2022 DOXA Documentary Film Festival Program Guide by DOXA Documentary Film Festival

CONTENTS The Documentary Media Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Awards and Juries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

In Memoriam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

DOXA Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Welcome from DOXA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Greetings from Our Funders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

SPOTLIGHT

Memory and Archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 SPOTLIGHT

Rated Y for Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 SPECIAL PROGRAM

Grand-mère. Grandmother. Babushka. . . . . . . . . 23 SPECIAL PROGRAM

French French . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Landscapes of Resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Tickets and General Viewing Information . . . . . . 80

Thank You to Our Donors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Justice Forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

About DOXA Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

SCREENINGS 1970 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Galb’Echaouf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Open Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Abyssal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Garage, Engines and Men (Garage, des moteurs et des hommes) . . . . . . . . . . 51

Planktonium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Gobi Children’s Song . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Russian Triptych (Triptyque russe) . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

And Ingrid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Archipelago (Archipel) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 The Assembly (L’Assemblée) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 The Balcony Movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Beckwoman’s Hippie Emporium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Belle River . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Beyond Extinction: Sinixt Resurgence . . . . . . . . . . 41 Bha Iad Làn Sgeulachdan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Bill Reid Remembers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Children of the Mist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Cypher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Dear Audrey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Dear Jackie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Dear Mr. Dudley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 DƏNE YI’INJETL - The Scattering of Man . . . . 43 Doug and the Slugs and Me . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 The Dream and the Radio (Le rêve et la radio) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Drop by Drop (Água Mole) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Dropstones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Echolocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Edna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Far Beyond the Pasturelands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Fire of Love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 The First 54 Years – An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 The First Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Hello World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Looking for Gilles Caron (Histoire d’un regard) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 History of a Secret (Histoire d’un secret) . . . . . . 55 Homesick Lungs (Hoamweh Lung) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Honour to Senator Murray Sinclair . . . . . . . . . . . 79 A Hundred Joys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Illusionist (L’Illusionniste) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 I’m Still Alive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Rewind & Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Sirens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Smadar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Spirit Emulsion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Ten, Mitake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Terra Femme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 The Territory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 They Sleep Standing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 A Thousand Fires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Into Our Hands (Entre nos mains) . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Three German Soldiers (Trois Soldats allemands) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

The Lake / nx̌aʔx̌aʔitkʷ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Ultraviolette and the Blood-Spitters Gang . . . . . 70

Landscapes of Resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

We (Nous) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Let The Little Light Shine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

We Don’t Dance for Nothing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Listen to the Beat of Our Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

We Feed People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Live Till I Die . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

What About China? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Love in the Time of Fentanyl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Wochiigii lo: End of the Peace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Madame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Zinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Mariner of the Mountains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

PROGRAM KEY

Metok . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 A More Radiant Sphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 My Babushka: Searching Ukrainian Identities . . . 63

MEMORY AND ARCHIVES

BABUSHKA

FRENCH FRENCH

RESISTANCE

JUSTICE FORUM

RATED Y FOR YOUTH

WORLD PREMIERE

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

CANADIAN PREMIERE

My Friend Jim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 My Two Voices (Mis dos voces) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Myanmar Diaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Nasim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Forests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

No Home Movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

The Fourth Generation (La Quatrième Génération) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Of Youth and Love (Une jeunesse amoureuse) . . 65

Nuisance Bear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

THE DOCUMENTARY MEDIA SOCIET Y

I N

OUR MISSION:

PROGRAMMING CONSULTANT

To support a better understanding of the complexity of our times through engaging the public in documentary media as an art form.

Selina Crammond

WE’RE COMMITTED TO:

Marnie Wilson / Artsbiz Public Relations

MEDIA RELATIONS

• Cultivating curiosity and critical thought • Promoting the intersection of actuality and artistic expression • Fostering a local and international community interested in non-fiction media OUR MANDATE: DOXA is presented annually by The Documentary Media Society, a Vancouver based non-profit, charitable society (incorporated in 1998) devoted to presenting independent and innovative documentaries to Vancouver audiences. The Documentary Media Society is a founding member tenant of the 110 Arts Coop, which manages The Post at 750, a collection of office and studio facilities. DOXA also presents the Vancouver Podcast Festival each fall. The Documentary Media Society is located on the traditional and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples. We are immensely thankful for the opportunity to present challenging and affirming non-fiction media on these lands, which have been cared for by xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh and səlilwətaɬ peoples in perpetuity. To work and live on stolen land requires consistent interrogation of given histories, systems and identities. We believe that documentaries can be an important tool in this process.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Steve Chow / chowdesign.ca WEB DEVELOPMENT

Left Right Minds / leftrightminds.com BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Chris Dafoe Martin Gerson TREASURER

Roger Holdstock Lizzy Karp Jamala MacRae Michelle Mason Debra Pentecost SECRETARY

SCREENING COMMITTEE

Darren Alexander Sarah Bakke Jurgen Beerwald Josie Boyce Dharra Budicha Patrick Carroll Atenas Contreras Kathy Evans Gina Garenkooper liisa hannus David House Melissa James Viktor Koren Christina Larabie Samantha Marier Bailey Nicholson Sarah Ouazzani Matan Pawer Jeff Yu FUNDRAISING COMMITTEE

Sarah Bakke Natasha Tony Andrea Gin

Natasha Tony VICE-CHAIR

DOXA STAFF, BOARD & COMMITTEES BUSINESS + FINANCE MANAGER

Atenas Contreras

PROGRAMMING + OUTREACH COORDINATOR / SHORTS PROGRAMMER

Ken Tsui PROGRAM BOOK + BOX OFFICE COORDINATOR

Bailey Nicholson

Dharra Budicha PROGRAMMING MANAGER

Sarah Ouazzani DEVELOPMENT + COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER

Sarah Bakke OPERATIONS + VOLUNTEER MANAGER

Gina Garenkooper

TECHNICAL COORDINATOR

Eirinn McHattie SPECIAL EVENTS + PRINT TRAFFIC COORDINATOR

Sharon Bradley COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR

Matan Pawer 4

#DOX A 2022

GUEST SERVICES + DISTRIBUTION COORDINATOR

Lindsay Nelson PROGRAMMING + INDUSTRY COORDINATOR

Milena Salazar PROGRAM BOOK + WEBSITE COPY EDITOR

CHAIR

PROGRAMMING COMMITTEE

Joseph Clark Selina Crammond Sarah Ouazzani Carson Pfahl Anant Prabhakar Kris Rothstein Milena Salazar

ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Nova Ami Kris Anderson Colin Browne Szu Burgess Peg Campbell Mel D’Souza Ann Marie Fleming Cari Green Duncan Low Alex Mackenzie Wendy Oberlander Carmen Rodriguez Lauren Weisler Aerlyn Weissman

M E M O R I A M

We would like to dedicate the festival to two long-time colleagues and friends of DOXA who passed away earlier this year.

VANCOUVER PODCAST FESTIVAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Jill Anholt Lisa Chen-Wing CREATIVE DIRECTOR

MICHAEL WITH GINA GARENKOOPER (L) AND DOROTHY WOODEND (R), DOXA 2017 CLOSING NIGHT PARTY

Joseph Clark Andrea Gin Carlos Hernandez Fisher WEB EDITOR

Lizzy Karp Hannah McGregor Roshini Nair Andrea Warner GUEST CURATORS

Thierry Garrel Laurence Reymond WRITERS

Michelle Bjornson Josie Boyce Sarah Bakke Dharra Budicha Joseph Clark liisa hannus Michelle Martin Sarah Ouazzani Anant Prabhakar Kris Rothstein Jeff Yu

K AT H Y

E VA N S

M I C H A E L

Since 2011, Kathy had been a DOXA contractor, donor and most recently, a Screening Committee member. A true cinephile, Kathy often sought out the more offbeat films in our program. She was a steady and resolute force, unflappable in the face of a crisis and possessed of a wickedly bonedry sense of humour. Kathy’s love for film, art and performance was huge and widely ranging, but her intelligence, compassion and deep commitment to friendship made her a beloved part of the DOXA team.

B AT T L E Y

For many years, Michael was our lead Box Office Attendant at The Cinematheque. His quirky, sometimes sarcastic sense of humour provided a welcome relief from the chaotic moments of festival logistics. Passionate about music, adventure and finding a good deal, Michael was always the best person to turn to for travel advice, the latest indie band and where to get the best (and most affordable) meal downtown.

Both Kathy and Michael were also enthusiastic regulars at our legendary DOXA staff karaoke parties, where they belted out the tunes and caused a mighty ruckus in the best way possible. T H A N K Y O U K AT H Y A N D M I C H A E L , F O R Y O U R H A R D W O R K , Y O U R PA S S I O N F O R F I L M A N D YOUR INCREDIBLE FRIENDSHIP THROUGHOUT THE YEARS. Y O U W I L L B E D E E P LY M I S S E D.

Patrick Geraghty IN MEMORIA M

WELCOME FROM DOXA

WELCOME FROM THE CHAIR OF THE BOARD

WELCOME FROM THE PROGRAMMING MANAGER

On behalf of the Board of Directors of The Documentary Media Society, I’m pleased to welcome you to the 2022 DOXA Documentary Film Festival.

In an era of metaverse realities and non-stop images, what does a hybrid festival have to offer?

In this critical moment of transition, we are proud of the DOXA team’s versatile expertise in demonstrating resilience, agility and resourcefulness, rising to the occasion despite it all. There are many learnings that we look forward to bringing into our 2022 festival and are ecstatic to share them with audiences, filmmakers and supporters in our return to form.

Despite COVID-19, filmmakers are still going against the grain to offer us a window into the world through daring documentary films. Whether in the form of the essay, observation, reflection, Direct Cinema, the poetic or the experimental, a documentary film lets you make your own experience and find your truth.

We are inviting audiences back to theatres for this 21st edition of DOXA. For the festival’s 11 days, DOXA will usher in a return to a robust program of in-venue screenings that reflect the spirit of gathering which we’ve missed these past two years. DOXA 2022 will also offer an online screening component for those who would prefer to enjoy films from the comfort of their home. We are also proud to invite local, national and international filmmakers to join us for digital and in-person conversations and industry events. The communal experience of sharing films that spark critical thought and discourse is embedded in the essence of the festival. With documentaries being a window into global points of view, this is a vital reminder of the form’s power to expand our understanding of the world by sharing a diversity of experiences and voices. I want to thank Selina Crammond for her many years of dedication to programming and for keeping DOXA’s ethos fiercely vibrant. This passionate commitment to provoking insight, empathy and action continues with our new Programming Manager, Sarah Ouazzani. Her expertise is a welcome addition and we look forward to seeing Sarah O. make her impact on DOXA. I also want to take this opportunity to thank former Board Chair Andrea Gin, for stewarding and supporting, alongside staff, DOXA’s monumental progression as a non-hierarchical and certified Living Wage organization. As the incoming Board Chair, I’m inspired and honored to be carrying forward the legacy of passion and care for DOXA alongside the team and Board. The absence in these last few years of a collective cinema experience has only underscored its importance. Our return to a more familiar festival format wouldn’t be possible without the staff, volunteers, partners and sponsors in DOXA’s community. Thanks to all of you for bringing DOXA back to theatres this year. I also want to acknowledge the dedication of fellow Board members, who have supported the team amidst these tides of change. Finally, we deeply appreciate the filmmakers and audiences who will join us in making our return to the cinema an exciting one.

DOXA Documentary Film Festival aims to provoke encounters between the works of filmmakers and the audience. And we have good news! For our 21st edition (my first one!), we are back in person after two years online. We are (re)discovering each other, going back to the theatres we’ve missed, surrendering in front of a film together and sharing the same experience in a dark room—all while discussing these films with directors in attendance. Isn’t it comforting after these two years living in a dystopia? This year, we are happy to co-present our Justice Forum program with SFU Woodwards! The First 54 Years - An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation, Myanmar Diaries, Wochiigii lo: End of the Peace are just some of the urgent and powerful films to watch, along with our Justice Forum Special Presentation, Love in the Time of Fentanyl. Our Landscapes of Resistance Spotlight offers a strong reflection on fascism, colonialism, and following ingenious strategies of political resistance. We also invite you to tune into our Spotlight on Memory and Archives, featuring eclectic films as odes to the affective and political potential of archival material. Rewind & Play, Mariner of the Mountains, Terra Femme, Ultraviolette and the Blood-Spitters Gang, A More Radiant Sphere, What About China? are some of the hidden gems.

From our Opening film Fire of Love, which offers an innovative perspective on the epic journey of an ordinary but passionate volcanologist couple, to our Closing film Doug and the Slugs and Me, about the legendary Vancouver band, this edition of DOXA is made up of works that combine a rare aesthetic concern and a willingness to confront major contemporary issues in unique ways. And our Industry program, along with post-screening discussions, will address these questions head-on. DOXA’s hybrid formula would never have been possible without the hard work of this 5-star team of doc-revolutionaries, who bypass every obstacle. To the entire DOXA team, our Screening and Programming Committees, guest curators and volunteers, thank you for your keen eye and dedication! I extend my gratitude to the filmmakers, as well as our audiences, partners, funders and our Board of Directors. Finally, to Selina Crammond, whose vision and ethics have left an indelible mark on DOXA. It’s my first edition, but I feel I have always been around. I look forward to meeting all our partners, the amazing local filmmakers, and you the audience. On behalf of the entire DOXA team, welcome to the documentary planet. See you in the theatre or online!

Sarah Ouazzani PROGRAMMING MANAGER

We are proud to champion Canadian feature and short films this year. There are audacious creative docs from coast to coast with directors in attendance and online. Our shorts programs also embrace a multitude of narratives, with striking visual commentaries on changing landscapes and communities, as well as experimental (re)constructions of memory and meaning. And take a look at the French French program curated by Thierry Garrel, a double retrospective dedicated to esteemed directors Mariana Otero and François Caillat, followed by a masterclass with both directors in attendance. Our Grand-mère. Grandmother. Babushka. program, starring feature and short films by Naomi Kawase, Chantal Akerman, Alain Cavalier and Barbara Hammer has been carefully crafted by guest curator Laurence Reymond.

Ken Tsui BOARD CHAIR

#DOX A 2022

THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

GREETINGS FROM OUR FUNDERS

Three different types of financing. Three different funds. All from one source.

Welcome to the 2022 DOXA Documentary Film Festival!

On behalf of the BC Arts Council, a long-time supporter of DOXA, welcome to the 21st annual festival!

Documentary film has the power to expand our horizons and help us better understand the lived experiences of the people in our communities and around the world. As Canadians continue to help each other through the pandemic, art and film allow us to connect with each other. I am delighted that this festival will once again bring film lovers back together to enjoy some outstanding features and short films.

Ever adaptive and responsive, this year’s DOXA Documentary Film Festival is a hybrid, offering both in-person and online festival experiences. For over 20 years DOXA has been committed to cultivating curiosity and critical thought, both especially important in our world today. The films, conversations with filmmakers and additional programming will provide insights into new viewpoints and communities.

As Minister of Canadian Heritage, I would like to thank everyone at DOXA who helped bring this year’s event to life under challenging circumstances. I hope everyone taking part in the festival, in person or at home, enjoys discovering these films and celebrating voices and stories from Canada and around the world!

I hope you enjoy this year’s diverse and thought-provoking films.

Enjoy the films!

A celebration of artistry in film, festivals provide an important venue to showcase Canadian creativity across the country and beyond. That is why we are proud to support DOXA Documentary Film Festival.

The Honourable Pablo Rodriguez --------Artists and their collaborators have played a vital role from the beginning of the pandemic: their creations offer hope, help maintain connections, and point to a brighter future.

The Rogers Group of Funds offers support to Canadian independent producers with three different types of funding: Rogers Telefund offers loans to Canadian independent producers; Rogers Documentary Fund, Canada’s premier source of funding for documentary films and Rogers Cable Network Fund, an equity investor in Canadian programs with a first play on a Canadian cable channel. Three different types of financing. Three different funds. All from one source – Rogers. For more information contact Robin Mirsky, Executive Director, at (416) 935-2526. Application deadlines for the Rogers Documentary Fund are Wednesday, April 13 and Wednesday, August 24, 2022. Application deadlines for the Rogers Cable Network Fund are Wednesday, June 29 and Wednesday, October 26, 2022.

As we move forward, we need the arts more than ever—to inspire us and bring us together as we envision a better world for all. Strong support for a resilient, inclusive, and accessible arts sector benefits society in all its diversity. The Canada Council for the Arts is a proud supporter of DOXA Documentary Film Festival and its contributions to our shared work to bring the arts to life.

Simon Brault, O.C., O.Q. DIRECTOR AND CEO, CANADA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS

Dr. Sae-Hoon Stan Chung CHAIR, BC ARTS COUNCIL

---------

This past year more than ever, Canada has shown the many innovative and resourceful ways in which we make our audiovisual sector thrive. We have given the world many reasons to take notice of Canada and why we continue to be a Partner of Choice! Our mission to foster and elevate authentic storytelling from Canadians of all backgrounds, especially those of underrepresented communities, is more pressing than ever before. At Telefilm, our priority to create a more representative screen-based industry continues as our efforts across all our initiatives, including our funding programs, increase.

On behalf of Premier John Horgan, Melanie Mark, Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport, and the Government of British Columbia, I welcome you to the 2022 DOXA Film Festival. The DOXA Documentary Film Festival features public screenings, panel discussions, public forums and educational programs. This event serves as a catalyst for discussion and critical thinking to inspire change and increase awareness around cultural identity, gender roles as well as other social and political matters from around the world. Our government is proud to once again support DOXA 2022 through Creative BC, the BC Arts Council and the BC Fairs, Festivals and Events Recovery Fund. We know the COVID-19 pandemic has not been easy for festival organizers and filmmakers. Our government responded with the launch of the $2 million Domestic Motion Picture Fund in the fall of 2020 to help offset the financial impacts of the pandemic and keep BC productions thriving. Thank you to the organizers for their dedication and congratulations to those whose work is being featured throughout the festival. It’s great to see DOXA go forward this year with a hybrid of online and in-person screenings. I applaud your perseverance, commitment and all your hard work in putting this festival together. All the best for a successful event. To all the participants and audience members, I hope you enjoy the 2022 DOXA Documentary Film Festival.

Bob D’Eith, Q.C.

PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY FOR ARTS AND FILM

Stronger together, I want to thank and congratulate the DOXA Documentary Film Festival for continuing its work of uplifting a diversity of voices through films and celebrating the brilliance of Canadian content at home and around the world. As always, continue to watch Canadian films wherever they are available and tell others to do the same!

Christa Dickenson

www.rogersgroupoffunds.com

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, TELEFILM CANADA THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS FUNDERS

INDUSTRY PROGRAM PREMIER PARTNERS

MEDIA PARTNERS

MAJOR PARTNERS

PREMIER MEDIA PARTNER

PREMIER PRINT MEDIA PARTNER

MAJOR MEDIA PARTNER

HOSPITALITY PARTNER

PRINT PARTNER

DISTRIBUTION PARTNER

SCREENING PARTNERS

TRANSPORTATION PARTNER

TECHNICAL PARTNER

CULTURAL PARTNERS AND CONSULATES

CONSULAT GÉNÉRAL DE FRANCE À VANCOUVER

INDUSTRY PROGRAM SUPPORTERS

AUDIENCE PARTNERS

HEU ACFC WEST, LOCAL 2020 UNIFOR

british columbia yukon northwest territories

#DOX A 2022

HOSPITAL EMPLOYEES’ UNION

LABOUR STUDIES PROGRAM

THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

THANK YOU TO OUR DONORS We would like to take a moment to acknowledge the support we receive from individual donors. We thank each and every donor for supporting our efforts in presenting the best in documentary media, and for your generosity. We couldn’t do our work without you!

For more information about our individual giving program, contact Sarah Bakke at sarah@doxafestival.ca or 604.646.3200 ext 104

DIRECTOR

MOTIVATOR

Tony Fogarassy Andrea Gin & Joseph Clark Roger Holdstock Laura Moore Wendy Oberlander

Jill Anholt Simone Artaud Colin Browne Patrick Carroll Janice Chutter Marian Collins Blair Cresswell Chris Dafoe Zoë Druick Tara Flynn Sonia Fraser Martin Gerson Layne Hellrung Selwyn Jacob Neil Jones-Rodway

Lynn Kagan Stacy LeBlanc Kenji Maeda Carol Newell David Pay Joseph Planta Veronica Singer Teri Snelgrove Natasha Tony Shannon Walsh

Mike Archibald Harold Bakke Linda Brandt Peter Cameron Jack Dlugan Cynthia Flood Rebecca Fox Marco Fratarcangeli Ali Grant Lynda Griffiths Wolfgang Hauser Carol Jerde Bonnie Klein Shona Lam Joan Leistner

Jamala MacRae Bruce Pentecost Carson Pfahl Judith Platzer Ana Policzer Michele Rechtman Smolkin Mo Simpson

Melanie Covey Karyn Cox Selina Crammond Pat Dairon Gratianne Daum Urs Dietschi M David Eaman Rob Ellaway Tanguy Exume Venay Felton Christine Fletcher Cynthia Flood Dermot Foley Melanie Friesen Alexis Gagnon Prem Gill

David Grant Kathryne Gravestock Rhonda Hall Ellen Hamer Nicole Hansen Jason Hicks Stella Hines Jennifer Hogan Annie Huston Joy Illington Randy Iwata Collin Koo & Kevin Smith Marietta Kozak Johanne Lalonde David Lee Yoo-Mi Lee Henry Leistner Linda Marie Leistner Gareth Llewellyn Irene Lugsdin

David MacWilliam Melody Mason Adrienne McCann Kathy McGrenera Tara McGuire Tracy Monk Keeley Nixon Joanne Nordin Bryndis Ogmundson Harry Paddon Dana Putnam Ann Robson Rachel Rocco Sandra Rose George Ross Jeffrey Rushen Selma Savage Janet Shaw Christiane Smyth Edrie Sobstyl

Jane Srivastava Yoshi Sugiyama Debra Sutherland Lillian Tamburic Vivienne Taylor Kyle Thompson Glynnis Tidball Raymond Tomlin Terri Van Sleuwen Shay Vanderschaeghe Jeji Varghese Emily Wagner Marilyn Wardrop Fei Wong Jackie Wong Rita Wong Michael Woods Brandon Yan Maria Ylo

ADVOCATE

Atenas Contreras Kathy Evans Debra Pentecost

SUPPORTER

In honour of Haida Paul

Jeff Sommers Ashley Tanasiychuk Sally J Taylor Leslie Thompson Carmen Wiseman David Wong

FRIEND

Kathy Aikenhead Liv Albert Diane Ash Emily Beam Janet Berry Michelle Bjornson Valerie Boser Priscilla Brooke Laurie Brooks Marianne Brorup Weston Julia Browning Clint Burnham Peg Campbell Mary-Ann Charney Patrick Clarke Stephanie Co Marcy Cohen Michael Contreras Sue Cormier Paul Coulter 12

#DOX A 2022

In honour of Selina Crammond

Brianna Girdler Karen Goddard Linda Gorrie

...and all of our anonymous donors

IN MEMORIA M

AWARDS AND JURIES The DOXA award winners are selected on the basis of three major criteria: success and innovation in the realization of the project’s concept; originality and relevance of subject matter and approach; and overall artistic and technical proficiency. DOXA is very happy to welcome an outstanding group of filmmakers, film critics and industry professionals to the Award Juries this year. Jury members meet during the course of the festival to choose the winning films, as well as award honourable mentions to selected films. See doxafestival.ca for more information on this year’s juries.

DOXA FEATURE DOCUMENTARY AWARD

COLIN LOW AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN DIRECTOR

DOXA SHORT DOCUMENTARY AWARD

FILMS IN COMPETITION

A Thousand Fires (p. 69)

PRESENTED BY

Bha Iad Làn Sgeulachdan (p. 77)

DIRECTED BY SAEED TAJI FAROUKY

Children of the Mist (p. 41) DIRECTED BY HÀ LỆ DIỄM

Edna (p. 47)

DIRECTED BY ERYK ROCHA

Metok (p. 62)

DIRECTED BY MARTÍN SOLÁ

Rewind & Play (p. 66)

DIRECTED BY ALAIN GOMIS

Smadar (p. 67)

DIRECTED BY MAYAN TOLEDANO

Sirens (p. 67)

FILMS IN COMPETITION

Beyond Extinction: Sinixt Resurgence (p. 41) DIRECTED BY ALI KAZIMI

Dear Audrey (p. 43)

DIRECTED BY JEREMIAH HAYES

DƏNE YI’INJETL The Scattering of Man (p. 43) DIRECTED BY LUKE GLEESON

Doug and the Slugs and Me (p. 33) DIRECTED BY TERESA ALFELD

The Dream and the Radio (p. 45)

DIRECTED BY RITA BAGHDADI

DIRECTED BY ANA TAPIA ROUSIOUK AND RENAUD DESPRÉS-LAROSE

Terra Femme (p. 68)

Far Beyond the Pasturelands (p. 47)

DIRECTED BY COURTNEY STEPHENS

Ultraviolette and the Blood-Spitters Gang (p. 70)

DIRECTED BY MAUDE PLANTE-HUSARUK AND MAXIME LACOSTE-LEBUIS

Love in The Time of Fentanyl (p. 31)

DIRECTED BY ROBIN HUNZINGER

DIRECTED BY COLIN ASKEY

We Don’t Dance for Nothing (p. 71)

My Two Voices (p. 63)

DIRECTED BY STEFANOS TAI

DIRECTED BY LINA RODRIGUEZ

They Sleep Standing (p. 69) DIRECTED BY BOGDAN STOICA

#DOX A 2022

FILMS IN COMPETITION

DIRECTED BY TODD FRASER

Bill Reid Remembers (p. 79)

DIRECTED BY ALANIS OBOMSAWIN

Dear Mr. Dudley (p. 76)

DIRECTED BY MORGAN RHYS TAMS

Forests (p. 74)

DIRECTED BY SIMON PLOUFFE

Galb’Echaouf (p. 75)

DIRECTED BY ABDESSAMAD EL MONTASSIR

A Hundred Joys (p. 79)

DIRECTED BY AMANDA ANN-MIN WONG

Listen to the Beat of Our Images (p. 75)

NIGEL MOORE AWARD FOR YOUTH PROGRAMMING

2022 NIGEL MOORE AWARD FOR YOUTH PROGRAMMING JURY

DOXA is extremely proud to present the Nigel Moore Award for Youth Programming, first launched in 2013. Named in memory of Nigel Moore, a young man whose passion for knowledge, exploration and advocacy found a home in his love for documentary film.

Maya Biderman is a second year medical student at the University of Toronto. She is an advocate for social justice with a strong focus on Indigenous wellness and ways of knowing. She is also an arts enthusiast, having worked in musical theatre and entertainment, and has a love for documentary film. She is an avid traveller and an enthusiastic amateur rock climber.

For younger audiences, documentary has particular relevance. The world in which they are growing up is an increasingly complex place. Documentary not only captures this complexity, but also has the capacity to act as a catalyst for social change, and fundamentally alter people’s behaviour. The award will be adjudicated by a youth jury, who will choose the film that best exemplifies the qualities of compassion, social engagement and spirit in which Nigel lived.

DIRECTED BY AUDREY JEAN-BAPTISTE AND MAXIME JEAN-BAPTISTE

FILMS IN COMPETITION

Nuisance Bear (p. 74)

Dear Jackie (p. 35)

DIRECTED BY JACK WEISMAN AND GABRIELA OSIO VANDEN

Spirit Emulsion (p. 76)

DIRECTED BY SIKU ALLOOLOO

DIRECTED BY HENRI PARDO

The First Step (p. 49)

DIRECTED BY BRANDON KRAMER

Hello World (p. 53)

DIRECTED BY KENNETH ELVEBAKK

Let The Little Light Shine (p. 59) DIRECTED BY KEVIN SHAW

Teagan Dobson is the owner of The Pending Approval, a branding and design company located in Vancouver, focusing on creating brands that look as beautiful as they make you feel. When not working on art, Teagan spends most of her time writing, reading and watching documentary films. Steven Hawkins has a passion for sustainable business, environmental policy and music. Holding a Bachelor of Commerce from UVic, Steven has been involved in a range of sustainable business endeavours and has worked in environmental conservation as a business planner. He is an avid surfer, sailor, skier and sport enthusiast. Further, Steven is a seasoned musician who has written, recorded and performed with a number of bands, and has composed for film and theatre.

Anna Hetherington is a business professional who recently earned her Chartered Professional Accountant designation. She has been a juror for the Nigel Moore Award since its inception and grew up with Nigel from the time they were born. Anna is an avid traveller and has volunteered and studied all over the world. She enjoys spending time on the ocean, reading memoirs and watching documentary films. Jacob Saltzberg is a music industry professional from Vancouver who has been a juror for the Nigel Moore Award since it was first introduced. He works as a journalist for music publication Earmilk and founded a PR firm called Roundhouse PR, which has worked in publicity with musicians of many genres across the globe. Along with a passion for music, Saltzberg enjoys reading, art and travel.

THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

DOXA Industry brings together a diverse community of filmmakers and industry professionals to discuss the art and craft of non-fiction storytelling. Through a series of panel discussions, masterclasses and networking events, we invite filmmakers at all levels of experience to engage in vital conversations while building the skills and connections needed to propel their projects forward. All events are free. Please visit doxafestival.ca for full event descriptions and registration details.

british columbia yukon northwest territories

M AY 7 S AT U R DAY

534 CAMBIE ST.

DGC VISIONARIES PRESENTED BY

1PM-5PM

The Directors Guild of Canada presents a day of fascinating conversations with renowned filmmakers. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from exciting voices from across Canada pushing the creative boundaries of documentary filmmaking. Guests will include DOXA 2022 filmmakers Teresa Alfeld, Siku Allooloo, John Bolton, Luke Gleeson, Ana Tapia Rousiouk and Renaud Després-Larose, Nadia Shihab, Bogdan Stoica and Sara Wylie, among many others. All are welcome. Visit doxafestival.ca for more details. 16

# D O X A 202 2

I N D U S T R Y DAY AT S F U 1PM

Filmmaking and Motherhood On this Mother’s Day, please join us for a panel discussion that shines a spotlight on filmmakers balancing their artistic careers with motherhood. We will invite our guests to share challenges, triumphs and ideas on how the industry can better support working parents. Childcare will be offered during this event. Please check doxafestival.ca for registration details.

2:30PM

4PM

PANEL DISCUSSION

MASTERCL ASS

2PM

Ali Kazimi

In February 2022, a seven-year racial equity audit on Knowledge Network’s funding allocations was released. This report showed overwhelming proof of systemic bias against BIPOC-owned production companies and re-ignited a necessary dialogue around equity in the documentary industry. In this panel discussion, filmmakers involved in advocacy efforts will share the impact of the report’s findings, the ground-breaking material changes that have come from it, and the opportunities it can create for a more equitable future for documentary filmmakers in Canada.

Filmmaker, media artist, author and activist Ali Kazimi has created an acclaimed body of work that deals with race, social justice, migration, history and memory. This masterclass will travel through Ali’s work, gleaning insights from some of his influential works as well as DOXA 2022 selection Beyond Extinction: Sinixt Resurgence. The conversation will invite the question: What does the act of cross cultural relational engagement look like in filmmaking?

british columbia yukon northwest territories

CO-PRESENTED BY

THE POST AT 750

Telling Stories: Mariana Otero and François Caillat In this ‘cross-masterclass,’ French auteurs Mariana Otero and François Caillat, subjects of the FRENCH FRENCH double retrospective, confront their unique approaches to documentary storytelling while affirming their shared ethics.

british columbia yukon northwest territories

4PM

Focus on Editing: Jocelyne Chaput

COMMUNITY PARTNER

M AY 10-12

ONLINE EVENTS

110 - 750 HAMILTON ST.

I N D U S T R Y DAY AT THE POST

Knowledge Network Equity Audit

CO-PRESENTED BY

THE KENT

M AY 9 M O N DAY

This moderated conversation with California-based, Canadian editor Jocelyne Chaput will explore the art of storytelling from an editor’s perspective, drawing insights from her work on DOXA Opening Night film Fire of Love. CO-PRESENTED BY

Additional in-person or online industry sessions may be added. Check doxafestival.ca for the latest information.

LET’S TALK VIDEO WORKSHOPS PRESENTED BY

M AY 10

2PM-3PM

Let’s Talk Planning a Video Project Do you want to make a video, but aren’t sure where to start? This Zoom workshop covers how to plan the content for your video and decide what type of gear to use. M AY 11

2PM-3:30PM

Let’s Talk Recording a Video Project You don’t need big budget equipment to make a great video! Get tips for getting creative with light, how to tell a story visually, and how to record voices and sounds clearly. M AY 12

2PM-3:30PM

Let’s Talk Editing a Video Project You’ve completed filming. What’s next? This webinar introduces post-production considerations, including editing, automated dialogue replacement (ADR), Foley, location sound and music.

RUSSIAN TRIPT YCH

MAY 7-12

SFU WORLD ART CENTRE

149 WEST HASTINGS ST.

ALI KAZIMI, RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS (2016)

DOXA INDUSTRY

M AY 8 S U N DAY

I N D U S T R Y D E TA I L S & R E G I S T R AT I O N AT D OX A F E S T I VA L .C A

M E M O R Y A N D A R C H I V E S THE AFFEC T IVE A N D P OL I TI CA L P OTENT IAL OF ARC H I VA L MATERI A L

1970 (p. 37)

Mariner of the Mountains (p. 61)

In December of 1970, food shortages and the rising cost of basics in Poland led to popular protests across the country. Tomasz Wolski’s 1970 chronicles the Polish government’s violent response to public upset as though it were a historical thriller, as marionettes, stop motion animation and archival audio offer full access to the bureaucratic banality of authoritarian evil.

Structured as a correspondence between filmmaker Karim Aïnouz and his late mother, Mariner of the Mountains reckons with the autofiction of belonging: to an unfamiliar homeland, to a murky family history, and to a people whose revolutionary fight left behind a legacy of ghosts.

Tomasz Wolski, Poland, 2021, 70 mins

Fire of Love (p. 29)

Sara Dosa, Canada/US, 2022, 99 mins

Katia and Maurice Krafft are a couple with a common passion: lava and active volcanoes. Incorporating astonishing archival footage shot by the pair, Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love documents the Kraffts as they travel around the world, paddling through lakes of acid and venturing into areas of unstable volcanic activity, with awe-inspiring results.

A More Radiant Sphere (p. 62) Sara Wylie, Canada, 2022, 44 mins

Nearly lost in the annals of Canadian history, the writings of Joe Wallace—radical believer in socialist ideals, writer of anti-capitalist verses and survivor of detainment by the Canadian government—have been revived by his great-niece, director Sara Wylie. Searching through library archives, family records and footage from the early decades of the Canadian settler state, Wylie assembles the story of Wallace the poet and revolutionary. 18

SPOTLIGHT

Karim Aïnouz, Algeria/Brazil/France/Germany, 2021, 95 mins

Rewind & Play (p. 66)

Alain Gomis, France/Germany, 2022, 65 mins

When jazz icon Thelonious Monk arrives in 1968 at a Parisian television studio, his rehearsal is noticeably disrespected. Interspersing archival footage of the interview that follows with Monk’s beautiful performance, Alain Gomis subtly deconstructs the systemic racism and legacy of colonialism at play in the exchange.

Terra Femme (p. 68)

Courtney Stephens, US, 2021, 62 mins

How different does the world look when a woman’s eye is behind the camera? This is the question at the heart of Courtney Stephens’s insightful essay film Terra Femme, a tapestry of amateur travel footage shot by women from mostly the 1920s to 1940s.

Ultraviolette and the Blood-Spitters Gang (p. 70)

L A N D S C A P E S O F R E S I S TA N C E Matters of the land are matters of the bone. In this collection of films, acts of resistance and recollection are carved into the landscapes of our sociopolitical realities. They mark the ridges of sculpted wood, the underbelly of healing circles, the grooves of flooded valleys and dammed up lands. Rooted in stewardship and grounded in political freedom, these films are searing reminders of the ongoing effects of colonialism, systemic oppression and environmental destruction in BC, across Turtle Island and around the world.

Robin Hunzinger, France, 2021, 74 mins

Beyond Extinction: Sinixt Resurgence (p. 41)

Ali Kazimi, Canada, 2022, 98 mins

DƏNE YI’INJETL The Scattering of Man (p. 43)

Robin Hunzinger (director) and his mother Claudie (narrator and co-writer)’s film reconstructs the tale of “Ultraviolette,” a rebellious young woman with whom Robin’s grandmother Emma had been in love many years before. Hunzinger assembles a dizzying array of archival footage to illustrate and recreate a story of young love hidden away for nearly a century.

In the making since 1995, Beyond Extinction: Sinixt Resurgence is a longform firsthand account of the Sinixt Nation’s battle for recognition, a people previously declared extinct by the Canadian government. As Sinixt leaders and allies craft arguments for the courts, Ali Kazimi’s film chronicles how the Sinixt people’s traditional ways of being could not be expressed, or even understood, by a bureaucracy designed to atomize, categorize and pin down.

When BC Hydro built the W.A.C. Bennett Dam in 1968, it flooded the Rocky Mountain Trench in northern BC, a region belonging to the Tsay Keh Dene First Nation since time immemorial. Emerging Dene filmmaker Luke Gleeson tells the story of how his people’s lands were flooded, using a slow, experimental rhythm that pairs archival news clips and unique interview footage with sweeping shots of a land(scape) now completely transformed.

What About China? (p. 72)

Trinh T. Minh-ha, US, 2021, 145 mins

Journeying into the histories and influence of China’s traditional architecture, Trinh T. Minh-ha addresses officialdom’s attempts to “harmonize” rural life during the country’s Great Uprooting. Drawing from footage shot mostly in 1993 and 1994 in the villages of Eastern and Southern China, What About China? questions what exactly it is that disappears when state-sanctioned urban control is applied to the more fluid forms of rural existence and design.

LANDSCAPES OF RESISTANCE

S P O T L I G H T

ULTRAVIOLETTE AND THE BLOOD-SPITTERS GANG

Try as we might to pin it down, memory has a way of slipping into flux. For decades, cinema has provided the means and methods for recollection; filmmakers have contended with personal, historical and mythic memory in order to reach deeper understanding. Sometimes, this means rooting through the archive—that which has been committed to paper, gelatin print, film reel or audio file so as to remain fixed. The way we remember, both individually and collectively, is tightly bound to the purported truth of the archive; whether it be a box of photos found in a family member’s attic, a piece of microfiche in a library, or a series of letters unearthed and read for the first time in decades. But if our memories are unreliable and the archive can be questioned, where does that leave us? The films in this program allow for greater knowledge of ourselves as we burst forth into the future, continually in motion with the material of our past.

Bill Reid Remembers (p. 79)

Alanis Obomsawin, Canada, 2022, 24 mins

Legendary Abenaki director Alanis Obomsawin offers us a primer to the life and influential work of celebrated Haida artist Bill Reid. With recorded recollections from long ago, we begin to understand how Bill Reid’s relationship to art and landscape were one and the same.

Luke Gleeson, Canada/Tsay Keh Dene Nation, 2021, 76 mins

Honour to Senator Murray Sinclair

(p. 79)

Alanis Obomsawin, Canada, 2021, 29 mins

Acclaimed filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin returns with a tribute to Senator Murray Sinclair, one of the leading Truth and Reconciliation commissioners. Weaving together an award acceptance speech by Sinclair with archival footage and oral testimony of residential school survivors, both Obomsawin and Sinclair offer a critical overview of where we’ve been, where we are and where we’re headed as a country.

Landscapes of Resistance (p. 59)

Marta Popivoda, Serbia, 2021, 95 mins

An intimate portrait of 97-year-old Sonja, Landscapes of Resistance blends a layered story of the nonagenarian’s fight against Nazism in the 1940s with director Marta Popivoda’s own antifascist manifesto and defiance of far-right extremism in present day Europe.

The Territory (p. 68)

Alex Pritz, Brazil/US/Denmark, 2022, 84 mins

When a network of non-Indigenous Brazilian farmers seize an area of protected territory in the Amazon rainforest, a young Indigenous leader, Bitaté, and his mentor, Neidinha, seek new ways to defend their land. Alex Pritz’s film follows the Uru-Eu-Eau-Wau Indigenous Surveillance Team over the course of three years, chronicling the community’s fight against colonial deforestation with unique and intimate access.

SPOTLIGHT

HELLO WORLD

J U S T I C E

R A T E D Y F O R Y O U T H

F O R U M

For 12 years, the Justice Forum has been one of DOXA’s cornerstone programs, showcasing films that facilitate active and critical engagement, create space for dialogue, and sow the seeds for social change. Each Justice Forum film is paired with a live or pre-recorded conversation between speakers relevant to its issue, including filmmakers, experts in the field, academics and/or community activists. We’re excited to offer a selection of films that foster crucial conversations around a broad range of social issues, offering necessary perspectives for change and progress.

Rated Y for Youth is back for its 13th edition! Rated Y for Youth was founded with the intention of facilitating media literacy through thought-provoking documentaries. I’M STILL ALIVE

Love in the Time of Fentanyl (p. 31)

We Feed People (p. 72)

I’m Still Alive (p. 55)

When the opioid crisis in BC escalated to the heights of a public emergency in 2016, activists at the Overdose Prevention Society (OPS) set up a tent in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside as a critical, frontline response. Technically illegal despite its necessity, the OPS was—and continues to be—a site rooted in harm reduction, where substance users are able to use drugs safely with supervision. Love in the Time of Fentanyl is an intimate observation of the OPS over a number of years, and bears witness to the exhausting work required to keep the site running and the people dedicated to its continuance.

Chef José Andrés and his nonprofit World Central Kitchen respond to humanitarian emergencies with one thing in mind—fresh and hot food for those affected. From the Haiti earthquake of 2010 to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, the stakes are high as José and his team collaboratively map out systems of culinary care across devastated communities. Against the increasingly present backdrop of crises here in BC and globally, We Feed People is an insightful look at the power of strategic mobilization around one of our most basic needs.

Overcrowding and violence in its prison system have led to an expansion of prisons in Brazil. André Bomfim’s intimate film shows how integrated therapies and restorative approaches are offering a radically different, more humane alternative. By way of a resocialization process, gentle and non-dogmatic techniques work in tandem to value the subjectivity and spirituality of inmates, breaking down the toxic masculinity that prison life fosters.

Colin Askey, Canada/US, 2022, 85 mins

Myanmar Diaries (p. 64)

The Myanmar Film Collective, Myanmar/Netherlands/ Norway, 2022, 70 mins

Filmed in the aftermath of Myanmar’s military coup on February 1, 2021, Myanmar Diaries is a striking, cinematic call to attention from The Myanmar Film Collective. Oscillating between the real and almost-real, the film combines the works of 10 anonymous Burmese filmmakers, whose revelatory short fiction pieces merge with harrowing, on-the-ground footage of the country’s military takeover.

Ron Howard, US, 2022, 89 mins

Wochiigii lo: End of the Peace (p. 73) Heather Hatch, Canada, 2021, 85 mins

Wochiigii lo: End of the Peace is a powerful and unflinching look at the controversies surrounding Site C, the third mega-dam to be built over Peace River in northern BC, right in the heart of Treaty 8 territory. In the wake of environmental destruction and community removal, Haida filmmaker Heather Hatch closely follows activists from the Treaty 8 Nations as they fight costly legal battles to protect their families, communities and treaty lands.

André Bomfim, Brazil, 2021, 87 mins

The First 54 Years - An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation (p. 49) Avi Mograbi, Israel/Finland/France/Germany, 2021, 110 mins

Esteemed filmmaker Avi Mograbi cuts to the core of a military occupation by describing its strategy in blunt and certain terms. Compiling vivid archival footage alongside extensive interviews with soldiers, military commanders and other officials of the Israeli state employed during the first decades of takeover in Palestinian territory, The First 54 Years is a searing exposé of the brutal realities of forced settlement.

DOXA selects programming for high school students and youth to foster an appreciation for cinema while giving young audiences an opportunity to engage in open dialogue on a broad range of social issues. Each Rated Y for Youth film will include a complementary Study Guide to support and enrich classroom conversations, as well as a pre-recorded and/or live discussion with filmmakers and community members.

Dear Jackie (p. 35)

Hello World (p. 53)

By way of a letter to Jackie Robinson—the first Black man to break the colour barrier in professional baseball—Henri Pardo’s Dear Jackie is an endearing portrait of Black life in Montreal. The film is an ode to the people of Little Burgundy, Montreal’s historically Black neighbourhood, whose history and legacy of community-building in the face of segregation and racist urban renewal policies mirrors those of many Black communities across North America, including Hogan’s Alley in Vancouver.

Filmed over the course of four years, the lives of four Norwegian teens are the focus of Kenneth Elvebakk’s poignant film, Hello World. The youngest openly queer people in their respective communities, Viktor, Runa, Dina and Joachim are learning to be themselves, a coming-of-age process that unfolds slowly, and not without some trial and error.

Henri Pardo, Canada, 2021, 90 mins

Let The Little Light Shine (p. 59) Kevin Shaw, US, 2022, 86 mins

Just south of downtown Chicago, the National Teachers Academy (NTA)—a primarily Black, high-achieving public elementary school—is on the chopping block. From classrooms to courtrooms, Let The Little Light Shine is a powerful portrait of students, parents, teachers and administrators at NTA working collectively to protect what director Kevin Shaw calls a “lifeline for Black children.”

Kenneth Elvebakk, Norway, 2021, 88 mins

The First Step (p. 49)

Brandon Kramer, US, 2021, 86 mins

Van Jones is a Black progressive activist straddling tensions many would not. Against the backdrop of criminal justice reform and the opioid crisis, Brandon Kramer’s The First Step is a fast-paced, intimate portrait of the complicated work that goes into building trust between deeply polarized communities in the pursuit of social change.

Justice Forum 2022 is presented in partnership with SFU Woodward’s Cultural Programs. 20

JUSTICE FORUM

R ATED Y FOR YOUTH

The David Lam Centre at SFU has been supporting events and outreach on the Asia Pacific diaspora since 1989. To join our mailing list and find out more please visit us online.

When I was offered the fantastic opportunity of curating a program carte blanche for the equally fantastic DOXA festival, my first question was: what theme would be interesting to reflect upon? After two years of COVID, periods of isolation, pain and sometimes loss, fear, intermittent hope, anger ... the programmer in me wasn’t in the usual programming state of mind. What would be a good subject that could reunite people in movie theatres, giving them something to share and discuss? Well, the first and ultimate answer appeared: grandmothers. Abuelas, nonne, mamies, babushki ... I have a strong belief that an older woman in a film tends to immediately resonate as a “grandmother figure” for the viewer. That’s how it works for me: she might be terrible and angry, totally off the wall, or sweet and soft spoken—there’s always a certain recognition. It doesn’t work the same way with older men, nor with adults or kids (perhaps babies can sometimes have a certain universal cinematic identity). But older women, whether they be grandmothers or without children, offer us a figure to look up to. And right now, as a new war has begun, that’s exactly what I wish we could all gather around and share. A grandmother.

www.sfu.ca/davidlamcentre/news-events.html

CANADIAN FILMS HAVE IT ALL.

GRAND-MÈRE.

GRANDMOTHER.

BIG HITS BIG TALENTS

BABUSHK A . BY L AURENCE REYMOND

MADAME

telefilm.ca/en/seeitall GR AND-MÈRE . GR ANDMOTHER.BABUSHK A .

MADAME

DROP BY DROP (ÁGUA MOLE)

We know that any memory “we keep” is a recollection, and that any memory we recall is a combination of what happened, how we interpreted that event in the moment, and the way our brain interprets it now ... Memories should always be given artistic license. Maybe every memory, just like every dream, is a film we direct for ourselves. Older women have it all: a wealth of experiences, and the power to bring those experiences to life now. Their stories, memories, histories, and fantasies connect past and present. From the way they dress, the wrinkles on their faces (or absence of them), to the look in their eyes, older women who agree to be filmed and share their memories have so much to offer, and can reach a level of outspokenness that is liberating. The freedom of not caring, and expressing whatever’s on their mind.

“

OLDER WOMEN H AV E I T A L L : A W E A LT H O F EXPERIENCES, AND THE POWER TO BRING THOSE EXPERIENCES T O L I F E N O W.

The first person I thought of who fits this description was Odette Robert, Jean Eustache’s “badass” grandmother. Sitting for almost two hours with her dark glasses, smoking and drinking whiskey, the very old Odette delivers the (painful) story of her life in Eustache’s 1971 film Numéro Zéro—a solo performance captured in one take (using two cameras to ensure continuity). Sitting in front of her, with his back to us, Eustache invites the viewer to be the third person at the table, and to listen to grandmother Odette. Two years earlier, Eustache had acknowledged the overwhelming power of speech in his renowned masterpiece The Mother and the Whore, and here he reaffirms the ability of words to blur the line between reality and fiction.

”

This takes us to the program itself. Because the pact between fiction and reality is so important, especially in the process of memory, animated docs are for me a never-ending field of discovery. In the beautiful short Drop by Drop (Água Mole), Alexandra Ramires and Laura Gonçalves use animation to preserve the memories of dying villages in the Portuguese countryside. Produced in 2014, the directors met with the remaining inhabitants of these villages, now very old, who tell the story of a land that is being dried out from its life, drop by drop. Animation enables the directors to give a face and shape to the nameless force transforming peoples’ lives. A film with a hopeful spirit, Alain Cavalier’s Illusionist (1990) documents the women working disappearing jobs in Paris, creating portraits of their manual work through memories of a piano tuner, a flower seller, a corset designer, and the memorable illusionist herself, Antoinette. With her art of magic and her peaceful view on life, Antoinette is every bit the ultimate Grandmother, sharing with us more than just skill but the art of living happily. A French director who’s been working independently for years, Cavalier uses a very simple and intimate setting to elevate what looks like a modest chat into something intensely philosophical. Naomi Kawase, abandoned at birth and raised by her uncle and aunt, began her film career with a comprehensive series of documentaries focused on her family. After meeting her mother as an adult, she chose her as the subject of her film Ten, Mitake (1995), an experimental short filmed using an 8 mm camera, no direct sound, repeating images and slow motion. The film became a ritual between the director and her mother, and in one sequence, the playful Kawase films herself jumping over her sitting mother. Silent and still, her mother appears as a mystery.

NO HOME MOVIE

Barbara Hammer, an American director, explores her Ukrainian roots in My Babushka: Searching Ukrainian Identities (2001). While Hammer had a very important career in the experimental field, this film is more traditional—a personal and political exploration of the country that resonates so much in today’s world. Hammer travels to Ukraine to meet her relatives and older women from her family’s village, experiencing a wealth of emotion as she does and bearing witness to a country transforming. Indeed, Ukrainians are at the moment in their history when feminists and LGBTQ+ movements have begun to express their freedom. The babushki we see in the film are as much a symbol of the strong roots of the country as a connection to its moving present. I am infinitely grateful to the directors who agreed to share with us their mothers and grandmothers, among them Stéphane Riethauser, whose very moving film Madame (2019) is based on his personal family archives. Born to a very wealthy Swiss family, Riethauser struggled to reconcile his homosexuality with the expectations of his family, for whom there was only one path ahead: to marry a woman and start a family. Surprisingly, it’s in the personality of his grandmother that he was able to recognize himself the most. Being a rebel herself, long before him, she structured her life far outside the expectations of her family. In this double portrait of a grandmother and grandson in a mirror, Madame manages to be both intimate and global, exploring how social rules can be a prison.

ILLUSIONIST

MY BABUSHKA: SEARCHING UKRAINIAN IDENTITIES

Chantal Akerman’s No Home Movie (2015) seemed like the best way to finish this program. The director decided to film her mother during what was to become Akerman’s final months, and this would become Akerman’s final film. A survivor of Auschwitz, Akerman’s mother is seen here in her apartment, or in the small frame of a computer, and the intimacy and love between the two is overwhelming. It’s also fascinating to see Akerman make a documentary that so closely resembles her fiction films: the long shots, the feeling of the character being “framed.” Again, cinema blurs the line. “Chantal thought it was her easiest movie, that it could connect with everyone, that anyone could find here an echo of their own personal life, their own intimacy.” (1) Witnessing the relationship with her aging mother, yes, we necessarily connect. Perhaps the Universal Grandmother Figure might have something to do with it.

Laurence Reymond GUEST CURATOR

1) Claire Atherton, the film’s editor, Telerama, 24.02.2016 24

GR AND-MÈRE . GR ANDMOTHER.BABUSHK A .

CONSULAT GÉNÉRAL DE FRANCE À VANCOUVER

IN THE HOUSE OF D O C U M E N TA R Y A R E MANY MANSIONS. After two virtual editions, FRENCH FRENCH 7 returns to a live format this year, with an original attempt to showcase and confront two genuine French auteurs who have each developed a consistent oeuvre of remarkable documentary films over the past 25 years.

MARIANA OTERO was trained in observational “cinema direct” at Ateliers Varan, the very workshop that triggered Claire Simon’s documentary career showcased in FRENCH FRENCH 2. As a woman with a camera—the first light H8 video device—Otero embedded herself for the entirety of 1994 in a suburban Parisian high school, focusing on the struggles of the committed teachers and principal to cope with difficult students coming from disenfranchised housing projects. La Loi du collège (School Law), initially developed as a televised miniseries filled with dramatic twists and turns, became a classic and the first of a large volume of docu-soaps that, for better or worse, took the front seat in television at the turn of the century. Mariana has continued telling stories that uncover the complexities of and stakes in collective institutions, always establishing a warm complicity with people that challenges perceived notions of how they live their lives. Entre nos mains (Into Our Hands) follows workers at a small lingerie factory trying to buy out their bankrupt company, and discovering new freedoms through the founding of a worker’s cooperative. The film presents a surprisingly gleeful ending despite the economic failure. L’Assemblée (The Assembly) depicts three months in 2016 during which Parisian citizens occupied the Place de la République, one of the biggest squares in Paris, for “Nuit Debout” (“Night Stand”)—a loosely organized movement aimed at refounding French democracy. The protest has been heralded similarly to the “gilets jaunes” (“yellow vests”) movement that for the last four years has shaken, and is still managing to shake, France. Just the opposite of any so-called “Freedom Convoy”! FRENCH FRENCH will also feature Otero’s moving Histoire d’un secret (History of a Secret), a film mourning the director’s mother, who passed when Otero was still a child. The film challenges the social and political taboo of back-alley abortions, while reflecting on Otero’s late mother through a rediscovering of her paintings. Finally, we present the recently released and successful Histoire d’un regard (Looking for Gilles Caron), which dives deep into the hundred thousand photographic prints taken by Gilles Caron, one of France’s greatest war reporters, who tragically disappeared in Cambodia in his early thirties after documenting the Six-Day War, the Biafra famine, May 68 and Northern Ireland’s Troubles. FRANÇOIS CAILLAT, with a background in philosophy, comes from the reverse tradition—a literary and cinematic one. Like Alain Cavalier (showcased in FRENCH FRENCH 4), Caillat is above all a storyteller—a ghost hunter interested in romance and memory. In his Sebald-like novelistic essays, he proves to be a virtuoso in the poetic evocation of the past through sounds, images, old documents and landscapes. His brilliant debut film La Quatrième génération (The Fourth Generation) recalls the rise and fall of his own family dynasty of lumber barons in Lorraine, digging through a century of secrets and mysteries. In Trois soldats allemands (Three German Soldiers), Caillat investigates the life of three soldiers who died in Lorraine under the German uniform, telling in the process the whole history of the French province which was annexed by Germany from 1870 to 1918 and returned to France, only to become German once again during the Second World War. Both films are mesmerizing tales of haunted places and their history.

FRENCH FRENCH

In narrating his own love affairs from his teenage years into his early thirties in Une jeunesse amoureuse (Of Youth and Love), François Caillat draws a kind of “Carte du Tendre,” an amorous geography of Paris shot in different picturesque neighbourhoods, portraying at the same time a generation coming of age in the 70s. Caillat’s latest movie, Triptyque russe (Russian Triptych), revisits the epic and tragic history of the construction of the Belomorkanal, connecting Baltic and White Seas, during which 20,000 gulag prisoners and forced labourers perished under Stalin’s rule. The film features Russian historian Yury Dmitriev, an active member of the recently dissolved Memorial NGO, who relentlessly searched and dug up the mass graves in Karelia to reveal this hidden memory of Stalinism.

“ THE ABILITY

TO GIVE VOICE T O M O D E S T, ORDINARY PEOPLE I S W H AT M A K E S D O C U M E N TA R Y CINEMA AN ESSENTIAL AND PRECIOUS ART FOR OUR TIMES.

Although Otero and Caillat belong to somewhat opposing traditions, both filmmakers have grown throughout their careers to incorporate the same humanistic stream of deep, warm encounters which characterize today’s documentary filmmaking, appearing on camera with greater frequency to lead their quests in person. As a counterpoint to their short retrospectives, the two directors will together deliver a cross masterclass, choosing clips from one another’s movies they admire. Titled Telling Stories, this presentation will confront the directors’ unique approaches— their idiosyncratic ways of coping with reality, documentary mise en scène and dramaturgy— while affirming their shared ethics.

Last but not least, two new films from two female directors whose presence has been a landmark for Vancouver audiences at previous DOXA festivals will serve as FRENCH FRENCH 7’s icing on the cake. Nous (We) by Alice Diop (her Towards Tenderness screened in 2017's FRENCH FRENCH 3), an essayistic patchwork portrait of Parisian suburbs awarded Best Documentary at Berlinale 2021, and Garage, des moteurs et des hommes (Garage, Engines and Men), shot by the infamous and indefatigable Claire Simon in her Provençal village! Both films will emphasize once again how the ability to give voice to modest, ordinary people is what makes documentary cinema an essential and precious art for our times.

”

Thierry Garrel GUEST CURATOR

FRENCH FRENCH

S P E C I A L P R E S E N TAT I O N • O P E N I N G F I L M

Stories that...

INFORM CONNECT ENLIGHTEN Vancouver Sun and their award-winning journalists are dedicated to bringing you comprehensive, trustworthy stories that matter.

T O SU B SC RIB E , V I SIT VA N C O U V E RSU N .C O M

MEMORY AND ARCHIVES

Fire of Love

Sara Dosa, Canada/US, 2022, 99 mins

Katia and Maurice Krafft are a couple with a common passion: lava and active volcanoes. The pair met in Alsace, studying together for years before pursuing careers in geochemistry (Katia) and geology (Maurice). Now married, they dedicate their lives to unraveling the mysteries of the earth and our place above it: “We got into volcanology because we were disappointed with humanity,” says Maurice. “And since a volcano is greater than man, we felt this is what we needed. Something beyond human understanding.”

“Despite Fire of Love’s awe-inspiring images of fire spewing and spattering from the mouths of volcanoes—and then oozing and pulsating downward like a blazing snake— what endures after this film ends are the beaming faces of Katia and Maurice Krafft.” VANESSA ZIMMER, SUNDANCE INSTITUTE

Fire of Love documents the Kraffts as they travel the world, paddling through lakes of acid and venturing into areas of unstable volcanic activity with awe-inspiring results. Narrated in the soft voice of Miranda July, Sara Dosa’s film incorporates astonishing archival footage shot by Katia and Maurice themselves to tell an epic story of love and obsession, dedication and passion, and that sacred fire burning inside of us all. -SO

SPECIAL PRESENTATION • OPENING FIL M

S P E C I A L P R E S E N TAT I O N • J U S T I C E F O R U M

WE ARE PROUD TO BE A CULTURAL PARTNER OF

DOXA 2022 10TH ANNIVERSARY PROGRAMMING

WORLD PREMIERE

JUSTICE FORUM

Love in the Time of Fentanyl Colin Askey, Canada/US, 2022, 85 mins

When the opioid crisis in BC escalated to the heights of a public emergency in 2016, folks at the Overdose Prevention Society (OPS) set up a tent in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside as a critical frontline response. Technically illegal despite its necessity, the OPS was—and continues to be—a site rooted in harm reduction, where people are able to use drugs safely with supervision.

The opioid crisis is not over. Six years after it opened its doors, the OPS is as necessary now as it was in 2016, its efforts compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. Love in the Time of Fentanyl is a crucial film from director Colin Askey—one that explores, with considerable care and compassion, the frontlines of the ongoing drug-poisoning epidemic in this city. -DB

An intimate observation of the OPS over a number of years, Love in the Time of Fentanyl witnesses the exhausting but essential work required to keep the site running, and the people dedicated to its continuance. We follow Sarah, a founding OPS member and activist, as well as Trey, a former heroin user who memorializes the lives lost to overdose through graffiti art. We accompany frontline workers like Ronnie (also known in the community as “Narcan Jesus”) as he struggles with extreme burnout; Indigenous elder Norma as she cooks meals for staff and volunteers; and Dana, an active fentanyl user whose own experiences with overdose continue to propel him in his efforts to save lives. SPECIAL PRESENTATION • JUSTICE FORUM

PHOTO BY GOTOVAN / FLICKR / CC BY 2.0

S P E C I A L P R E S E N TAT I O N • C L O S I N G F I L M

Doug and the Slugs and Me

WORLD PREMIERE

Teresa Alfeld, Canada, 2022, 88 mins

Get the journalism that ma ers straight to your inbox every Sunday. Sign up today:

thewalrus.ca/weekly

PHOTO: HANS SIPMA

CANADA’S MISINFORMATION IS A REAL THREAT CONVERSATION

With Doug and the Slugs and Me, director Teresa Alfeld (The Rankin File: Legacy of a Radical, DOXA 2018 opening film) thrives once again in documenting the personal histories of Vancouverites who’ve managed to weave through the tough fabric of this city. This go-around, Alfeld constructs an intimate biography of legendary Vancouver musician and East Van dad Doug Bennett, who passed away in 2004 at the age of 52. Alfeld’s unique perspective as a childhood bestie of one of Doug’s daughters brings immense empathy to our understanding of both semi-public and private grief, and the effects of addiction and celebrity. A significant look at the enabling aspects of fame and excess, as well as a rumination on family, love, addiction and conflict, Doug and the Slugs and Me utilizes candid testimonies of the Slugs themselves to temper nostalgia for the band’s glory days with a nuanced look at the complexities of Doug’s life—from his formative early years to the bittersweet end. -JB SPECIAL PRESENTATION • CLOSING FIL M

S P E C I A L P R E S E N TAT I O N • R AT E D Y F O R YO U T H

Dear Jackie

Henri Pardo, Canada, 2021, 90 mins

POST PRODUCTION | VISUAL EFFECTS | COLOR GRADING OFFLINE SUITE RENTAL 10,000 sqaure feet of production space 9 editor/assistant oﬄine suites for rent DI Theatre with 4K and Dolby 7.1 playback

T 604.877.2299 TF 1.877.290.3152 15 EAST 4TH AVE VANCOUVER, BC V5T 1E9 INFO24FRAMES.CA

WWW.24FRAMES.CA

RATED Y FOR YOUTH

Summer of 1946, Montreal. When Jackie Robinson stepped out onto the field for the Montreal Royals, he became the first Black man to break the colour barrier in professional baseball. For one of the first times, Black Montrealers felt seen and heard in their city. By the next year, however, Jackie had moved on to play for the Major Leagues in the United States, leaving in his wake a white-majority public that had co-opted Jackie’s success into the narrative of a post-racial city. By way of a letter to the titular figure, Henri Pardo’s Dear Jackie is an endearing portrait of Black life in Montreal. Spacious, poetic, and shot in black and white, the film is an ode to the people of Little Burgundy—Montreal’s historically Black neighbourhood—whose history and legacy of community-building in the face of segregation and racist urban renewal policies mirrors those of many Black communities across North America, including Hogan’s Alley in Vancouver. - DB

SPECIAL PRESENTATION • R ATED Y

Dedicated to the arts. createastir.ca MEMORY AND ARCHIVES

1970

Tomasz Wolski, Poland, 2021, 70 mins

Already beset by food shortages, Poland saw the prices of basic goods like meat, dairy and flour reach new highs in the days before Christmas, 1970. To protest this increase and reject the ineffectiveness and corruption of its central government, shipyard workers at Gdansk staged a strike that quickly spread across the entire country. These popular protests at first confused authorities, but as dissent escalated the government’s response grew increasingly violent. Uniquely told using era-specific animation and puppetry, the film unfolds like a historical thriller, with sinister telephone conversations between faceless bureaucrats providing a beat-by-beat narration of events from a villainous point of view. Archival footage depicts scenes of protest and violence in the streets, while models, marionettes and meticulously designed sets recreate the smoky offices of Cold War-era apparatchiks. With distinctive set pieces that pay homage to a tense moment in history, the ideas of the film continue to resonate in the present, as authoritarian regimes around the world inflict violence and repress dissent. -JC

Archipelago (Archipel)

Félix Dufour-Laperrière, Canada, 2021, 72 mins

Dufour-Laperrière’s exquisitely envisioned essay about the islands, shores and waters along the St. Lawrence River takes on even greater meaning in the closing text from Innu poet Josephine Bacon’s Message Sticks: “Where would I be without you, the land. My dream is for a peace and tranquility.” Combining impressively simple black and white drawings and cut-out animations layered over footage both contemporary and archival, we are offered a highly original and intriguing perspective on what defines homeland, territory, and even our own existence. Mesmerizing dialogue spoken between a man and woman asserts how we search for uncertain marks and incomplete truths to define territory, and the importance of duration, not nostalgia. Augmenting our suspension in this dreamed land—an archipelago of a thousand islands—is the film’s score and sound design, which emulate the floating rhythms of the sea. It’s only a sea if it’s named. -MB

Proud Major Media Partner of DOXA THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Sarah Roa (Puck) Photo: Emily Cooper

Book Early For Best Seats!

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

FRENCH FRENCH

The Assembly (L’Assemblée)

Mariana Otero, France, 2017, 99 mins Season Sponsor

J UNE 8 to SEPT 24 M A I N S TAG E

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM H O WA R D FA M I LY S TAG E

HARLEM DUET by Djanet Sears

How do we speak in unison without speaking in a single voice? The spontaneous and explosive “Nuit debout” (Night Stand) movement was born on March 31, 2016 in the Place de la République in Paris. For more than three months, hundreds of people from all backgrounds occupied the square day and night, passionately advocating for a new form of direct democracy in France. Mariana Otero documents discussions in open-air workshops that capture the bustling and collective intelligence of a new kind of politics. As the film’s radical ideas begin to coalesce, it is speech—at times soaring, at times stuttering—that becomes the main character, revealing that “under the ashes of a brighter future more discreet revolutions are hidden.” -TG 2017 ACID SELECTION CANNES FESTIVAL

The Balcony Movie Pawel Lozinski, Poland, 2021, 100 mins

From his balcony perch, Pawel Lozinski asks passersby a litany of probing questions: What is the meaning of life? Who are you, really? What are your troubles, your joys? People of all stripes (neighbours, strangers, young and old) crane their necks upward to find the source of these inquiries, with Lozinski’s boom mic occasionally dropping haphazardly into frame. Some answers emerge slowly, with Lozinski’s insistent coaxing. Others appear suddenly and assuredly, with surprising candidness. One young boy on a bike is asked what he wants to do when he grows up, to which he confidently responds that “sometimes wanting is not enough, because … you don’t have the luck.” Another thoughtful reader passing by with a book by Carl Sagan under their arm declares: “We’re like a tiny drop of chance somewhere in the ocean of unimaginable space.” Snow and leaves gather on the sidewalk as seasons pass, and a few characters become regulars of Lozinski’s street. But who is the hero of this film, he wonders? Looking out from his balcony, we’re able to decide for ourselves. -SB

ROMEO AND JULIET

TICKETS FROM $27 604.739.0559 | bardonthebeach.org Media Sponsors THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

WORLD PREMIERE

RESISTANCE

CANADIAN PREMIERE

Beyond Extinction: Sinixt Resurgence

Children of the Mist

For director Ali Kazimi, Beyond Extinction: Sinixt Resurgence has been in the making since 1995, when he was first welcomed onto Sinixt territory in the Arrow Lakes region of what’s colonially called British Columbia. While he was initially at camp for only a few days—to film and perhaps get to know the elders there—he soon became invested in their fight, and would stay closely in touch for years to come. What struck him most was their unbelievable battle to regain recognition as a living people; the Canadian government had previously declared the Sinixt Nation extinct.

Twelve-year-old Di is reaching a generational cusp. Nearly able to pull away from the archaic marriage traditions of the rural Hmong people, she wants instead to continue her education—but it’s not easy. Both her mother and older sister were victims of bride kidnapping, a fate that likely awaits Di as well, and while her mother desires for her daughter to stay in school, her roots are still firmly tangled in Hmong tradition and she questions how to properly advocate for her daughter’s future. As Di enters adolescence, seemingly innocent acts such as flirting on Facebook or riding on a boy’s motorbike carry greater significance than she understands.

Ali Kazimi, Canada, 2022, 98 mins

As Sinixt leaders and allies crafted arguments for the courts, wrestling with issues as vast as immigration, land claims, archeological preservation and treaty law, it became clear that traditional ways of being could not be expressed, or even understood, by a bureaucracy designed to atomize, categorize and pin down. The Canadian government was not equipped to rescind their official belief that the Sinixt Nation no longer existed, yet we are listening to their words of resistance and witnessing their connection to a land that has been stewarded by Sinixt ancestors since time immemorial. Beyond Extinction: Sinixt Resurgence tells the “ongoing story of a people who reject their colonial ghost status.” -SB

Hà Lệ Diễm, Vietnam, 2021, 90 mins

Maintaining for the most part a fly-on-the-wall approach, filmmaker Hà Lệ Diễm skillfully documents three years in the life of her friend Di’s family. Intimate, intense, and at times deeply troubling, Children of the Mist witnesses a young woman as she desperately tries to strike a balance between family and freedom. -lh

THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

The Hotel of Choice For 2022 Doxa Film Festival

RESISTANCE

Dear Audrey

DƏNE YI’INJETL - The Scattering of Man

The camera fixes its gaze on acclaimed Canadian filmmaker and cinematographer Martin Duckworth in this portrait film from director Jeremiah Hayes. After years of activist filmmaking and teaching documentary film, Martin faces his greatest challenge yet—caring for his wife Audrey Shirmer, herself a photographer and filmmaker, through the final stages of Alzheimer’s disease. A touching profile of Martin as both companion and caregiver, Dear Audrey is a gentle, intimate reflection on Martin’s personal life and filmography. Flitting between archival footage from the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War to memories of past loves and present children, Dear Audrey is a visual biography of a man’s dedication to his work, his family, and above all else, to Audrey. -DB

When BC Hydro built the W.A.C. Bennett Dam in 1968, it flooded the Rocky Mountain Trench, a region belonging to the Tsay Keh Dene First Nation since time immemorial. With steady, experimental rhythm, emerging Dene filmmaker Luke Gleeson tells the story of how his people’s lands were flooded, pairing archival news clips and interview footage with sweeping shots of a land(scape) now completely transformed. The events that followed the dam’s construction are recounted in visual prose and through the traditions of Dene storytelling. DƏNE YI’INJETL - The Scattering of Man serves as a wider critique of provincial Crown corporations, and the marriage of industrial and government mega projects that have violently disrupted the lives and lands of Indigenous people—all without rightful consultation or any real regard for the lands themselves. -DB

Jeremiah Hayes, Canada, 2021, 89 mins

A PROUD HOSPITALITY PARTNER Sandman Suites Vancouver - Davie Street is an all-suite hotel situated in Vancouverʼs West End, minutes from English Bay Beach, Robson Street, and Yaletown. SO MANY REASONS TO STAY 198 comfortable suites with full kitchens | City, ocean & mountain views | In-suite washer/dryer units | Complimentary high speed Internet | Gated, underground parking | Moxies with room service | Outdoor pool | Meeting & banquet facilities | Fitness facilities

Luke Gleeson, Tsay Keh Dene Nation/Canada, 2021, 76 mins

1160 Davie St, Vancouver, BC, V6E 1N1 | Tel: 604 681 7263 1-800-sandman (726-3626) | sandmanhotels.com

THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

The Dream and the Radio (Le rêve et la radio)

Ana Tapia Rousiouk and Renaud Després-Larose, Canada, 2022, 145 mins

The Dream and the Radio is a vision of a familiar yet alien Montreal, filled with dreams, idealism and the possibility of building a more authentic, inclusive and harmonious world. This wild and unconventional film follows the lives of Raoul, a charismatic activist; Eugène, a tortured writer; Constance, a shy radio artist; and Béatrice, a nomadic free spirit. These four are on a mission to transmit their message to the masses—via radio waves. Resembling a scripted feature, Rousiouk and Després-Larose’s film is nonetheless impossible to pigeonhole or categorize, with experimental and hybridic elements such as an interplay between darkness and light, unusual sound textures and colour grading, and a loose concept of time. Filled with nods to 20th-century political activism and the history of cinema, this enigmatic film is bursting with ideas that open it up to endless interpretations. -KR

Dropstones

Caitlin Durlak, Canada, 2021, 57 mins

Set on Fogo Island off the coast of Newfoundland, Dropstones is an intimate family portrait that follows matriarch Sonya shortly after she has returned to the home she once yearned to escape. As Sonya raises her two young sons, Luke and Sean, she finds herself drawing on her island’s traditions to meet the challenges of motherhood. Set against the changing seasons over the course of a year, the film immerses us in the unique rhythms of life on Fogo Island, illuminating both the hardships and fulfillment that come with calling this singular place home.

THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

photo: Ashley Rendon, Caer (2021), dir Nicola Mai

See yourself on screen

August 11-21, 2022 queerfilmfestival.ca

Edna

Far Beyond the Pasturelands

Nearing 70, Edna is marked by the conflicts of her youth and an ongoing culture of destruction and displacement in rural Brazil. This quiet, powerful portrait gives space for grief and trauma, hinting at atrocities against humanity and nature without giving in to despair. Birds chirp as Edna hums, washes her hair, and reflects on the nature of love. The camera pans around her modest home, where Edna—at times radiant, and other times melancholy—tries to remain thankful despite the hardships she has faced.

Every year, villagers of Maikot, Nepal ascend high up into the Himalayas in search of a one-of-a-kind mushroom. A patient, observational camera follows their many preparations and the arduous trek that follows until, like small ants on a barren mountainside, they arrive in this formidable terrain, searching on hands and knees for the tiny fungi—an experience truly like finding a needle in a haystack. But the mushroom is a blessed thing, for its stratospheric value can pay for a child’s schooling and provide enough money for the villagers to subsist. For this reason, the hunt continues.

Eryk Rocha, Brazil, 2021, 64 mins

MAKE IT REAL. Gain the skills to become a filmmaker in the 8-month Documentary Certificate program at Capilano University.

As we become more familiar with the rhythms of Edna’s life story, the memories turn darker—to friends who died fighting Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1970s, and the suffering Edna endured during her own detention. Overlapping dialogue, the blending of ambient sounds, and a pivot from lush black and white to colour all add to the intricate atmosphere. Darkness lies beneath the surface, but there is also hope and compassion. -KR

Maude Plante-Husaruk and Maxime Lacoste-Lebuis, Canada, 2021, 84 mins

Plante-Husaruk and Lacoste-Lebuis’s film transmutes ethnography into cinematic metaphor through the quiet voice of Lalita, a young woman whose dream of education ended at age 19 with marriage and a child. Just like the quest for an elusive mushroom, her plaintive narration speaks to a universal search for fulfillment. A sublimely minimalist musical score adds grandeur to the villagers’ undertaking—a quest both majestic, and crucial. -MB

CAPILANOU.CA/DOCUMENTARY

THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

DON’T LOSE FOCUS ON YOUR NEXT EVENT rts pe x e ur e. o b y o e t We’r ’t have on d u o so y

JUSTICE FORUM

The First 54 Years - An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation Avi Mograbi, Israel/Finland/France/Germany, 2021, 110 mins

Esteemed filmmaker Avi Mograbi cuts to the core of a military occupation by describing its strategy in blunt and certain terms. According to this Abbreviated Manual, first steps for occupation include: giving land to settlers to use at will, limiting the movement of the occupied population, establishing dominance by force, spreading distrust, and quelling resistance at any cost. Outlining these processes is Mograbi himself, who appears throughout the film to deliver scenarios and schemes like a brusque commander. “You are embarking on a massive project,” he declares, as he describes how you succeed in possessing a people and their land.

A proud supporter of events like DOXA! Show your support by calling us.

Compiling eye-opening archival footage alongside extensive interviews with soldiers, military commanders and other officials of the Israeli state who were deployed during the first decades of Palestinian occupation, The First 54 Years exposes the brutal realities of the settler playbook. Be it the West Bank, Gaza Strip, a proposed pipeline route or old growth forest, these are the universal blueprints that define the colonial project. -SB

CANADIAN PREMIERE

RATED Y FOR YOUTH

The First Step

Brandon Kramer, US, 2021, 86 mins

Van Jones is a Black progressive activist straddling tensions many would not. Famous for calling the election of Donald Trump “a whitelash” on live television, Van is the lead campaigner of #cut50, a social impact initiative centered on criminal justice reform in the United States. When Van and his team introduce a bill called The First Step, they do so by crossing party lines, controversially seeking bipartisan support for reforms to the criminal justice system, as well as urgent, much-needed responses to the opioid crisis. For most on the right, Van’s efforts are too bold. For most on the left, they’re not bold enough. Brandon Kramer’s The First Step is a fast-paced, intimate portrait of the complicated work that goes into building trust between deeply polarized communities in the pursuit of social change. As activists from two conflicting communities agree to convene over issues of prison justice and drug addiction, we witness the clarity, vulnerabilities and legitimate fears that arise in the process. -DB

EVENT PRODUCTION | EQUIPMENT RENTALS | AV INSTALLATION

mcmedia-av.ca

604.876.2286 THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

THE EDITOR’S CUT

A CCE PODCAST EXPLORING THE ART OF PICTURE EDITING NEW EPISODES MONTHLY Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Play or at cceditors.ca

CARSHARE IS YOUR NEXT RIDE Start your journey at modo.coop

BEST FOOTWEAR

BEST CLOTHING

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

FRENCH FRENCH

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

FRENCH FRENCH

The Fourth Generation

Garage, Engines and Men

François Caillat, France, 1997, 80 mins

Claire Simon, France, 2021, 71 mins

The Fourth Generation (La Quatrième Génération) traces the rise and fall of director François Caillat’s family, players in the Moselle timber industry from 1870 until its decline in the 20th century. Set in the northeastern French region of Lorraine, the film explores multiple generations of timber workers—the filmmaker’s ancestors—and the strange territorial destiny that saw Lorraine change hands between France and Germany four times during their history with the company. The titular fourth generation (which the filmmaker belongs to) are those who arrived afterwards, when the game was over and only memories were left. Narrated by Caillat himself, his debut film is a vivid tale of history’s ghosts. -TG

The small Provençal village where director Claire Simon grew up is in slumber, and nearly deserted. However, one place in this picturesque town still thrives—the repair garage, where people come from the entire surrounding area to have their cars and bikes fixed.

(La Quatrième Génération)

PRIX LOUIS MARCORELLES 1998 CINÉMA DU RÉEL

(Garage, des moteurs et des hommes)

From morning until each day’s end, Simon’s infamously sharp and sweet camera captures a multitude of interactions between various characters: the hyperactive owner, his young apprentice, the incoming customers. One breakdown devolves into nail-biting suspense, while on another occasion invoicing becomes a highstakes exercise. All the while, men gather together to repair metal bodies, and the garage becomes a place of masculine conveyance—a small stage for human comedy upon which fictions are uncovered amidst the daily banality. -TG

THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

CANADIAN PREMIERE

RATED Y FOR YOUTH

Hello World

Kenneth Elvebakk, Norway, 2021, 88 mins

Canada’s Documentary Magazine

In Print and Online

“... If I have to sum up the film in one sentence, it’s a story about being confident in your queer identity and daring to be yourself and without shame.” So says director of Hello World Kenneth Elvebakk, and his words resonate. The film is a poignant document of four Norwegian teens learning to be their true selves, and like many of us, they realize it’s not easy, even in the 21st century. Viktor, Runa, Dina and Joachim are the only out queer kids at their respective schools, it seems. Despite the usual struggles of young adulthood, the one thing none of them struggle with is who they are, and living their truth. As they learn to find their place in the world, their adolescence unfolds just as it does for most of their peers—slowly, and not without a bit of trial and error. However, there is confidence to be found in knowing who you are. -JB

FRENCH FRENCH

Looking for Gilles Caron (Histoire d’un regard)

Mariana Otero, France, 2019, 90 mins

A French war reporter of the same caliber as Don McCullin or Stanley Greene, Gilles Caron covered most of the high-profile political and military conflicts of the late 60s, until he disappeared tragically in Cambodia at the age of 30. Mariana Otero gained access to the 100,000 photos taken during his incredible career. By scrutinizing contact sheets and staging meetings with his companions, she investigates his coverage of the Six-Day War, May 68, Northern Ireland’s Troubles and the Vietnam War, amongst other globally significant events. Looking for Gilles Caron (Histoire d’un regard) constructs an intimate history, and launches a passionate quest for the particulars of Caron’s unique eye. By reconstructing the photographer’s precise approach to documenting his subjects and revealing his doubts, Otero discovers the practice and ethics of documentary kin. -TG

Visit

POVmagazine.com/subscribe to subscribe for just $12!

THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal 25e édition Novembre 2022

APPEL À SOUMISSIONS CALL FOR ENTRIES 1 MARS MARCH —

15 JUIN JUNE 2022

RIDM.CA

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

FRENCH FRENCH

History of a Secret (Histoire d’un secret)

Mariana Otero, France, 2003, 95 mins

At the age of 30, Mariana Otero was informed of a deeply held family secret: the tragic circumstances of her mother’s death in the aftermath of a back-alley abortion many years earlier. A young painter only 28 years of age at the time, Otero’s mother was on the eve of an exhibition the night she died, and History of a Secret (Histoire d’un secret) revisits the studio where she used to paint, conducting interviews with family members, friends and models. The paintings themselves— locked up for years in a closet without a knob—are scrutinized by the camera, and become a canvas for a larger discussion of the horrors of an unjust law and the shame that led to years of silence. With deep reverence for her mother and the art she left behind, Otero’s film breaks the silence once and for all, and challenges the conventions and taboos surrounding abortion in French society. -TG BEST DOCUMENTARY 2003 VALLADOLID INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

JUSTICE FORUM

I’m Still Alive

André Bomfim, Brazil, 2021, 87 mins

While the Brazilian government’s response to overcrowding and violence in its prison system has been to increase production of prisons nationally, André Bomfim’s documentary shows how the integrated therapies used in some Brazilian prisons can benefit inmate rehabilitation and resocialization by following a gentle, non-dogmatic approach. Bomfim shows how therapeutic massage, art therapy, Family Constellation work and other techniques work in tandem to value the subjectivity and spirituality of inmates, with the goal of breaking down the toxic masculinity that prison life nurtures. The film itself is intimate yet hands-off in its approach. Without relying on scripted interview sessions or excessive annotations, Bomfim presents both a micro and macro look at a broken system and, over time, the effectiveness of these programs. Although we know little of the backgrounds of these men, we are able to witness the transformations such an approach can bring about. -lh

WE’VE FACED COVID-19 TOGETHER. Now let’s make health care even stronger.

www.heu.org THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

Proud Print Sponsor of DOXA as well as dozens of other arts and non-profit events & fundraisers please enjoy! check out our pull-up display:

only $199

In the Arts or Non Profit?

Ask about our various discounts.

Contact us at info@evg.ca or online check us out at www.evg.ca for product selection and pricing, plus technical specs and order form. Or try calling us at 604-568-1206 304 Industrial Ave., Vancouver, BC, near Main + Terminal, with easy parking.

businesscards post + rackcards greetingcards stitched+CDcalendars posters + banners transitshelterads foamcore + coroplast menusofallsorts A-framesandwichboards raffle&eventtickets brochures+ flyers programs+ books stickers+ magnets presentationfolders fullcolourstationery fullvariableprinting andawholelotmore... from25to25,000!

CANADIAN PREMIERE

FRENCH FRENCH

Into Our Hands

The Lake / nx̌aʔx̌aʔitkʷ

(Entre nos mains)

John Bolton, Canada, 2021, 120 mins

Mariana Otero, France, 2010, 90 mins

Ogopogo is not the creature of the lake; nx̌aʔx̌aʔitkʷ is the sacred being of the water. This misrepresentation of Okanagan/Syilx culture is the subject at the heart of Bolton’s film, a meta-investigation of Barbara Pentland and Dorothy Livesay’s long-lost opera “The Lake.” The film acts as a cross-cultural reinterpretation of the original material, blending performance and self-reflection at the hands of two talented friends: settler and opera singer Heather Pawley, and Indigenous teacher Delphine Derickson of Westbank First Nation. Acknowledging the successes and failures inherent in cross-cultural collaboration, the film examines concepts of privilege and representation in real time, with Pawley and Derickson exploring the settler/Indigenous relationship and the boundaries of art, while also building something new and uniquely beautiful. -JB

When their lingerie factory goes bankrupt, the employees of Starissima—a group of mostly women—attempt to take it over by forming a cooperative. As their project takes shape, they must reckon with their boss and the reality of the marketplace; however, through their struggles comes a new-found freedom. Mariana Otero establishes a warm relationship and playful complicity with her protagonists. Under her camera, the small company becomes a theatre where fundamental economic and social issues play out impishly amidst bras and undergarments. While their quest often seems like an impossible feat, the film has surprises in store. -TG 2010 ACID SELECTION CANNES FESTIVAL

THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

TELL YOUR STORY, MOVE THE WORLD

Offering a Bachelor of Media Arts degree in: Film + Screen Arts New Media + Sound Arts Proud to be a supporting partner of the DOXA Documentary Film Festival. ecuad.ca

CANADIAN PREMIERE

RESISTANCE

CANADIAN PREMIERE

RATED Y FOR YOUTH

Landscapes of Resistance

Let The Little Light Shine

An intimate portrait of 97-year-old Sonja, Landscapes of Resistance blends a story of the nonagenarian’s fight against Nazism in the 1940s with director Marta Popivoda’s own antifascist manifesto and defiance of far-right extremism in present day Europe. Compiled from over 10 years of recorded conversations, Landscapes chronicles Sonja’s life, from the revolutionary books that helped develop her consciousness in high school to her leadership role against the Nazis in German-occupied Serbia. Eventually captured and taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Sonja became a leader of the camp’s resistance, and as Sonja recounts her story, the layered landscapes of her life emerge. From the Serbian forests where antifascists organized, to the mud and chimneys of Auschwitz and the small apartment in Belgrade where she now lives with her husband and cat, each landscape is a testament to her revolutionary life. -MM

Just south of downtown Chicago, the National Teachers Academy (NTA)—a primarily Black, high-achieving public elementary school—is on the chopping block. The Chicago School Board says it wants to transform it into a high school and accommodate students from other schools. But everyone at NTA suspects that gentrification, as well as a board notorious for shutting down schools in minority neighborhoods, are at the root of the plan. Let The Little Light Shine is a powerful portrait of students, parents, teachers and administrators at NTA working collectively to protect what director Kevin Shaw calls a “lifeline for Black children.” From classrooms and courtrooms to protests and stand-ins, we witness the power of unapologetic grassroots mobilization, as adult allies and student organizers fight not only for their school, but for their community. -DB

Marta Popivoda, Serbia, 2021, 95 mins

Kevin Shaw, US, 2022, 86 mins

THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

BABUSHKA

MEMORY AND ARCHIVES

Live Till I Die

Madame

Mariner of the Mountains

Utilizing the Direct Cinema approach to documentary filmmaking, Live Till I Die plays out like a narrative feature film, taking us on an episodic journey through the day-to-day happenings and seasonal highlights of one year in a Swedish nursing home. The filmmakers show us a self-contained world where residents live modern and vibrant lives, partying and celebrating every new follower on social media despite the occasional pain, anxiety and knowledge that time is limited. At the heart of it all is Monica, a hard-working and highly compassionate care worker, along with Ella, a 99-year-old resident who isn’t ready to stop living for the moment. Full of humour, compassion and joy, Live Till I Die strikes a tender chord. -lh

Madame takes us on an intimate journey with Caroline—a flamboyant 90-yearold grandmother—and her filmmaker grandson Stéphane, as they explore the development and transmission of gender identity in a patriarchal environment. Promised to a domestic life in the 1920s, Caroline manages to free herself from the clutches of a forced marriage and becomes a successful businesswoman, defying the social mores of her time. Running parallel are Stéphane’s struggles to play the role everyone in his Swiss bourgeois family expects of him, until the day he comes out of the closet and sets off on a crusade against homophobia. A family saga based on private archival footage, Madame offers a dialogue between an extravagant matriarch and her grandson, challenging taboos of gender and sexuality.

“I thought I came to Kabylia in search of something that might make me better understand who I am … but everything I see around here makes me think of you, Iracema.” Journeying to his father’s native Algeria, filmmaker Karim Aïnouz attempts to unravel family myths and understand his origins, despite the unanswerable questions of his past. Aïnouz’s parents met while studying abroad in the United States: his mother a graduate student from Brazil, his father an engineer with plans to return to Algeria and join the revolution against the French occupation. When his mother became pregnant she returned home, and away from the promise of a life in the Algerian mountains with her love, whom she would never see again. Structured as a correspondence between the filmmaker and his late mother, Mariner of the Mountains reckons with the autofiction of belonging: to an unfamiliar homeland, to a murky family history, and to a people whose revolutionary fight left behind a legacy of ghosts. -SB

Gustav Ågerstrand, Åsa Ekman and Anders Teigen, Sweden, 2021, 85 mins

#DOX A 2022

Stéphane Riethauser, Switzerland, 2019, 94 mins

Karim Aïnouz, Algeria/Brazil/France/Germany, 2021, 95 mins

THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

WORLD PREMIERE

Metok

A More Radiant Sphere

Martín Solá, Argentina/Italy, 2021, 70 mins

Metok is a young Tibetan Buddhist nun living in an Indian monastery. When her mother requests her assistance at a local birth, she ventures back to her homeland for the first time in years—a perilous journey through an achingly beautiful landscape. Metok must traverse a river, travel by train, and ascend mountain slopes to reach the Chinese border, where she is led in secret through a network of caves. When she finally reunites with her family, emotions are restrained but deeply felt. As Metok navigates personal challenges in the midst of tense geopolitics, the quietude and stability of Buddhist ritual continue to centre her. Director Martín Solá shows great respect for Metok, avoiding the impulse to scrutinize his subject beyond the here and now. The film’s style is fittingly meditative, combining simple observations with Metok’s personal thoughts to deliver a quietly haunting story. -KR

#DOX A 2022

MEMORY AND ARCHIVES

Sara Wylie, Canada, 2022, 44 mins

“Poetry is of a higher order. It sets bells ringing in the mind of the reader so that he makes his own music … ” Nearly lost in the annals of Canadian history, the writings of Joe Wallace—radical believer in socialist ideals, writer of anti-capitalist verses, and survivor of detainment by the Canadian government—have been revived by his great-niece, director Sara Wylie. Searching through library archives, family records, and footage from the early decades of the Canadian settler state, Wylie assembles the story of Wallace the poet and revolutionary. “The more I began looking for him, the more I began to see parts of myself reflected,” she says. His poems are spirited, forthright and folksy; they recall a time of great political change and opportunity. Inextricable from Wallace’s life and work is the history of Canada’s labour movement and the increasing involvement of the state in its disruption. A More Radiant Sphere captures a time and a feeling at risk of being erased by Canadian myth, when the possibility of a world beyond capitalism surged forth into poetry. -SB

BABUSHKA

My Babushka: Searching Ukrainian Identities

My Two Voices

Barbara Hammer, US, 2001, 53 mins

Lina Rodriguez, Canada, 2021, 68 mins

Filmmaker Barbara Hammer explores her Ukrainian roots in My Babushka: Searching Ukrainian Identities. While her career has been lauded in experimental circles, this film takes a more traditional approach to personal and political explorations of a country that resonates deeply in today’s world. Hammer travels to Ukraine to meet the older women from her family’s village, experiencing a wealth of emotion as she does and bearing witness to a transforming country. The babushki in the film are as much a symbol of national perseverance as they are a connection to its current state of flux.

In near stream-of-consciousness, the subjects of My Two Voices gradually reveal to us their histories, their beliefs, what brought (or perhaps sent) them to Canada, and the challenges inherent in immigration. They describe the limitations of English, and the way it impedes a full expression of who they are, as well as the challenges of raising children while trying to retain their culture, and the prejudices they encounter simply for being from somewhere else.

(Mis dos voces)

The disclosures are carefully explored through a cinematic language that is both emotional and physical, as Rodriguez lets the camera focus on the women’s extremities—their hands and feet, their gestures—gradually widening the scope of both the visuals and subject matter, until eventually all is laid bare. -lh

THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

JUSTICE FORUM

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

Of Youth and Love

Myanmar Diaries

Nasim

No Home Movie

Myanmar Diaries is a film of distinct hybridity, fusing fiction and fact in a way that feels nothing short of revelatory. Filmed in the aftermath of Myanmar’s military coup on February 1, 2021, the film combines the scripted works of 10 Burmese filmmakers, whose short pieces merge with harrowing documentary footage of the military takeover, as the junta’s brutality increases in the face of nation-wide protests and civil disobedience. We move between the real and almost-real, shifting from thoughtful criticism to an individual’s litany of curses against the army general. Our protagonists are, of course, anonymous; so too are the filmmakers, whose creative mandate is not only protective, but a reflection of the subjects they represent. Myanmar Diaries is a striking cinematic call to attention from The Myanmar Film Collective—collaborative in approach, innovative in form, and unapologetic in stance. -DB

“These days will pass. Moria will end.” These words of solace are spoken in the Greek island village of Moria, which is home to the largest refugee camp in Europe. Seeking political asylum, Nasim and her family live in a single tent as they await the results of a crucial interview that will determine their refugee status. But as days stretch into months, so too does Nasim’s need for a self-determined life in the camp. Hoping to divorce her husband, and struggling to keep her sons close, Nasim’s own desires for autonomy and agency reach a breaking point when, in September 2020, the camp burns down completely. Filmed with unique access over six months during the pandemic, Nasim is a layered and intimate portrait of refugee life in Moria through the eyes of Nasim and those around her. Unfolding organically over time, the film is a quiet reflection on the (in)accessibility of movement and the lack of dignified living conditions for refugees, as well as a look at the complexities inherent in the refugee crisis at large. -DB

No Home Movie, a companion piece to Akerman’s memoir My Mother Laughs, is an immensely moving portrait of the filmmaker’s mother Natalia in the months leading up to her death. A Polish Jew who survived Auschwitz, Natalia has suffered from chronic anxiety all her life, a condition that was profoundly influential to her daughter’s thematic preoccupations with gender, cultural identity, existential ennui, solitude and mania. Seemingly banal exchanges between mother and daughter give way to deep chasms of emotional connection, as Akerman tries to draw out Natalia’s harrowing life story before that knowledge becomes irretrievably lost. No Home Movie would be Akerman’s final film, as she herself passed away from suicide only months after its release.

The Myanmar Film Collective, Myanmar/Netherlands/Norway, 2022, 70 mins

BABUSHKA

#DOX A 2022

Ole Jacobs and Arne Büttner, Germany, 2021, 120 mins

Chantal Akerman, Belgium, 2015, 113 mins

In the words of Akerman: “This film is above all else about my late mother. About this woman who came to Belgium in 1938, fleeing Poland, the pogroms and the abuses. This woman [who] we only see in her apartment in Brussels. It’s a film about the changing world that my mother does not see.”

FRENCH FRENCH

(Une jeunesse amoureuse)

François Caillat, France, 2012, 105 mins

Caillat’s film is a headlong, head-over-heels initiation into the swirl of love and life, following our Parisian narrator as he navigates an amorous coming-of-age in the 1970s. Of Youth and Love (Une jeunesse amoureuse) is a tender bildungsroman, revisiting a generation’s adolescence and celebrating the adventure of youth. Interweaving shots of Paris’s diverse neighbourhoods with fragments of letters, photos of young women, and indelible music of the era, Caillat constructs a kind of “Carte du Tendre”: a sentimental geography of the city where for 15 years he experienced the excesses of being young. The film is a sincere autobiographical account that speaks to the heart, and an invitation to the viewer to recall their own memories of love. -TG

THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

MEMORY AND ARCHIVES

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

Rewind & Play

Russian Triptych

Alain Gomis, France/Germany, 2022, 65 mins

December 15, 1969, legendary composer and pianist Thelonious Monk was On on tour in Europe when he landed in Paris to give a concert. Prior to the performance, Monk had been invited to a television studio to give an interview, but as we witness Monk rehearsing at the piano, something disturbs our visual field. Two men, including the television host, are talking and smoking at the piano where the musician is rehearsing. The disrespect is palpable. Gomis’s film chronicles the interview that took place that day, utilizing archival footage and creative editing techniques to highlight the discomfort of the exchange as the host attempts to impose his own narrative on Monk, often disregarding Monk’s input altogether. When the musician is asked about his unease in France, the host replies, “Let’s not talk about this, it’s not nice,” to which Monk quizzically responds: “It’s not nice?” Contrasting interview footage with beautiful performances by Monk, Gomis subtly deconstructs the systemic racism and legacy of colonialism at play in the exchange, allowing us a painful but compelling moment with the jazz icon. -SO

#DOX A 2022

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

FRENCH FRENCH

(Triptyque russe)

François Caillat, France, 2018, 78 mins

Ordered by Stalin in 1931, the Belomorkanal (connecting the White and Baltic Seas) was the first major project the Soviet Union conducted using the forced labour of gulag inmates. Although prison labour camps were typically kept secret, the Stalin Canal was propagandized as an example of convicts reforming themselves through hard labour. A workforce comprising an estimated 100,000 convicts, the project would result in the loss of tens of thousands of lives. François Caillat explores this tragic moment in history through three distinct “movements”: a montage of Stalinist newsreels, spliced together; an encounter with Yury Dmitriev, a relentless field researcher unearthing hidden mass graves in the Karelian forests; and a surprising visual and musical eulogy. -TG PRIX DU JURY JEUNES FESTIVAL DU FILM D’HISTOIRE-PESSAC 2018

Sirens

Smadar

It’s a story that’s almost too good to be true: an all-female Lebanese death metal band on the verge of success … if they can stay out of their own way. Lilas and Shery, both queer, are fiery collaborators and the band’s creative force. Their emotional bond is strong, but so is the mounting personal tension. Shery is inspired, uncompromising and artistically-driven, while Lilas is charismatic but often difficult to work with, building walls to protect herself from frustration and pain. The film is driven by their chemistry and follows their ups and downs, both personal and musical, with incredibly intimate access to their lives.

It is the week before Passover, and Smadar is busy stitching hems and dodging the whims of her many clients who both revere and ask too much of her. In the suburb of Haifa, Israel, Smadar is well known as the best seamstress in town; neighbours call out to her from their balconies and men flock to pay her compliments. But Smadar is unfazed, perhaps even indifferent. She has become hardened—by past men and their cruelty, by unsatisfied desires and broken family ties—and has resolved to remain alone, with only the sloping mounds of the town’s alterations that fill her apartment to keep her company. “Men used to be gods, now they’re dirt, I can’t even look at them,” she says. Her extravagant homemade outfits and prickly disposition serve as her armour. But Toledano’s camera patiently reveals the cracks and the tender feelings within, bearing witness to a complex womanhood. -SB

Rita Baghdadi, Lebanon/US, 2022, 88 mins

Sirens transpires within the vivid social and political context of contemporary Lebanon, which—more than just a backdrop—is an ever-present force in the women’s lives. In one scene, Shery and Lilas share a drink on the street, only to join a protest moments later. A powerful blend of introspective and outspoken moments, this is a rock documentary at its most raw and exhilarating. -KR

Mayan Toledano, Israel, 2021, 74 mins

THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

MEMORY AND ARCHIVES

CANADIAN PREMIERE

Terra Femme

The Territory

They Sleep Standing

A Thousand Fires

How different does the world look when a woman’s eye is behind the camera? This is the question at the heart of Courtney Stephens’s insightful essay film, a tapestry of amateur travel footage shot by women from mostly the 1920s to 1940s. One woman chartering boats to the Arctic Circle films strange rites of passage she invents for her passengers. A socialist suffragette films people and intimate places rather than tourist attractions. What can we understand about the relationships of middle class American and British women to landscape, adventure, pleasure and colonialism through these images? Are these features of a female perspective, or just personal preference?

The Indigenous lands of the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau people are a protected territory deep in the Brazilian Amazon. Once home to thousands but now inhabited by fewer than 200, the region is often encroached upon by non-Indigenous Brazilian opportunists who mar its forests through illegal logging and invade its land with settler farms. When a network of farmers seize an area of the territory, the nonresponse from the government is clear. “Inspect what? Go and fight the loggers? Fight the invaders?” one public servant asks. “The Indigenous Affairs agency is like shit in the water.”

A focal character in his own film, director Stoica’s film is an unorthodox account of one ambivalent summer in Romania, where everyone seems out-of-sorts. Toggling back and forth between the countryside and the city, three friends find themselves at loose ends. To create this sometimes languid, sometimes irritable world, Stoica blends verité camerawork, still photography and fiction, all of which ebb and flow in an unstructured fashion. We eavesdrop on an angry farmer cursing his useless haying crew; Oana and mom critique her relationship with boyfriend Stoica; Catherine wanders aimlessly, and her eyes become our viewpoint of an uncertain world. What does it mean, and how will it end … -MB

Saeed Taji Farouky’s A Thousand Fires is a meditation on quiet persistence. A set of parents toil diligently in the oil fields of Myanmar, trying to procure earnings amidst impoverished circumstances. As they commit to a simple life of manual labour and faith, hopes still rest on their youngest son—an aspiring footballer.

Courtney Stephens, US, 2021, 62 mins

Stephens achieves a tour de force by assembling these home movies into a singular work, while also acting as tour guide and delivering a meditative and mischievous monologue throughout. Featuring a sparse, atmospheric score from former Vancouver-based composer Sarah Davachi, the film explores the ways privileged women of the early 20th century viewed and engaged with the world from the opposite side of the camera lens. -KR

#DOX A 2022

CANADIAN PREMIERE

RESISTANCE

Alex Pritz, Brazil/US/Denmark, 2022, 84 mins

Over the course of three years, The Territory closely follows young Indigenous leader Bitaté and environmental activist and mentor Neidinha, as they and the rest of the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau Indigenous Surveillance Team seek new ways to defend their land. With unique and intimate access to both the Uru-Eu-WauWau community and the opposing network of settler farmers, Alex Pritz’s film chronicles the community’s fight against colonial deforestation and agrarian settlement within a climate of anti-Indigenous rhetoric, governmental complicity and environmental destruction. -DB

Bogdan Stoica, Canada, 2021, 72 mins

Saeed Taji Farouky, France/Netherlands/Palestine/Switzerland, 2021, 90 mins

The cinematography is mesmeric, as are the rhythmic sounds of both machinery and nature that echo in the background. The sights of the region elicit tranquility and balance. Farouky’s camera highlights movement of materials and human forms, evoking progression while underscoring an ever-present repetition and quietude. Farouky is incisive in his arrangement of scenes, evidenced by macro shots of viscous liquids that he juxtaposes using sharp cuts. The film is an absorbing and delicate portrait of a hard-working and devoted family caught up in the tides of resilience. -AP

THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

FRENCH FRENCH

MEMORY AND ARCHIVES

FRENCH FRENCH

Three German Soldiers

Ultraviolette and the Blood-Spitters Gang

François Caillat, Belgium/France, 2001, 75 mins

A story of young love hidden away for nearly a century, Robin Hunzinger (director) and his mother Claudie (narrator and co-writer)’s film reconstructs the tale of “Ultraviolette,” a rebellious young woman with whom Robin’s grandmother Emma had been in love many years before. The epistolary saga is pieced together from a trove of letters and photographs unearthed following Emma’s death, which tell of a girl Emma met as a teenager in France named Marcelle. Following adventurous summers together in the mid-1920s, the two are separated, with Marcelle being relocated to a sanatorium to receive care for tuberculosis. Marcelle’s letters to Emma recount her experiences thereafter in rich detail—her meeting with like-minded girls and eventual rechristening as “Ultraviolette,” the leader of the group and a glorious outlaw determined to flout conventions.

Alice Diop, France, 2021, 117 mins

(Trois Soldats allemands)

François Caillat’s film begins with a macabre event—the exhumation of an unknown soldier’s corpse on Caillat’s family estate. What follows is a story of thwarted destinies, brutal deaths and the exile of characters who seem to come straight from the pages of a novel. Three German Soldiers (Trois Soldats allemands) weaves together the impressionistic strands of a complex, fast-moving story that has been unraveling for over 100 years. With Three German Soldiers (Trois Soldats allemands), three soldiers who died in Lorraine wearing the German uniform, Caillat tells the adventure of the 20th century as seen through the prism of the wars between France and Germany, and the final throes of the French nation before its adoption of a European identity through reconciliation. -TG

CANADIAN PREMIERE

#DOX A 2022

Robin Hunzinger, France, 2021, 74 mins

Hunzinger assembles a dizzying array of archival footage to illustrate and recreate the story of Marcelle. Moving images are used with virtuosic originality to create moods, tones and emotions of the past, an evocative representation of lost history. Monochromatic clips play next to scenes of vivid colour, impressionistic sequences contrast with prosaic footage of village life, and abstract music is interspersed with pop, bringing a story that could have been buried forever to life once more. -KR

(Nous) A visiting nurse, an undocumented migrant, deer hunters, nostalgics, philosophers, disenfranchised youth and adolescents—all are portrayed in Diop’s patchwork portrait of French society, shot along the RER B, a commuter train line connecting the outskirts of Paris with the lower-income northern and wealthy southern suburbs. Diop’s rhapsodic film tenderly stitches together observational scenes that touch upon numerous social crises with historical contexts stretching back centuries. Her intimate portrayal of discrimination presents an alternative sense of collectivity. Through its faces and stories, the film is an epic interrogation of France’s multicultural project with nuance, playfulness and a sharp attention to race, religion, class and citizenship status. -TG

WORLD PREMIERE

We Don’t Dance for Nothing Stefanos Tai, US/Hong Kong, 2022, 86 mins

We Don’t Dance for Nothing is a photo-montage love letter to the Filipina domestic workers of Hong Kong. Stefanos Tai’s film follows a young domestic worker who wants to break free and follow her dreams of independence, love and motherhood. Captured on Super 16 during the Hong Kong protests of 2019, the film’s imagery is a blend of stills and live-action footage. Tai touches upon LGBTQ+ themes, issues of workers’ rights, and Hong Kong’s changing political landscape, capturing moments of joy amidst struggle. By vividly expressing the entrapment felt by Filipina domestic workers and the freedom they find in dance, Tai’s film moves beyond media (mis)representations of their community and shows them as people full of talent, joy and grace.

BEST DOCUMENTARY BERLINALE 2021 INTERNATIONAL DOX AWARD DOKUFEST 2021

THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

JUSTICE FORUM

MEMORY AND ARCHIVES

JUSTICE FORUM

We Feed People

What About China?

Wochiigii lo: End of the Peace

Zinder

Under the pummeling rains of North Carolina floods, celebrated chef José Andrés tells a reporter, “We don’t only feed people, we create systems.” Fierce as he is humble, steady as he is slapdash, chef José and his nonprofit World Central Kitchen respond to humanitarian emergencies with one thing in mind—fresh and hot food for those affected. From the Haiti earthquake of 2010, to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, to food relief during the COVID-19 pandemic, veteran filmmaker Ron Howard’s We Feed People chronicles the intense evolution of World Central Kitchen over a 12-year period. The stakes are high as José and his team collaboratively map out culinary care across devastated communities. And the work is not without challenges, as the team trudges through bureaucratic hoops and crumbling infrastructure, post-disaster safety and accessibility, and issues of cultural sensitivity. Against the increasingly present backdrop of crises here in BC and globally, We Feed People is an insightful look at the power of strategic mobilization around one of our most basic needs. -DB

Journeying into the histories and influence of China’s traditional architecture, Trinh T. Minh-ha addresses officialdom’s attempts to “harmonize” rural life during the country’s Great Uprooting. What About China? questions what exactly it is that disappears when the rigorous categorizations common to urban areas are applied to the more fluid forms of existence and design typical of the countryside.

“I will get it past the point of no return,” former BC premier Christy Clark said in 2015. She was, of course, referring to the construction of Site C, the third mega-dam to be built over Peace River in northern BC, right in the heart of Treaty 8 territory. Wochiigii lo: End of the Peace is a powerful and unflinching look at the controversies surrounding Site C: the dismissal of numerous environmental reviews, Crown crossovers in the Premier’s office, and the legacy of previous dams in the region that flooded First Nations communities out of their homes and off their lands, all without rightful consultation. In the wake of environmental destruction and community removal, Haida filmmaker Heather Hatch closely follows activists from the Treaty 8 Nations as they fight costly legal battles to protect their families, their communities, and their treaty lands. -DB

In Kara Kara, a slum of the Sahelian city of Zinder, Niger, idle and disenfranchised youth find themselves entangled in a web of violence and crime. Aicha Macky, born in Zinder, follows both active and former gang members in the hope of telling their stories. Scars crisscross their bodies, testifying to the violence inflicted by a culture of machismo and territoriality. Siniya Boy, a member of a gang centered around weightlifting, tries to direct his comrades away from violence and towards organized business: smuggling and hustling gasoline has inspired him to start a security company. Elsewhere, Bawa, a former gang leader turned cab driver, shares stories of a past that continue to haunt him in the present. These individuals, united through shared experiences of unemployment and neglect by the state, are documented by Macky in this ode to the youth of Kara Kara. -JY

Ron Howard, US, 2022, 89 mins

CANADIAN PREMIERE

#DOX A 2022

Trinh T. Minh-ha, US, 2021, 145 mins

Highly valued as a virtue and a guiding criterion in ethics, harmony has played an important role in the lives of Chinese people for millennia, encompassing three fundamental relations: harmony with society, harmony with nature and harmony with oneself. Drawing from footage shot mostly in 1993 and 1994 in the villages of Eastern and Southern China, What About China? ponders the ebbs and flows of rural, communal life and frames the concept of harmony as a site of creative inspiration, rife with the potential to oppose state-sanctioned “harmonization” (read: standardized control). Through a combination of text, song, voice and still and moving images, Minh-ha creates a textural and multi-sensory poem in cinematic form. In voiceover, we are directed: “Find China in a line, a brushstroke, in the roundness of a building, a doorway … a child’s face, a bowl of rice, a communal courtyard.” -SB

Heather Hatch, Canada, 2021, 85 mins

Aicha Macky, Niger/France/Germany, 2021, 82 mins

THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

S H O R T S

P R O G R A M

CHANGING LANDSCAPES O N L I N E

This collection of short films offers visual commentary on the (changing) nature of land in connection to society. Observations begin in the polar bear capital of the world, then wade into a submerged forest on unceded territory. We plunge further on into the surreal world of microscopic plankton, only to resurface in a Cajun town staring into the mouth of a spillway. We shift from water to desert, attending to the sociopolitical landscape of the Western Sahara, before finally turning skywards, where urban development in one community occurs on a galactic scale.

Nuisance Bear

Jack Weisman and Gabriela Osio Vanden, Canada, 2021, 14 mins

Each year, polar bears trek through Churchill, Manitoba on their migratory route, venturing curiously across railroad tracks and into the outskirts of town. We observe the bears’ movement from a cautious distance, but not without being watched ourselves, in return. -SB

Belle River

Guillaume Fournier, Samuel Matteau and Yannick Nolin, US, 2022, 11 mins

Residents of Pierre-Part, Louisiana brace themselves for the worst, as the Morganza Spillway opens for the third time in history to mitigate flooding across the Mississippi River. Belle River is an insightful, eerie observation of a community knee deep in the climate crisis. -DB

Galb’Echaouf

Listen to the Beat of Our Images

When people refuse to speak, one turns to the land for answers. Filmmaker Abdessamad El Montassir shifts his focus to Western Sahara’s territorially disputed desert landscape, to hear its first-hand account of how a night once pretended to be day. -DB

Audrey Jean-Baptiste and Maxime Jean-Baptiste, France, 2021, 15 mins

Abdessamad El Montassir, Western Sahara/Morocco, 2021, 19 mins

S H O R T S

W I T H

S P E C I A L

(Ecoutez le battement de nos images)

After Algeria wins its independence from France, the French space center relocates to French Guiana. Archival footage exhibits how massive urban development uprooted an entire community from their ancestral lands—all in a shower of rain and stardust. -DB

P R O G R A M

GRAND-MÈRE. GRANDMOTHER. BABUSHKA.

WORLD PREMIERE

Forests

Planktonium

DOXA alum Simon Plouffe returns with this immersive portrait of a flooded forest on unceded Innu territory. As we wade through trees licked by fire and submerged under the waters of a hydroelectric reservoir, Innu voices root us in the (hi)stories of the land, and its people. -DB

Filmmaker Jan van IJken brings the invisible, surreal world of microscopic plankton into glorious view with Planktonium. A visual feast and an auditory treat, this is a tribute to the organisms that produce half of the Earth’s oxygen—a supply threatened by rising global temperatures. -DB

Simon Plouffe, Canada, 2022, 16 mins

F E S T I VA L S T R E A M S M AY 5 -1 5

DOXA22.EVENTIVE.ORG 74

#DOX A 2022

CANADIAN PREMIERE BABUSHKA

BABUSHKA

Jan van IJken, Netherlands, 2021, 15 mins

Drop by Drop

Illusionist

Ten, Mitake

Alexandra Ramires (Xá) and Laura Gonçalves, Portugal, 2017, 10 mins

Alain Cavalier, France, 1990, 13 mins

Naomi Kawase met her mother for the first time as an adult, and decided to make a film about her; silent and still, she appears as a mystery. Ten, Mitake takes the form of a ritual between mother and daughter.

(Água Mole)

The last habitants of a Portuguese village refuse to let themselves sink into oblivion. In a world where the idea of progress appears paramount, their home floats despite the forces that would have it drained of life, drop by drop.

(L’Illusionniste)

Naomi Kawase, Japan, 1995, 10 mins

DOXA favourite Alain Cavalier documents Parisian women working disappearing jobs, creating intimate portraits of a piano tuner, a flower seller, a corset designer and the memorable illusionist herself, Antoinette.

THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

S H O R T S

REEL REMEMBRANCE

RATED

CALLING ALL TEACHERS AND E D U C ATO R S!

In reaching a sense of belonging and defining what “home” means to an artist, many begin with the reconstruction of memory. In this series of films, six directors experiment with the real, the imagined, and all that exists between. For some, this unfolds like a trail of letters or inherited dreams. For others, it is through digital imaging or plated photographs. For others still, forms of memory and remembrance emerge from realms unseen.

DOXA’s Rated Y for Youth is an outreach program for school-aged students that facilitates critical dialogue and media literacy skills through documentary film.

Morgan Rhys Tams, Canada, 2021, 13 mins

When he was 31, local filmmaker Morgan Rhys Tams sent a letter to a complete stranger. “I think you’re my father,” he wrote. Following a trail of handwritten correspondences between BC and PEI, Dear Mr. Dudley is a soft, scenic tribute to the unfolding relationship between a father and son. -DB

Each Rated Y for Youth film is accompanied by a pre-recorded and/or live discussion with filmmakers and community members. To support you in your classroom discussions post-screenings, we’ve compiled a complementary Study Guide with critical questions on cinema, form and content that relate to each Rated Y film.

R AT E D Y F O R YO UTH S T U DY G U I D E

For more details and a Study Guide, please email dharra@doxafestival.ca.

Bha Iad Làn Sgeulachdan

Homesick Lungs

Abyssal

For Willie Francis Fraser, dance is inherited by way of dreams. Shot entirely in Gaelic by his grandson, director Todd Fraser, Bha lad Làn Sgeulachdan is a tender reflection on Gaelic storytelling and dance, the latter of which Willie Francis learns under strange circumstances as a youth in Nova Scotia. -DB

Felix Klee, Germany, 2021, 15 mins

Raudel is a salvage worker, inspecting metal on the rusted hulks of ships off the coast of Cuba. Amongst the detritus he recalls a strange light once seen in a sugar cane field while searching for cows as a child. He and the crew talk of ghosts and dreams. Light and sound are used to moody, sometimes humorous effect. -KR

Todd Fraser, Canada, 2021, 6 mins

(Hoamweh Lung)

Sheila the horse is dying, and the farm she called home has been sold. A young man shares memories and feelings of the farm through verité footage, 3D modeling and screen recordings, constructing a poetic farewell. -MM

Spirit Emulsion

Echolocation

Taíno culture endures through a woman’s bond with her mother’s spirit. Using plant medicines to process Super 8 film, Spirit Emulsion offers a language for Taíno filmmaking connected to land, ancestral relations and the cosmos. -MM

Oscillating between recorded voice messages and stacked photographs, Echolocation is a layered experiment in seeking and reconstructing memory. DOXA alum Nadia Shihab’s film is a poignant exploration of nostalgia in the wake of sadness, and existence in the aftermath of change. -DB

Nadia Shihab, Canada, 2021, 9 mins

DO IT ALL! 76

#DOX A 2022

Alejandro Alonso, France, 2021, 30 mins

CANADIAN PREMIERE

Siku Allooloo, Canada, 2021, 8 mins

.C A

CANADIAN PREMIERE

Dear Mr. Dudley

Now in its 13th edition, this year’s Rated Y films (p. 21) address issues such as race and gender identity, student power and activism, urban renewal and gentrification, as well as social reform, allyship and community building.

D OX A F E S T I VA L

P R O G R A M

Take a tour for more info: TOURS ARE EVERY WEEK DAY AT NOO N!

at CiTR & DISCORDER MAGAZINE Want to know more? ! THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

S H O R T S

P R O G R A M

S H O R T S

P R O G R A M

S H O R T S

COMMUNITY PORTRAITURE

PROFILE SHOTS From a Britney Spears fan and an open-water swimmer to an innovative conceptual artist and an iconic Vancouver shop owner, this motley collection of individual portraits explores converging themes of art and movement, gender and age, mental health and mainstream success.

B Y

ALANIS OBOMSAWIN

This assemblage of short films is a gentle ode to the memory, legacy and flow of three distinct communities. Old melds with new on the busy sidewalks of Toronto’s East Chinatown; space and reclamation are at the heart of Black community-building in Vancouver; and in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, nomadic life during drought requires generational amendments to long standing tradition.

RESISTANCE

WORLD PREMIERE

Open Water

A Hundred Joys

Kalli Anderson, Canada, 2021, 19 mins

Amanda Ann-Min Wong, Canada, 2021, 5 mins

Across a series of interviews, Jim Bonilla discovers a personal resonance with pop star Britney Spears, relating to her fight for self-determination over her mental health care and her desire to reclaim control over her life. -MM

Kalli Anderson’s immersive portrait follows open-water swimmer Marilyn Korzekwa who, at the age of 61, is attempting to swim across the world’s largest freshwater lake. From the eastern end of Lake Superior in Michigan to the shores of Ontario, Open Water is a cinematic submersion into one woman’s great ambition. -DB

On Broadview Avenue (known in Chinese as 百樂匯街—A Hundred Joys Gathering Street) the sidewalks sprawl with fresh produce, streetcars ramble by, and old melds with new. Wong captures the heart of Toronto’s East Chinatown, a place overflowing with memory and community. -SB

Aaron Zeghers, Canada, 2022, 11 mins

WORLD PREMIERE

#DOX A 2022

WORLD PREMIERE

And Ingrid

Beckwoman’s Hippie Emporium

As one of the founders of the art project NETCO, Ingrid Baxter was an early contributor to the legacy of Canadian conceptual art. We see Ingrid hang laundry and trim flowers while telling stories of past artistic projects dating back to the 1960s. Her idealism shines on decades later, as she remains committed to non-commercial, ego-free art. -KR

Legendary Commercial Drive shop owner Bonita Beckman is profiled in Beckwoman’s Hippie Emporium. Now relocated to Hastings Street, Beckwoman’s was the place for Guatemalan sweaters and handcrafted ephemera for decades. A delightful vignette of Bonnie, who endears herself with homespun charm. -JB

Hannah Dubois, Canada, 2022, 10 mins

Bill Reid Remembers

My Friend Jim

Alixandra Buck, Canada, 2022, 6 mins

WORLD PREMIERE

Cypher

Mariam Ingrid Barry and Eva Anandi Brownstein, Canada, 2022, 22 mins

Cypher follows three Black artists creating safe spaces for youth of African descent living in a city that’s often viewed as lacking Black history and culture. Organizers and artists come together to “breathe life [into] legacy,” and build communities that celebrate the fullness of Black life in Vancouver.

Alanis Obomsawin, Canada, 2022, 24 mins

WORLD PREMIERE

“Under Bill’s watchful eye,” Alanis Obomsawin says, “the historical spirit of the past was so present.” In this short film, the legendary Indigenous director offers us a primer to the life and influential work of celebrated Haida artist Bill Reid. As she moves between archival image and commentary from the artist, his recollections shift between autobiography and landscape, making it clear that to understand Bill Reid’s work is to first understand his relationship to the land. -DB

RESISTANCE

Gobi Children’s Song

Honour To Senator Murray Sinclair

Sas Carey, US, 2022, 18 mins

Alanis Obomsawin, Canada, 2021, 29 mins

Against the backdrop of a child’s crooning, Sas Carey’s film is a gentle, intimate portrait of two families in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert. As droughts result in a lack of sufficient pasture for their nomadic life, modern tools are adopted into the community—an inheritance the children appear to embrace with ease. -DB

“Well, to know truth, we must begin by telling it.” Acclaimed Abenaki filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin returns with a tribute to Senator Murray Sinclair, one of the leading Truth and Reconciliation commissioners. Weaving an award acceptance speech by Sinclair with archival footage and oral testimony, Obomsawin’s film grounds the truth and reconciliation process in a history lesson. -DB

THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

TICKETS AND GENERAL FESTIVAL INFORMATION

MEMBERSHIP

HOW TO BUY

ACCESSIBILITY

DOXA presents films that have not been seen by Consumer Protection BC. Under BC law, anyone wishing to see these unclassified films in theatres must be a member of The Documentary Media Society and at least 18 years of age, unless otherwise stated.

• ONSITE AT IN-PERSON SCREENINGS

All theatres are wheelchair accessible with limited spots available. Please email boxoffice@doxafestival. ca or call the DOXA office to make note of space requirements, ask about any additional accessibility features, and for advance ticket purchases. Attendants accompanying people with disabilities will be admitted at no cost.

When you purchase your $2 membership, you are entitled to attend screenings, provided you show your membership card and your ticket. Check out the films we rate especially for youth and families (18 and under) at doxafestival.ca. IN-PERSON TICKETS GENERAL ADMISSION

$15

STUDENTS (with valid ID) SENIORS (65+) LOW INCOME

$13 OPENING GALA SCREENING

$18

FESTIVAL 5 TICKET PACKS

$65 (5 tickets) • Packs are valid for one ticket per in-person screening. NOTE: Ticket Packs are NOT valid for Opening Night and special presentations and do not include the $2 membership.

ABOUT DOXA ONLINE

#DOX A 2022

• ONLINE: https://doxa2022.eventive.org/

Tickets are available for purchase online.

• COMMUNITY BOX OFFICE

#110 – 750 Hamilton St April 30 - May 1 (12pm to 5pm) Buy tickets in person at the DOXA office.

• VENUES

Tickets available for all festival screenings. Cinematheque (May 5-15) Box office opens 30 minutes prior to the first screening of the day at the venue. VIFF Centre (May 5-15) Box office opens 30 minutes prior to the first screening of the day at the venue. SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts (May 7-15) Box office opens 30 minutes prior to the first ticketed event at the venue.

RUSH TICKETS

Rush tickets may be available at the door when all advance tickets have been sold. Any unclaimed seats will be released starting 10 minutes prior to the screening on a first-come, first-serve basis.

REFUND POLICY

All sales are final. No exchanges. DOXA only offers refunds in cases of technical failure or cancellation of screening. FEES

Third-party processing fees are applied to all orders. DOXA OFFICE

Between May 5-15, you will be able to watch films in the DOXA 2022 film program from the comfort of your own home. Films will be available to watch on-demand for the duration of the aforementioned festival dates (unless otherwise stated). Films are geo-blocked to Canada, which means you will need to be in Canada to watch the film. Once unlocked, you have 48 hours to watch. Select screenings will include pre-recorded filmmaker Q+As and extended discussions. Please see the film description for more information. If you would like to know more about the technology required, please see our FAQ page:

https://watch.eventive.org/help If you have specific questions or require support, please email support@doxafestival.ca.

ONLINE PASS

VIEWING DOXA FILMS ONLINE

$75 • Your pass allows you to unlock each program/ screening once. After you push play, you will have 48 hours to complete the screening.

Festival films are accessible through our Eventive page at https://doxa22.eventive.org/welcome.

ONLINE TICKETS ONLINE TICKETS

$15

You will receive an email with instructions on how to access the film after purchasing tickets to a screening.

STUDENTS (with valid ID) SENIORS (65+) LOW INCOME

REFUND POLICY

Your ticket allows you to unlock the film program once. After you push play, you will have 48 hours to complete the screening.

All sales are final. No exchanges. DOXA only offers refunds in cases of technical failure or cancellation of screening. FEES

ONLINE SCREENINGS

Third-party processing fees are applied to all orders.

#110 – 750 Hamilton St, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6B 2R5 | 604.646.3200

• Go to the online festival by visiting

D O X A F E S T I VA L .C A

• Browse through all of the available programs.

facebook.com/DOXAfestival twitter.com/DOXAfestival youtube.com/DOXAfestival instagram.com/DOXAfestival

• Purchase your ticket or pass by selecting Unlock.

# D O X A 2 02 2

You can screen the films directly from your laptop/ desktop or mobile phone. Click “Film guide” to see all the films screening during the festival. Click on any film to read our program notes, and if you’re interested you can buy a ticket by clicking “Select a showing.”

https://doxa22.eventive.org/

• Enter your email address to create an account. • Enter your credit card information to complete the purchase of your ticket. • Virtual tickets are available for purchase now. Reserve your ticket today!

THE ATRE SCHEDULES & STRE A MING INFO AT DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

MORE GREAT FILM FESTIVALS...

20th Vancouver Latin American Film Festival Aug 25 - Sept 4, 2022 | vlaff.org When you like something, you should do it all night long. — Chavela Vargas VLAFF invites you to join us throughout 2022 for our 20th anniversary! We will have some dynamic online programming and our hybrid festival in August. Featuring 70+ films from all over Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean, spoken in over 19 different languages (always with English subtitles), along with artist talks, panel discussions, interactive virtual events, and we hope a REAL party or two. Have a wonderful time at DOXA and see you soon!

Reel 2 Real International Film Festival for Youth April 3 - 13, 2022 | r2rfestival.org Reel 2 Real is a family-friendly celebration of inspiring films championing social justice and global awareness. Both virtual and in-person screenings and events will be accessible to youth, familites, and film lovers of any age. Programs include live-action, animated, and documentary films from around the world, hands-on workshops, a Youth Media Conference, and a showcase of films made by youth. R2R is sure to delight, move and amaze audiences of all ages.

Rendez-vous French Film Festival

Feb/Mar 2023 | rendez-vousvancouver.com Visions Ouest Productions presents the 29th Rendez-vous French Film Festival in February/ March of 2023, a full live-screening program complemented by online offerings. Live events are held in various locations in Greater Vancouver and in BC. Online programs are offered year-round on Eventive.org (channel rendezvousfrenchfilmfestival). Shorts, documentaries and feature films from national and international Francophonie are added each month. The Youth Program, the School Matinées (K-12), provide ideal opportunities to foster a link with the francophone community through the presentation of top-quality films in French.

The Vancouver Queer Film Festival August 11 - 21, 2022 | queerfilmfestival.ca

The VQFF runs this August 11-21, 2022 in our first-ever hybrid format! We’re bringing 2SLGBTQIA+ film, engaging industry workshops, and loving community events to cinemas across Vancouver and to screens throughout BC—come join us! Festival passes will go on sale May 15 with an Early Bird discount available for eager film lovers! Full festival details will become available on our website beginning in June, with tickets on sale mid-July. Follow us on socials using @queerfilmfest and #VQFF2022 for more info! The VQFF serves to illuminate, celebrate, and advance queer lives through film, education, and dialogue.

Vancouver International Film Festival September 29 - October 9, 2022 | viff.org

Founded in 1982, the Greater Vancouver International Film Society is a not-for-profit cultural society and federally registered charitable organization that operates the internationally acclaimed Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) and year-round programming at the VIFF Centre. VIFF produces screenings, talks, conferences and events that act as a catalyst for the community to discover the creativity and craft of storytelling on screen. For its 41st year, VIFF will feature both in-cinema and online screenings from Sept 29 - Oct 9, showcasing the top international, Canadian and BC films along with creators and industry professionals from around the globe. VIFF is offering DOXA fans a $5 discount on any year-round film at the VIFF Centre. Get yours today with the code ‘DOXA22LOVE’. See what’s playing now at viff.org.