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I must have been one of the last people to talk about human rights with Anita Roddick before she passed away suddenly. I was doing some work with Amnesty and she had been a huge supporter of the campaign I was working on. After the meeting, she was grilling my colleague on any news concerning the Angola 3. Their case was clearly on her mind and I have no doubt that it was one of the last non-family things she thought about.

The Angola 3 were three members of the Black Panthers who’d been fitted up in one of the world’s most notorious and shameful prisons, Louisiana’s own Angola. A place that went from having white overseers on horses and black slaves working the plantations to having white overseers with shotguns on horses while black men carried on that age old toil. These three prisoners with their militant ideas were not welcome by the prison and when a guard was killed, they were fitted up.

Over three decades later, two of the men remain, as during the majority of their time, in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day. One of the three got out a few years ago and has campaigned ceaselessly since. He was forced to cop a lesser plea at a later appeal. This injustice within an injustice heavily weighs on him and he has given his life to campaigning on behalf of his comrades.

The film follows the case and speaks to people close to the prisoners and the wife of the guard, who is also now campaigning for the truth about her husband’s murder. It is beautifully shot and perfectly structured, telling a powerful tale with enough restraint to let the facts speak for themselves.

Although one of the remaining prisoners Albert Woodfox has had the case against him successfully challenged on a federal level, the District Attorney in Louisiana is determined to obstruct any hope of justice that these men might receive.

You should see this film, it is going on national release in the UK and you can find out more about it at www.inthelandofthefreefilm.com and I for one am going to write a letter to the victims of one of the greatest injustices I have ever come across in a supposedly civilised nation.