The Diocese of Hamilton and Development and Peace - Caritas Canada are hoping a unique combination of film and post-screening discussions will spark dialogue and sustained change with its ninth Reel Justice Film Festival collaboration.   

Beginning as nothing more than small, informal film sessions carried out in church basements and parish halls across the diocese, Reel Justice has since become a premier offering of the Bishop Farrell Library and Archives team and continues to bring digestible film commentary on issues of unfair social, political and economic structures to the faithful globally. 

For Dominy Williams, the diocese's director of library and archives, the sheer growth of the initiative, from a handful of in-person guests to upwards of 100 international viewers each screening, has been a highpoint of Reel Justice’s arc as it approaches its 10th anniversary next year. 

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“ We started off as nothing more than a few nervous animators before COVID incidentally pushed us online and really expanded our ministry. Our solidified online format makes it more accessible and takes away accessibility boundaries, which have allowed us to grow across Canada, but also internationally in places like the United States and Europe,” she said. 

She added that the curation of each year’s films continues to have an intentional connection of global stories with local stories, showing that interconnectedness of different social issues as opposed to mere isolated issues. Films are also chosen based on feedback from audiences, with attendees sharing their views through surveys, often playing a large part in each year’s featured topics and final film selection.

The films selected for 2026’s Reel Justice Film Festival focus on themes of housing as a human right, intellectual freedom and book banning, ecological debt through seabed mining, Indigenous rights and old-growth forest protection, much of which draws inspiration from this year’s Development and Peace Share Lent campaign.

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The festival opens Jan. 22 with a special screening of PUSH, a documentary focused on housing insecurity and the battle between shelter as a commodity as opposed to an inherent right. Following the screening, a representative from Hamilton’s Caroline Co-op will speak to viewers, sharing a local story of  tenants organizing a fundraiser to purchase the building as a rental housing co-op, a powerful example of global issues being challenged by locals in Hamilton. 

Hamilton is no stranger to housing insecurity, with St. Mary’s Parish having hosted two symposiums on homelessness last year, the first of which saw upwards of 400 people hear about compassionate solutions. 

With a different movie being screened virtually each month until May, Reel Justice continues to prove why film and storytelling work so well with justice education. For Williams, it’s a reality rooted in and supported by our very faith. 

“If we think about Scripture and the stories that connect us, we think about the parables, and I think people truly do connect to that format in a different way than somebody just coming and giving a presentation,” she said. 

“We connect to those stories, we empathize and we put ourselves within them. Then, we can use the see, judge, act methodology that’s deep in Catholic social teaching; we see people moving through each film together as a group, we judge according to our Catholic teachings and then we're encouraged to take action and to become advocates.” 

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Reel Justice’s animators also continue to ensure that an annual kid-friendly screening is offered. Although this year’s offering is still to be determined, Williams confirmed the March screening will coincide with the 2024 inclusion of the Development and Peace Schools program, bringing social justice initiatives into local schools.  

This year, the diocese’s library and archives team hopes that, while all screenings remain virtual, communities will consider in-person gatherings to log in collectively and discuss locally. In an effort to “bring Reel Justice to you wherever you are" while keeping in-person dialogue alive, Reel Justice has been taken advantage of by CWL groups, university students and even local Girl Guide troops  joining remotely while keeping transformative discussion at the forefront.