In an alt-fact world, truth is a priceless commodity. It’s a spoiler; it’s a resistance fighter; it’s a lifeline. And the 2017 DOXA Documentary Festival is a full-on celebration of all that and more, with an emphasis on fearlessness, truth-tellers, and troublemakers.
DOXA – which runs May 4-14 at venues around Vancouver, including VIFF’s Vancity Theatre, The Cinematheque, and SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts – unveiled its line-up at an April 5 press event at CBC’s Studio 700.
This year’s DOXA includes 60 shorts and feature-length documentaries from two-dozen countries. Although the films run the gamut of scope and tone, they all serve to help us make sense of the world around us, according to Dorothy Woodend, DOXA’s director of programming.
“It was one of those years when you think, ‘How did we get here, and where are we going next?’ And documentary cinema is one of those places where you go to look for answers, to look for context, to look for some kind of rationale and explanation,” Woodend said in her opening remarks. “The funny thing is, interesting times make for interesting films.”
DOXA opens the 2017 festival with Vancouver filmmaker Marie Clements’ stirring The Road Forward. The musical documentary was originally produced as a full-length theatrical show for the 2015 PuSH Festival and is more than the sum of its many parts: a piece of BC First Nations history; a call for revolution and resolve; and a portrait of a people who have retained their power and identity through community and activism. The fest closes with Julian Rosefeldt’s MANIFESTO, in which Cate Blanchett plays 13 different characters reciting the 20th century’s greatest cultural and social manifestos.
Other highlights include Jacob Smith’s Waking the Sleeping Giant, which follows an intersectional coalition of activists, politicians (including Bernie Sanders) and ordinary folk who are fighting for real democracy in the post-Trump USA – and Swagger, Olivier Babinet’s exploration of race, socioeconomic privilege, and teenage culture in the Parisian suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois.
Locally produced features include For Dear Life, wherein Vancouver filmmaker Carmen Pollard tells the story of her cousin, theatre producer James Pollard, as he contends with a terminal cancer diagnosis; and Charles Wilkinson’s new film Vancouver: No Fixed Address, in which the Oil Sands Karaoke director trains his lens on Vancouver’s housing crisis.
Vancouver: No Fixed Address tackles the hot-button issue from a multiplicity of perspectives. Opinions are offered by David Suzuki, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, Seth Klein, Condo King Bob Rennie, Senator Yuen Pau Woo, and plenty of regular Vancouverites. The film will screen on the eve of the provincial election and will be followed by an extended panel discussion. In his remarks, director Wilkinson reflected on the importance of venues like DOXA in the Age of Trump. “The world is awash right now in fake news, and corporate and government propaganda, and our friends in the investigative media, who we rely on to call truth to power, are finding it more and more difficult to do so, so where do you go to get a story that’s agenda-free, that’s spin-free? And I feel like the answer increasingly is places like DOXA,” Wilkinson told the crowd. “We’re all here to try and make a bit of a difference.”
Also on the schedule: industry panels on virtual reality, professional development and networking, and the creative process; the popular Justice Forum and Rated Y for Youth programs; and a Spotlight on Troublemakers (from the press release: “Spotlight on Troublemakers celebrates folk who upend the applecart, wreak havoc and generally disrupt business as usual with a selection of films that resist, rage on and fight for real change”).
Find the full program and tickets at www.doxafestival.ca. Watch this space for filmmaker interviews and Reel People’s top picks for DOXA 2017.
