With more than 100 films and 72 screenings (in 5 different venues), 6 world premieres and the first ever digital interactive film to open the festival, DOXA – Documentary Film Festival is committed to breaking new ground in documentary presentation.
The festival?s Opening and Closing films are engaged with systems of surveillance, and technology. From the life of a grizzly bear documented in more than a million motioncaptured images, to the call for freedom issued by artist/activist Ai Weiwei via his twitter account, lived experience is increasingly mediated through the lens of technology.
Leanne Allison, Jeremy Mendes and the NFB Digital Studios? remarkable new interactive documentary Bear 71 does so much more than trace the life of a grizzly bear in Banff National Park. Christened Bear 71, this mother grizzly was under surveillance for most of her life. Produced by the National Film Board of Canada (Vancouver and Edmonton) and featuring narration from actress Mia Kirshner (The L Word), and script from J.B. MacKinnon (The 100-Mile Diet), and live musical performances by Tim Hecker, Loscil, and cellist Heather McIntosh, Bear 71 questions the very idea of documentary presentation and offers up a poetic investigation of the densely tangled and interconnected systems of wired and wild life. DOXA is exceptionally proud to partner with the NFB to bring Bear 71 home to Vancouver within the stunning setting of Saint Andrew?s-Wesley United Church.
From his infamous one-fingered salute to the Motherland, to the 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds that graced the Tate Modern Turbine Hall in London, Ai Weiwei’s raging, subversive, gleeful work has been at the vanguard of a new wave of Chinese contemporary art. It was his role as an activist, however, that vaulted him into something of a global figurehead for the pro-democracy movement in China. On May 12th, 2008, a 7.9-magnitude earthquake in Sichuan Province killed more than 86,633 people, including over 5000 schoolchildren who were buried alive when their schools collapsed. After visiting Sichuan, Ai set out to document every child killed in the earthquake. This was more than a work of art; it was a fight to the death against censorship and corruption, and an unrelenting call for freedom. Director Alison Klayman?s film Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry is a stunning achievement and DOXA is very proud to offer this remarkable film on the fourth anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake.
DOXA Documentary Film Festival runs May 4–13, 2012 at venues across downtown Vancouver.
Tickets to the Opening film at Saint Andrew?s-Wesley United Church are $20.
Single tickets for all other screenings are $12 each plus a one-time $3 membership.
Festival Passes allow access to all films except Opening Night, and are available for $150.
Tickets are available at People?s Co-op Books, Zulu Records, and online at www.doxafestival.ca.
For further information, call DOXA at 604.646.3200
DOXA is presented by The Documentary Media society, a Vancouver-based non-profit, charitable society.