics and to assorted political campaigners.

The documentary is already being aggressively marketed on MySpace and championed by Amnesty International. It features some illustrious names both behind and in front of the camera, among them actor Colin Firth (who is executive producer), and such interviewees as Alice Walker, Noam Chomsky, Mos Def, Snoop Dog and Steve Earle. The soundtrack features music from everybody from The Clash to Miles Davis as well as original songs by Snoop Dog. Mumia is an articulate and charismatic figure and the story Evans and Fancome tell about about him is fascinating. Talent agency Paradigm is handling US rights. Frank Mannion's London-based Swipe has international rights. All rights are available excluding Italy, where the film will be released by Fandango (one of its backers.)

Despite the trail-blazing example set by Michael Moore, Kevin Macdonald and co, most feature-docs remain a tough sell in the theatrical marketplace. It is telling that even Brett Morgen's Chicago 10 (which has both thematic and formal overlaps with Evans' film) has struggled to find buyers despite being backed by Participant and premiering in Sundance. Nonetheless, In Prison My Whole Life (which receives a joint world premiere at the London and Rome Festivals) boasts elements which will surely appeal to inventive distributors.

At times, the film feels a little didactic. There is a sense that the film-makers are, in Francome's own words, preaching to the converted. Nonetheless, at its best, it has an urgency and formal inventiveness reminiscent of Errol Morris' Thin Blue Line. Evans and Francome, who co-wrote, skilfully broaden their frame of discussion. What at first appears to be a film about a single miscarriage of justice turns into a critique of authoritarianism, racism, capital punishment and police brutality in US society as a whole. Evans - an experienced director whose dramatic features include My Little Eye, Snow Cane and Trauma - adds a dynamism to the material that more traditional documentaries on similar subjects have often lacked. Meanwhile, Francome has a personable quality that you wouldn't necessarily find in a film narrated by an expert.

What is intriguing is the connections the film-makers draw. There is always a reason for the links, even when they appear glib. For example, the decision to use Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit initially seems cliched, but when Francome interviews Robert Meeropol, the reason the music is there becomes clear. Meeropol, who met Mumia before his imprisonment, is the son of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, who were executed as spies 1953. Following their deaths, Robert was adopted by the songwriter Abel Meeropol, who wrote Strange Fruit for Holiday. The use of the grotesque (and very familiar) images of prison abuse at Abu Ghraib likewise seems heavy-handed, but then we learn that Charles Graner, one of the prison guards who oversaw the torture at Abu Ghraib, had worked at the Pennsylvania prison where Mumia is incarcerated. The film chronicles some startling humans rights abuses in the US, ranging from FBI-sanctioned assassinations of Black Power leaders to the Philadelphia police dropping a bomb on a house occupied by counterculture group MOVE. (This resulted in the death of eleven people, five of them children.)

Francome made efforts to contact the friends and family of the murdered police officer Daniel Faulkner but was always rebuffed. However compelling the arguments for Mumia's innocence, however corrupt and racist the cops appear to be, the absence of testimony from Faulkner's supporters risks leaving the film unbalanced.

Still, the Mumia case allows the film-makers to raise more general questions about racial inequality and capital punishment. Steve Earle tells a horrific story about being called to witness the execution of a prisoner he was corresponding with. Meanwhile Alice Walker makes some trenchant points about white America's response to Hurricane Katrina. All the subjects, whether aging Black Panther leaders or musicians, seem to warm to Francome's ingenuous interviewing style and obvious idealism.

As in The Thin Blue Line, the film-makers uncover some fresh evidence about the murder and thereby become part of the story they are chronicling. It now looks as if Mumia, after his 25 years on Death Row, will finally get a re-trial. On one level, In Prison My Whole Life is a campaigning film, made to bring attention to the injustice of Mumia's conviction, but its real richness lies in its scope. Mumia's case, the film-makers make clear, is part of a much bigger story of racism and exploitation. It is a story they tell in a vivid and always accessible way.

by Phil Moore

The personal is the political once again in this powerful film about America's most well known death row inmate Mumia Abu Jamal. On the 9th of December 1981 Mumia was driving in his cab in the early hours of the morning when he saw an altercation between a white police officer and his brother Billy Cook. Mumia went closer to see what was happening. Gunshots ensued. Moment's later police officer Daniel Faulkner lay dead on the street and Mumia had been shot in the chest. He was arrested shortly after. On that very same date, Will Francome was born.

In Prison My Whole Life looks at the life and times of Mumia Abu Jamal through the eyes of 25 year-old Will Francome. Mumia is a somewhat unwilling celebrity within the world of American politics. A figure fêted or vilified depending on which side of the political spectrum you stand on, Mumia's case is a lightning rod for many issues that mark American politics today, most considerably the death penalty and racial politics. But his case has reached an international audience too. His cause has been taken up by Amnesty International and the likes of Nelson Mandela, and Mumia has been conferred as an honorary citizen of Paris as well as Venice. The film's conceit is a simple and effective one. Will Francome, in his mid-twenties and free, decides to find out about the man who has been in prison his whole life. But it isn't just an accident of time that connects the two. Will grew up with the knowledge of Mumia's cause through his mother's work, campaigning and demonstrating as a Mumia supporter.

The film follows Will as he tours the US judicial system to learn about the facts and issues surrounding Mumia's convoluted and highly contested case. Stylish graphics present the order of events as described by the court hearings in a clear and simple manner. But, as the film progresses, Will and the audience learn that things aren't as clear as they seem. Police ineptitude, racial bias, lying witnesses and a massively divided Philadelphia made sure that the case was never going to be a straightforward process. The film's key strength is that it manages to pack an extremely large amount of information about Mumia's case and its ramifications without losing focus. Interviewing a host of iconic figures from America's nascent but thwarted countercultural movement of decades gone, and some of today's biggest names - Snoop Dogg's interview perhaps being the most surprising, but also one of the most revealing and powerful - we come to learn that Mumia's case is an inextricably political affair.

The sheer volume of talking heads each offering their own unique perspectives are crafted in a fashion that doesn't take the focus away from Mumia. Perhaps most disappointingly, but for reasons beyond the filmmaker's control, Mumia was unable to be interviewed. Instead the film is punctuated with Mumia's prison communiqués; addresses direct from death row that went out on various radio stations and the internet. In one scene, as Will drives to Pennsylvania state prison to speak with Mumia, we hear Mumia's soft but commanding voice reflect on his time inside a cell which he states is no bigger then your bathroom. The scene, simple in its effect, acts as a powerful invocation of imprisonment. Disappointingly, the family of Daniel Faulkner (the policeman who was killed) and the police refused to participate in the film. In many ways this leaves much out, potentially making the case for the film - and Mumia's retrial - lopsided. Nevertheless, their unwillingness to contribute serves to make Will's inquiry into Mumia's case a more personal affair.

The film's energy and narrative create an intimate and engaging investigation into what is perhaps a well-worn case. The filmmakers make the connection between Mumia and the wider world without losing focus, and in doing so help achieve a more poignant and lasting effect about an individual on death row. An engaging documentary about a highly contested case in US politics, In Prison My Whole Life is an important and timely piece that will resonate with you for some time.

The legitimate case for death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal's retrial gets another airing in British helmer Marc Evans' unfocused, oddly naive In Prison My Whole Life. Docu throws in the full panoply of current social-activist causes, from Abu Ghraib to Hurricane Katrina to slavery (yes, slavery) and even Paul Robeson to explain the unsurprising news that black men are given a raw deal in the U.S. Produced by Livia Giuggioli (her husband Colin Firth, star of Evans' Trauma, is exec producer), and with the backing of Amnesty Intl., pic will be best appreciated by those unfamiliar with the issues involved. Clever title comes from young activist William Francome, born the same day in 1981 that Abu-Jamal was arrested for the murder of a Philadelphia policeman. The half-English, half-American Francome becomes a tour guide of sorts through the case, making it difficult to tell whether the tone of wide-eyed surprise belongs to Evans, Francome or both. That injustice was done seems incontrovertible. Abu-Jamal, a journalist driving a taxi to earn extra money, saw white cop Daniel Faulkner wailing on Abu-Jamal's brother, Billy Cook. According to the prosecution, Abu-Jamal shot Faulkner in the back, then straddled the body and fired again four times. However, there's considerable evidence that the original trial was tainted by a racist judge and police intimidation. Much of this was presented in the 1996 docu Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Case for Reasonable Doubt?, footage from which Evans uses here. Pic presents additional evidence that further grounds an already compelling case for a new trial.