This week, DOXA Documentary Film Festival, announced its 2019 festival line-up. Western Canada’s largest documentary Film Festival, returns to Vancouver for the 18th annual festival May 2 through May 12, 2019. Committed to cultivating curiosity and critical thought, DOXA will bring 82 films (shorts and features) from across Canada and around the world, to Vancouver screens, representing some of the very best in contemporary documentary cinema.
On May 3, DOXA kicks off with Baljit Sangra’s courageous new film Because We Are Girls, which celebrates the strength of sisterhood in the face of profound pain and trauma. Because We Are Girls tells the story of three sisters from a conservative Indo-Canadian family coming to terms with the sexual abuse they faced by an older relative beginning in their childhood years. Vancouver-based Sangra explores the impact of sexual abuse on a family, turning her empathetic lens on intimate moments as they process and heal.
On May 4, DOXA hosts a special live documentary presentation Postings From Home by Toronto-based filmmaker Kelly O’Brien. O’Brien has taken the collective sharing of one’s personal life — now habitual on social media — and combined it with the 20th-century tradition of a family slideshow to create an emotionally affecting live performance.
The gala screening of nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up on May 8 marks the 10-year anniversary of DOXA’s Justice Forum, a series aimed at creating space for open dialogue. Few events in recent Canadian history have sparked as much media attention, outrage, and horror as the death of Colten Boushie, a young Cree man from the Red Pheasant First Nation who died after being shot in the head on Gerald Stanley’s farm. Indigenous filmmaker and scholar Tasha Hubbard goes beyond the headlines to present a detailed examination of race relations on the prairies.
Closing the festival on May 11, Hepi Mita’s Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen is a tender posthumous tribute to his mother Merata Mita, the first M?ori woman — and one of the first Indigenous women in the world — to write and direct a narrative feature film. DOXA is exceptionally proud to close the festival with this extraordinary film about a visionary artist, activist and mother.
Between these special features and events, DOXA 2019 packs its eleven days with curated collections, industry events, films, talk-backs, panels, parties and much more
DOXA Documentary Film Festival runs May 2–12, 2019, at The Vancouver Playhouse, VIFF’s Vancity Theatre, The Cinematheque, The Post at 750, Museum of Vancouver, SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts. Find the full DOXA line-up and purchase tickets online at doxafestival.ca.