A lawyer who has navigated energy boardrooms, immigration tribunals, academics, and leadership on three continents has found her most powerful stage yet; one where documentary film becomes the engine of community transformation.

A Leadership Journey Built Across Disciplines

Rowan Fisher’s path to executive leadership was forged in settings most professionals never encounter together. Before stepping into the role of Executive Director of the Calgary Justice Film Festival (CJFF), she had already charted a career that moved fluidly between the performing arts, academia, and the law; accumulating a rare combination of creative, intellectual, and advocacy experience along the way.

She began her professional life as an actor in Calgary and Vancouver, a foundation that instilled in her a deep understanding of narrative, empathy, and the power of story to move audiences. From there she pursued an honours undergraduate degree in psychology with a minor in law and society; a dual lens that would prove prescient for the work she does today. She then earned her law degree and entered practice, first as an energy solicitor working within the complexities of the resource sector in Calgary and London, and later as an immigration litigator navigating high-stakes cases across Canada. Her transatlantic journeys included seven years based in Saudi Arabia, where she managed academic and professional training teams in one of the world’s most demanding and exciting professional environments.

Across each chapter of actor, student, solicitor, litigator, international practitioner,  a consistent thread emerges; an orientation toward justice and a willingness to work at the intersection of systems and human experience. Her leadership evolution has not been a straight line upward but rather an upwarad spiral, each turn widening her perspective on how meaningful change actually happens.

Her involvement with CJFF has deepened over time. Initially serving as a Board member responsible for all festival programming and speaker selection, Rowan gained firsthand insight into how documentary film could accomplish things legal advocacy alone could not; reach broader audiences, shift emotional understanding, and invite people who had never set foot in a courtroom to care deeply about justice. That recognition proved transformative. When the opportunity came to lead the organisation as its Executive Director, she was ready, and equipped with the full depth of her professional and personal journey.

Twenty Years of Justice Through Film

The Calgary Justice Film Festival celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2025, a milestone that reflects two decades of deliberate community building. Founded in 2005 as the Marda Loop Justice Film Festival, the organisation was built on a straightforward but powerful idea: show audiences the human realities behind justice issues, and create space for them to respond. Documentary film, with its capacity for intimate truth-telling, proved to be the ideal medium.

Today, CJFF is permanently housed at The Confluence Historic Site & Parkland, and each November it draws audiences to screenings of documentary films from across Canada and around the world. These are not passive screenings. Films are chosen through a rigorous process. Submissions arrive through FilmFreeway and are evaluated by a dedicated programming committee of over 20 people from January through May, assessed for their alignment with themes of justice, human rights, environmental sustainability, and social equity. The selection criteria also prioritizes alignment with the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, ensuring the festival’s programming remains socially and globally relevant.

A Vision Rooted in Inclusion and Action

Rowan’s approach to leadership is shaped by three values that appear consistently in both her professional background and her vision for the festival; clarity, inclusion, and action. Under her direction, CJFF’s defining characteristic is its accessibility. Every screening is free of charge, fully captioned, and physically accessible; a suite of commitments that ensures participation is not gated by income, ability, or prior familiarity with social justice. For Rowan, this is not merely a logistical consideration; it is a philosophical one. When barriers are removed, communities take ownership.

The festival experience extends well beyond the screen. After each film, facilitated conversations bring together filmmakers, subject-matter experts, and individuals with lived experience to help audiences move from observation to reflection to action. These dialogues are designed not as academic exercises but as genuine encounters with complexity and moments where certainty softens and curiosity takes root. The Peace Market, running alongside the screenings, adds another dimension. This is a gathering of local nonprofits, NGOs, artists, and community vendors who connect the stories on screen to real-world action and local engagement.

“Leading CJFF reflects my deepening commitment to justice beyond legal practice. Film is a powerful tool to broaden awareness and empathy. It reaches people in ways other mediums never can.”

— Rowan Fisher, Executive Director, Calgary Justice Film Festival

Amplifying What Mainstream Narratives Leave Behind

One of Rowan’s most consistent leadership priorities is the deliberate amplification of marginalised voices. In a media landscape that still too often privileges dominant perspectives, CJFF’s programming actively seeks out films that centre the stories of communities typically excluded from mainstream platforms. The festival’s selection process places explicit weight on diverse creators, lived experience, and representation across race, geography, gender, and class.

Building stronger relationships with Indigenous filmmakers is among her top goals for the coming years, ensuring that these voices are not simply included but foregrounded. This commitment is paired with an active push toward educational outreach and strategic partnerships, with peer film organisations including CIFF, CUFF, CBFF, OCFF, OFF, TAFF, CSIF, and DOC Alberta, to broaden the festival’s reach and deepen its impact within Alberta’s creative community.

Year-round engagement is increasingly central to Rowan’s vision. Through the justREEL series, justice films and moderated discussions are brought directly into neighbourhoods and community spaces outside the festival’s annual November window. Her new youth justice documentary film project puts the camera into the hands of those often excluded from justice discussions. These kinds of initiatives expand the conversation and ensure that CJFF’s impact is not confined to a single week on the calendar.

The Moments That Define a Movement

For all of CJFF’s structural achievements, its charitable status, its permanent home, its growing partnerships, Rowan is most animated when she speaks about the human moments the festival produces. She recalls an evening after a screening focused on an international environmental justice issue, when a young woman in the audience stood, visibly nervous, and announced to the room that she had found a grassroots organisation at the Peace Market and intended to volunteer with them that week. That moment, the direct conversion of cinematic witness into civic participation, is precisely what the festival is designed to generate.

Another evening brought a different kind of impact. During a post-screening discussion, a speaker sharing their lived experience became overwhelmed with emotion. Before the room could feel the weight of silence alone, a family member of the film’s subject stepped quietly to their side. The entire theatre held its breath, a collective experience of grief, recognition, and human connection that no policy document or legal brief could replicate. These are the moments, Rowan reflects, that confirm why storytelling is the right instrument for this work.

Looking Forward: The Next Chapter

As CJFF enters its third decade, Rowan Fisher’s ambitions for the organisation are both expansive and grounded. She envisions a festival that deepens its profile as a national cultural landmark, one that continues to diversify the voices it platforms while maintaining the intimacy and community rootedness that have always been its greatest strengths. Sustainable funding, resilient partnerships, and hybrid programming models are all part of how she plans to safeguard the festival’s free-admission promise for years to come.

What she ultimately hopes audiences carry home from every CJFF event is not just information, but a renewed sense of their own agency. She wants people to leave having seen something they cannot unsee, and to feel connected, both to the stories on screen and to the community of people around them who are already working toward a more just world. In her words, the goal is not passive enlightenment. It is inspiration to act.

“Attendees leave CJFF with deeper curiosity and a genuine sense of connection to the stories, to each other, and to the ongoing work of change happening right here in our community.”

   — Rowan Fisher

About Rowan Fisher

Rowan Fisher is the Executive Director of the Calgary Justice Film Festival (CJFF). Her career has spanned acting, academia, energy law, and immigration litigation, with professional experience in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Saudi Arabia. She joined CJFF as a Board member and programming lead before stepping into the executive role. Under her leadership, the festival celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2025, achieved charitable status, and continues to advance its mission of barrier-free, community-centred social justice screenings and conversation.