2018 DOXA Documentary Film Festival Program Guide

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CONTENTS The Documentary Media Society . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Welcome from DOXA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Greetings from our Funders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Donor Thank You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Awards and Juries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 DOXA Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Quietude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Press Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Justice Forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Rated Y for Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 ESSAY: Embedded with Extremists . . . . . . . . . . . 20 ESSAY: From Our Eyes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 ESSAY: A Certain Art of the Portrait . . . . . . . . . 27 SPOTLIGHT:

SPOTLIGHT:

French French Four . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Festival Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Map of Venues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Tickets and General Festival Information . . . . . 82 Fall Fundraiser Thank You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

SCREENINGS .TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 A Feeling Greater Than Love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 A Night at the Garden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 A Six Dollar Cup of Coffee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Anote’s Ark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 At Home with the Horses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Baby iPad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Belinda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Butterfly Monument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Cielo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 The Cleaners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Co-Creators: The Rat Queens Story . . . . . . . . 63 The Creator of Universes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Crisanto Street . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Deep Down Tidal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Dernières Nouvelles du Cosmos (Latest News From The Cosmos) . . . . . . . . . 39 Desolation Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Distant Constellation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 The Disquiet of the Worshipers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Dreaming Murakami . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Empire Valley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Les enfants du 209 rue Saint-Maur, Paris Xe (The Neighbours) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Ethiopiques: Revolt of the Soul . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Ex-Shaman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 The Fire-cleanse-throne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Flat Rocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 The Fourth Kingdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Freaks and Geeks: The Documentary . . . . . . . 77 GIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

God Straightens Legs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Golden Dawn Girls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Harvest Moon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Holy Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 The Issue of Mr. O’Dell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Kingsway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Kusama - Infinity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Kyirong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Letter from Masanjia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 The Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Looking at Edward Curtis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Lorello and Brunello . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Lovers of the Night . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Maternité secrète (Secret Nest) . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Metamorphosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Minding the Gap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Mr. Gay Syria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 My Himalayan Vulture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 No Man’s Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Nuuca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Occupation of Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Of Fathers and Sons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Oh Brother Octopus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Optimism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Orione . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Our New President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 The Pain of Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 The Palyul Elementary School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Primas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Punk Voyage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 COVER PHOTO: ALICE WHEELER

Pure Difference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 The Quiet Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution . . . . . . 63 The Rankin File: Legacy of a Radical . . . . . . . . 33 The Road Taken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Roller Dreams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 The Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Si tu as faim, chante. Si tu as mal, ris (If You’re Hungry, Sing. If You Ache, Laugh) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Six Portraits XL: N°1 Jacquotte (w/ Portraits) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Six Portraits XL: N°2 Daniel & N°3 Guillaume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Six Portraits XL: N°4 Philippe & N°5 Bernard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Six Portraits XL: N°6 Léon (w/ Portraits) . . . . 78 The Song of Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Sunshine on the Pilgrimage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 The Suori Family and the Snow Leopard . . . . . 78 The Third Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 The Tourists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Those Who Come, Will Hear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Three Thousand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 To Wake up the Nakota Language . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Tracking Sasquatch (field report #4) . . . . . . . . 72 Wajd: Songs of Separation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Wasteland no. 1: Ardent, Verdant . . . . . . . . . . . 70 White Ravens: A Legacy of Resistance . . . . . . 76 Wind Should Be Heard Not Seen . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Yak Dung . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

THE DOCUMENTARY MEDIA SOCIETY

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 Society exists to educate the public about documentary film as an art form through DOXA’s Motion Pictures Film Series and the DOXA Documentary Film Festival, a curated and juried festival comprised of public screenings, panel discussions, public forums, and educational programs.

DOXA STAFF, BOARD & COMMITTEES BUSINESS AND FINANCE MANAGER

Atenas Contreras

DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMMING

Selina Crammond

DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

Tara Flynn

OPERATIONS AND VOLUNTEER MANAGER

Gina Garenkooper

SENIOR PROGRAMMING ADVISOR

Dorothy Woodend

PROGRAMMING AND INDUSTRY COORDINATOR

Milena Salazar

DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANT

Shaun Harrison

BOX OFFICE

Michael Battley, Marco Fratarcangeli, Mikaela Macht, Rodrick Malton, Daria Valueva, Vanessa Yip VENUE MANAGERS

Jeff Berg, Jenny Dinwoodie, Justin Mah, Amy McDicken, Mahtab Nazari Rae, Amanda Thomson, T Weir FESTIVAL CONSULTANT

Kenji Maeda

MEDIA RELATIONS

Marnie Wilson / The Artsbiz Public Relations GRAPHIC DESIGN

Steve Chow / chowdesign.ca WEB DEVELOPMENT

Left Right Minds / leftrightminds.com BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Jill Anholt, Chris Dafoe, Kevin Eastwood, Andrea Gin (chair), Martin Gerson (treasurer), Roger Holdstock, Debra Pentecost (secretary), Ian G. Waddell Q.C. PROGRAMMING COMMITTEE

Joseph Clark, Selina Crammond, Nike Hatzidimou, Carson Pfahl, Anant Prabhakar, Milena Salazar, Dorothy Woodend SCREENING COMMITTEE

Jurgen Beerwald, Michelle Bjornson, Josie Boyce, Patrick Carroll, Andrew Gaybull, Brent Holmes, David House, Jessica Johnson, Brie Koniczek, Viktor Koren, Christina Larabie, Michelle Martin, Kris Rothstein, Jonathan Stonehouse FUNDRAISING COMMITTEE

COMMUNICATIONS ASSISTANT

Jill Anholt, Tara Flynn, Andrea Gin

HOSPITALITY MANAGER

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

Scarlett Poole

Mélanie Lemaire

VISUAL MEDIA ASSISTANT

Matthew Gooding

AUDIENCE SERVICES AND OUTREACH ASSISTANT

Rodrick Malton

FINANCE COORDINATOR

Nancy Loh

PRINT TRAFFIC COORDINATOR

Aaron McHattie

TECHNICAL COORDINATOR

Al Reid 4

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ADVISORY COMMITTEE

GUEST CURATORS

Yi Cui (From Our Eyes) Geoff Dembicki (Embedded with Extremists) Thierry Garrel (French French) WRITERS

Michelle Bjornson, Josie Boyce, Joseph Clark, Selina Crammond, Yi Cui, Geoff Dembicki, Thierry Garrel, Carlos Hernandez, Mélanie Lemaire, Alie Lynch, Justin Mah, Paloma Pacheco, Carson Pfahl, Scarlett Poole, Anant Prabhakar, Kris Rothstein, Milena Salazar, Dorothy Woodend

WELCOME FROM DOXA

WELCOME FROM THE CHAIR OF THE BOARD

WELCOME FROM THE DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMMING

On behalf of the Documentary Media Society, I am very pleased to welcome you to the 2018 DOXA Documentary Film Festival.

On behalf of our small, but mighty team of programmers and festival staff, I’m thrilled to welcome you to the 17th Annual DOXA Documentary Film Festival!

It has been an exciting year of transition for the organization. Longtime Director of Programming Dorothy Woodend is moving on to new challenges. Dorothy’s creative vision has been a crucial part of making DOXA the festival it is, and we wish her all the best. Although it is hard to think of the festival without Dorothy, we are thrilled to welcome our new Director of Programming, Selina Crammond. We can’t imagine anyone better than Selina to continue DOXA’s mandate to present documentaries that are challenging, provocative, and informative.

We are also pleased to welcome our new Business and Finance Manager Atenas Contreras to the core team, which includes Programming Coordinator Milena Salazar, Operations & Volunteer Manager Gina Garenkooper, and Development Manager Tara Flynn.

Organizing the festival is a huge task involving many talented people. It wouldn’t be possible without the hard work and dedication of our staff, volunteers, and Board members. Thank you.

I would also like to extend a heartfelt thanks to all of our funders, sponsors, and donors. If you enjoy the festival, please consider donating to help DOXA bring innovative and thought-provoking films to Vancouver, and please show our sponsors your appreciation by supporting their businesses.

Lastly, thank you to our audience members. We are always grateful to see so many energized and committed filmgoers at the festival. We hope that you will be thrilled, engaged, and entertained with this year’s program. Enjoy the festival!

Andrea Gin

A lot has changed since the first DOXA festival in 2000, but one thing endures: documentary is an art form, and its ability to interrogate the dominant narratives is more important than ever. To this end, we’re pleased to bring you an expansive lineup of some of the very best documentary films from across Canada and around the world: including two special Spotlights, three curated programs as well as our popular Justice Forum and Rated Y for Youth series.

Starting in our own backyard, our Opening Gala Screening of Teresa Alfeld’s The Rankin File: Legacy of a Radical confronts Vancouver civic politics through rich archival footage and interviews with local activists and politicians. Our Spotlight Press Play highlights some of the most exciting music docs the past year, while moments of mindfulness, patience and empathy are explored in Quietude. The fourth edition of French French, curated by the one and only Thierry Garrel, takes a detailed look at the art of the cinematic portrait, with a special selection devoted to the legendary cineaste Alain Cavalier. Writer Geoff Dembicki examines filmmaking in reactionary situations in Embedded with Extremists, while filmmaker and educator Yi Cui celebrates a program of rarely-seen films made by Tibetan herdsman, monks and students in From Our Eyes.

Our “Festival Island” wouldn’t be possible without the support of our funders, sponsors, donors and Board of Directors. And it certainly wouldn’t be possible without you, our audience! Thank you for sharing your thirst for knowledge and endless curiosity with us. See you at the cinema!

Selina Crammond DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMMING

BOARD CHAIR

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GREETINGS FROM OUR FUNDERS

A MESSAGE FROM THE MINISTER OF CANADIAN HERITAGE

A MESSAGE FROM THE CANADA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS

Welcome to the DOXA Documentary Film Festival.

The art of documentary filmmaking gives us direct access to the diversity of human experience and exposes us to a wide range of issues. For more than 17 years, DOXA has enriched the lives of visiting and Vancouver area audiences with presentations of some of the best documentaries from across Canada and around the world.

As Minister of Canadian Heritage, I am pleased to support the DOXA Documentary Film Festival. I would like to thank the Documentary Media Society for its ongoing dedication to sharing the artistry, insight and inspiration of documentary films with local film lovers.

Enjoy the films!

The Honourable Mélanie Joly MINISTER OF CANADIAN HERITAGE

A MESSAGE FROM THE MAYOR OF VANCOUVER

Arts and culture have a powerful capacity to bring together people and communities, to reconcile and to bridge distances.

When we put the arts at the heart of our communities, the aspirations of young people, and our daily lives, we invite new perspectives, raise issues that matter, initiate conversations and re-imagine a shared future. That’s why the Canada Council for the Arts has committed to increasing its support for the arts by encouraging ever more diverse audiences to engage with the arts, and by expanding the reach of Canadian art locally, nationally, and internationally.

The Canada Council for the Arts is proud to support DOXA Documentary Film Festival in the vital work it is doing to shape a new future through the arts.

Simon Brault, O.C., O.Q. DIRECTOR AND CEO

A MESSAGE FROM THE BC ARTS COUNCIL

On behalf of the citizens of Vancouver and my colleagues on Vancouver City Council, I want to extend my warmest greetings to all those attending the 17th Annual DOXA Documentary Film Festival.

Documentary filmmaking is constantly evolving, exploring new ways to challenge, inform, and entertain by seeking truth, sharing untold stories, or sparking thought-provoking ideas.

Documentary film plays an essential role is bringing new issues, concerns and human experiences to public attention. This year’s festival, like those that have gone before, brings a remarkable new series of films, both local and international. Vancouver’s film and television production industry is one of the strongest in North America, and programs like DOXA offer an important showcase for documentary productions.

DOXA Documentary Film Festival provides an important forum for this essential art form to connect audiences with voices and visions from home and around the world.

Best wishes for the best festival ever!

Gregor Robertson MAYOR, CITY OF VANCOUVER

Through public screenings, panel discussions and educational programming, DOXA has garnered national acclaim over the past 18 years. With funding provided by the Province of British Columbia, the BC Arts Council is pleased to support this outstanding festival that adds to both Vancouver’s vibrant arts scene and the region’s creative economy.

Best wishes to all the filmmakers whose works will be presented over this 11-day festival and thanks to the organizers and volunteers who help produce such an important platform for this innovative genre.

Susan Jackson CHAIR, BC ARTS COUNCIL 6

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Three different types of financing.

Three different funds.

All from one source.

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 18 and Wednesday, August 15, 2018.

Application deadlines for the Rogers Cable Network Fund are Wednesday, June 20 and Wednesday, October 3, 2018.

www.rogersgroupoffunds.com

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

FUNDERS

The Employment Program of British Columbia is funded by the Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia.

MAJOR PARTNERS

PREMIERE MEDIA PARTNERS

CULTURAL PARTNERS AND CONSULATES

INDUSTRY PROGRAM | MAJOR SUPPORTERS

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INDUSTRY PROGRAM SUPPORTERS

HOSPITALITY PARTNERS

PRINT PARTNER

MEDIA PARTNERS

TRANSPORTATION PARTNER

TECHNICAL PARTNERS

DISTRIBUTION PARTNER

SCREENING PARTNERS

AUDIENCE PARTNERS

HEU

HOSPITAL EMPLOYEES’ UNION

SCHOOL FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

ACFC WEST, LOCAL 2020 UNIFOR

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THANK YOU TO OUR DONORS We would like to take a moment to recognize the extra support we receive from individual donors. Thank you for your generous gifts to DOXA, and for believing in the power of documentary film. We couldn’t do our work without you!

PRODUCER ($1,000+)

SUPPORTER ($20-$149)

Joe Clark & Andrea Gin Sonia Fraser Roger Holdstock Laura & Rex Moore

Simone Artaud Dominique Basi Amy Bohigian Michelle Bjornson James Boothroyd CLA Consulting Peter Cameron Elise Chenier Marian Collins Melanie Covey Sandra Cullen Wes Crammond Blair Cresswell Elise Drake Janet Fairbanks Cynthia Flood Layne Hellrung Sharon Hopkins Annie Huston Carol Jerde Dan Klinksgaard Fiona T. Lam Melody Mason Neil Naiman Trish Neufeld Herma Neyndorff Yadi Qu Bruce Pentecost Jude Platzer Mary Schendlinger Mo Simpson In memory of Haida Paul Jim Sinclair Veronica Singer Michele Smolkin Ann-Marie Spicer Leslie Thompson Analee Weinberger Harold Welch Carmen Wiseman ...and all of our anonymous donors

ADVOCATE ($500-$999)

Janice Chutter Ann Coombs Barbara Kaminsky James A. Roberts Provincial Employees Community Services MOTIVATOR ($150-$499)

Kris Anderson & Sheena Campbell Jill Anholt Evelyn Armstrong Kathleen Barilla Colin Browne Patrick Carroll Chris Dafoe Zoë Druick Kathy Evans In memory of Sumit Guha Martin Gerson Lynda Griffiths Selwyn Jacob Neil Jones-Rodway John LeBlanc Stacy LeBlanc Stephen Lock Kenji Maeda & Alan Jernigan Moshe Mastai Karie McKinley & Lauren Weisler S. Ti Muntarbhorn Carol Newell Wendy Oberlander Martin Roland Teri Snelgrove

For more information about our individual giving program, contact Tara Flynn at tara@doxafestival.ca or 604.646.3200 ext 105 DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

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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.

DOXA FEATURE DOCUMENTARY AWARD JURORS

Tom Charity Tom is the programmer at VIFF’s year-round Vancity Theatre and a freelance film critic and writer. Tom was film editor at Time Out London magazine prior to moving to Vancouver in 2004. He is a regular contributor to Sight & Sound and Cinema Scope magazines.

Steffanie Ling Steffanie is a writer, film and art critic and a curator at VIVO Media Arts Centre. Her art and film writing has appeared in Canadian Art, Hong Kong Review of Books, San Francisco Art Quarterly, Flash Art, and Brooklyn Rail, among others. She is currently an editor of The Mainlander, and Charcuterie, a journal of experimental art writing and polemics.

Anoushka Ratnarajah Anoushka is a queer, mixed race femme, and an interdisciplinary and transnational artist and arts organizer. Among many projects, Anoushka is the co-Artistic Director at Out On Screen, which produces the Vancouver Queer Film Festival, celebrating its 30th year this August 9-19th.

COLIN LOW AWARD FOR CANADIAN DOCUMENTARY JURORS

Ana Carrizales Ana is a performer, writer, producer and media creator. Ana has written, produced and directed several short films and documentaries, and is currently directing and producing a new feature documentary set in the Amazonian jungle. She sits on the boards of DOC BC and the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival.

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Kelly Maxwell Kelly co-founded of Line 21 Media Services in 1994, and has co-owned and co-operated it ever since, providing captioning, subtitling, transcription and as-produced script services to Vancouver and beyond. Kelly is a proud member of Women in Film and Television BC, the Vancouver Post Alliance, the MPPIA, and Field & Post.

Susi Porter-Bopp Susi is a filmmaker based in Vancouver. Her 2015 documentary We Call Them Intruders: Canadian Mining in Africa (co-directed with Tamara Herman) won the Nigel Moore Award for Youth Programming at DOXA.

DOXA SHORT DOCUMENTARY AWARD JURORS

Michelle Mason Michelle is an award-winning filmmaker and instructor at the Capilano University Documentary Program. She is currently at work on the feature documentary A Song For Carlos, about her grandfather’s experiences as a propaganda poster painter in the Spanish Civil War.

Tony Massil Tony is a documentary filmmaker and editor whose work has screened at festivals such as TIFF, SXSW, True/False, VIFF and Hot Docs. A graduate of the SFU Film Program, he was also a participant in Talent Labs at TIFF and RIDM. He is currently in post-production on a new documentary set in the towns of Stewart, BC and Hyder, Alaska.

Sonia Medel Sonia is a part of the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival’s coordinating and programming teams. She is also an Instructor in Langara College’s Interdisciplinary Studies department where she develops curriculum on the (de)colonial power of the arts and policy for social transformation; and is completing her PhD in Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia as a Public Scholar.

NIGEL MOORE AWARD FOR YOUTH PROGRAMMING

DOXA is extremely proud to announce the sixth edition of the Nigel Moore Award for Youth Programming. 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. For younger audiences, documentary has particular relevance. The world in which they’re 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.

Anna Hetherington Anna is a 21-year-old business student at the Beedie School of Business, concentrating in accounting. Anna is known as a creative and outgoing individual who loves to volunteer in the community. She and Nigel grew up together from the time they were born. Anna’s most vivid memories of their time together include art classes, body painting, and losing to Nigel at every game they played.

Jacob Saltzberg Jacob has been a juror for DOXA for the past five years.

He is a musician from Vancouver who has been involved with the Vancouver music scene for the past two years under the name Traffik. He is a UBC student in his third year of studies.

Maya Biderman Maya is a fourth year Bachelor of Science student at Dalhousie University where she is on the varsity rowing team.

She is an advocate for social justice in health care and works with the Dalhousie Indigenous Health Interest Group. She is also an arts enthusiast, having worked in musical theatre and entertainment. She loves to sing.

Teagan Dobson Teagan has lived in Vancouver for 16 years. She is currently a student at BCIT studying communications. She has a passion for writing, the outdoors, mental health, and social issues.

Steven Hawkins Steven, a student at the University of Victoria, has a strong connection with the outdoors as a surfer, skier, and rock climber. He is also an avid musician who has done work in theatre, short film, and live performance. Through his passion for storytelling and global issues, he has developed a love for documentary film.

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THE ROAD TAKEN

DOXA INDUSTRY M AY 5–7, 2018 DOXA’s expanded Industry program provides a meeting point for local and international filmmakers and industry professionals. Our sessions are designed to offer insight into the documentary industry while fostering vital conversations among creators. Join us in exploring the art and craft of documentary filmmaking through this series of panels, masterclasses and receptions!

THE ISSUE OF MR O’DELL

S AT U R DAY M AY 5

THE ANNEX

3:30PM–5:00PM

Basics of Visual Research and Clearances Understanding the advent of new delivery platforms, the world of licensing and clearances, and what constitutes “public domain” or “fair dealing” in Canada can help reduce your production costs and avoid last minute surprises. This session led

by Elspeth Domville and Nancy Marcotte from the Visual Researchers’ Society of Canada (VRSC/ARAC) will cover essential tips for working with a visual researcher and keeping your archive costs under control.

6:00PM–11:00PM

I N D U S T R Y T I C K E T S & PA S S E S

Industry Panels (each): $15 per session DOC35 Screening & Reception: $18 Industry Pass: $60 (provides access to all Industry programming) Discounted prices are available for members of DOC BC, CMPA-BC and Capilano University. Please ask your organization for the promo code.

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DOC35 Screening and Reception Join us in kicking off DOXA’s industry program while celebrating 35 years of the Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC)! A screening of The Road Taken (1996) by Selwyn Jacob, and The Issue of Mr. O’Dell (2018) by Rami Katz will be followed by a reception to celebrate DOC’s role as the collective voice of independent documentary creators in Canada. Read more about the films on page 51.

S AT U R DAY M AY 5

THE NEIGHBOURS

CIELO

S U N DAY M AY 6

WORLD ART CENTRE, SFU’S GOLDCORP CENTRE FOR THE ARTS

10:00AM–11:30AM

3:45PM–5:15PM

Documentary & Journalism

Masterclass: Documentary and the Presence of Memory

Are you a documentary filmmaker, a journalist, or both? How do you balance crafting an emotionally moving story with rigorous investigative work? This session will address the blurred lines between these methodologies, reflecting on the role of documentary journalism in a rapidly transforming media landscape.

Ruth Zylberman, director of The Neighbours will explore the theme of memory in non-fiction filmmaking.

11:45AM–1:00PM

We encourage industry participants to dive into our regularly scheduled programming following the day’s activities, including screenings of Ruth Zylberman’s The Neighbours (page 61) and Alison McAlpine’s Cielo (page 61). Please note film tickets are not included with Industry Pass.

Opportunities for Short Form Content Whether it is for the digital space or TV, short films have unprecedented funding and distribution opportunities. Our panel of decision-makers will discuss their distribution strategies and financing opportunities for short form content in BC.

M O N DAY M AY 7

THE POST AT 750

10:00AM 2:00PM–3:30PM

Storytelling Through Sound Sound is an essential yet often overlooked element in documentary. This panel will explore how a successful collaboration between a director, an editor, a sound designer and a composer can enhance the narrative, atmosphere, and emotional depth of your film.

Meet and Greet and Bonus Industry Session Grab a morning coffee at our Meet and Greet with fellow industry participants and visiting filmmakers! Following that we will wrap up Industry programming with a bonus session. Check our website for more details to be announced.

DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

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French philosopher Simone Weil once wrote, “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” With this ethos in mind, our Spotlight on Quietude is a collection of films that pay close and generous attention. Layered observations, rich cinematography and careful editing define these films, encouraging deep listening, reflection, and empathy. Wonderfully idiosyncratic, individual and even sometimes a bit odd, they are a reminder that stillness contains multitudes.

GOD STRAIGHTENS LEGS

Films featured in our Quietude Spotlight include:

Distant Constellation (p. 55)

Shevaun Mizrahi, US/Turkey/Netherlands, 2017

SAT MAY 5 | 9:30 PM | VANCIT Y SUN MAY 13 | 9:15 PM | VANCIT Y

A humorous and existential look inside a Turkish retirement community which is home to pranksters, historians, artists and would-be Casanovas.

Lovers of the Night (p. 59) (w/ Holy Water)

Anna Frances Ewert, Germany/Ireland, 2018

SUN MAY 6 | 4:15 PM | CINEMATHEQUE SUN MAY 13 | 2:30 PM | CINEMATHEQUE

This delicate study of seven monks living in a remote Irish monastery achieves a rare level of intimacy.

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SPOTLIGHT

The Pain of Others (p. 65)

God Straightens Legs (p. 70)

SUN MAY 6 | 8:45 PM | CINEMATHEQUE TUE MAY 8 | 5:00 PM | VANCIT Y

TUE MAY 8 | 8:45 PM | VANCIT Y THU MAY 10 | 2:30 PM | VANCIT Y

Using found footage and YouTube testimonials, director Penny Lane examines Morgellons, a mysterious illness that causes a range of bizarre symptoms.

After being diagnosed with breast cancer, a devout Christian woman decides to forgo conventional medical treatment.

Harvest Moon (p. 67)

The Quiet Zone (p. 70)

MON MAY 7 | 4:30 PM | VANCIT Y TUE MAY 8 | 6:30 PM | CINEMATHEQUE

Elisa Gonzalez and Daniel Froidevaux, Canada, 2017

Penny Lane, US, 2018

Zaheed Mawani, Canada/Kyrgyzstan, 2018

Each September, Bolot Tagaev and his family practice a centuries old tradition, harvesting walnuts in one of the oldest walnut forests in Kyrgyzstan.

Joële Walinga, Canada, 2018

(preceded by Wasteland no. 1: Ardent, Verdant) TUE MAY 8 | 8:45 PM | CINEMATHEQUE WED MAY 9 | 4:30 PM | VANCIT Y

A community of electrically sensitive people seek refuge from wireless technology in a remote region of West Virginia called the National Radio Quiet Zone.

QUEERCORE: HOW TO PUNK A REVOLUTION - PHOTO: ALICE WHEELER

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Arguably one of the most powerful art forms, music has a unique way of elevating the senses and imagination. This group of high-energy films take us around the world, exploring different cultures and social movements, and celebrating the many ways that music brings people together to challenge the status quo.

Films that explore the revolutionary power of music include:

Ethiopiques: Revolt of the Soul (p. 39) Maciek Bochniak, Poland/Germany, 2017

FRI MAY 4 | 8:30 PM | VANCIT Y SUN MAY 13 | 4:15 PM | SFU

The story of forgotten Ethiopian musicians who became a source of inspiration for contemporary free jazz and pop music.

Desolation Center (p. 53) Stuart Swezey, US, 2018

SAT MAY 5 | 8:45 PM | CINEMATHEQUE SAT MAY 12 | 9:15 PM | CINEMATHEQUE

Before Burning Man, Coachella, or Lollapalooza, there was Desolation Center, a DIY desert festival that featured the likes of Minutemen, Sonic Youth, Meat Puppets, and a young Perry Farrell.

Wajd: Songs of Separation (p. 69)

Punk Voyage (p. 75)

TUE MAY 8 | 8:30 PM | SFU SAT MAY 12 | 5:00 PM | CINEMATHEQUE

Sweden, 2017

Amar Chebib, Canada, 2018

In the wake of unimaginable destruction and loss, three Syrian refugees seek solace in music while they await uncertain futures in Turkey and Holland.

Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution (p. 63)

Jukka Kärkkäinen and J-P Passi, Finland/Denmark/Norway/

THU MAY 10 | 8:30 PM | SFU SUN MAY 13 | 12:00 PM | SFU

The four members of the Finnish punk band Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät (PKN) have autism or Down syndrome, but that hasn’t stopped them from representing Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Yony Leyser, Germany, 2017

SUN MAY 6 | 7:45 PM | VANCIT Y

Homocore and queercore started in the 1980s as a farcical fantasy created by artists and activists such as Toronto’s Bruce LaBruce and G. B. Jones.

SPOTLIGHT

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For nine 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 screening is paired with a panel of speakers including filmmakers, experts in the field, academics, and community activists. The 2018 Justice Forum films foster crucial conversations around a broad range of social issues, offering necessary perspectives for change and progress.

THOSE WHO COME, WILL HEAR

Letter from Masanjia (p. 47)

The Third Option (p. 67)

The Cleaners (p. 71)

SAT MAY 5 | 2:00 PM | VANCIT Y

MON MAY 7 | 6:00 PM | SFU

WED MAY 9 | 6:00 PM | SFU

Vancouver filmmaker Leon Lee follows an unusual chain of events that exposes injustices in a forced labour camp in China.

A powerful cinematic essay that confronts audiences with the ethical dilemmas that surround life and death decisions made possible by new technologies in fetal screenings and pregnancy anomaly scans.

Filmed like a documentary thriller in an anonymous facility in Manila, The Cleaners uncovers the world of online content moderators for major platforms like Facebook and Google.

The Rankin File: Legacy of a Radical

Those Who Come, Will Hear (p. 79)

Leon Lee, Canada, 2018

No Man’s Land (p. 49) (w/ A Night at the Garden)

Thomas Fürhapter, Austria, 2017

Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck, Germany/Brazil, 2018

(p. 33)

(w/ To Wake Up the Nakota Language)

SAT MAY 5 | 4:30 PM | VANCIT Y

Teresa Alfeld, Canada, 2018

Simon Plouffe, Canada, 2017

In 2016, filmmaker David Byars infiltrated a group of right-wing armed protesters who occupied the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, in a stand-off symbolic of America’s deeply polarized political climate.

TUE MAY 8 | 6:00 PM | SFU

SAT MAY 12 | 4:30 PM | VANCIT Y

As this year’s municipal election approaches, DOXA is proud to offer a special town hall screening of Teresa Alfeld’s portrait of former Vancouver City Councillor and socialist icon Harry Rankin.

A celebration of the cultural significance and musicality of various Indigenous languages across Canada.

David Byars, US, 2017

Anote’s Ark (p. 57)

A Six Dollar Cup of Coffee (p. 80) Andres Ibañez and Alejandro Diaz, Mexico, 2017

Matthieu Rytz, Canada, 2018

SUN MAY 13 | 2:00 PM | SFU

SUN MAY 6 | 3:15 PM | VANCIT Y

Tracing the route of your morning coffee from an Indigenous co-op in Mexico, A Six Dollar Cup of Coffee focuses on a community’s efforts to establish a sustainable business model in the global coffee market.

In the quickly disappearing island nation of Kiribati, one man speaks out about the fate of his country and the rest of the world.

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SPECIAL PROGRA M

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Now in its tenth year, Rated Y for Youth was founded upon the idea of facilitating media literacy through thought-provoking documentaries. 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 screening is followed by a post-screening discussion with filmmakers and community members.

Primas (p. 53)

Laura Bari, Canada/Argentina, 2017

MON MAY 7 | 12:00 PM | VANCIT Y

Laura Bari crafts a poetic and moving portrait of Rocio and Aldana, two young survivors of sexual violence who find strength in sharing their experiences.

Minding the Gap (p. 68)

Bing Liu, US, 2018

TUE MAY 8 | 12:00 PM | VANCIT Y

Bing Liu focuses his camera on his tight-knit group of skateboarding friends in this deeply personal study of young adulthood, offering insight on the construction of masculinity, and its relationship to cycles of violence.

Rethinking Representation: Shorts Program (p. 71) Various, Canada, 2018

WED MAY 9 | 12:00 PM | VANCIT Y

This selection of short films showcases necessary perspectives on Indigenous representation, highlighting various communities’ efforts to reclaim their own narratives.

Mr. Gay Syria (p. 68)

Ayse Toprak, France/Germany/Turkey, 2017

THU MAY 10 | 12:00 PM | VANCIT Y

The story of Husein and his community of gay Syrian refugees in Istanbul offers a look at the refugee crisis through an LGBTQ+ lens.

Metamorphosis (p. 74)

Nova Ami and Velcrow Ripper, Canada, 2018

FRI MAY 11 | 12:00 PM | VANCIT Y

The stories of scientists, artists, and activists fighting the global environmental crisis are woven through with stunning imagery to deliver a powerful message of transformation. ____________________________________________________ SCHOOL BOOKINGS For information about the Rated Y program or to book your school group tickets, please contact Milena Salazar at milena@doxafestival.ca or 604.646.3200 ext.102.

SPECIAL PROGRA M

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EMBEDDED WITH EXTREMISTS

BY GEOFF DEMBICKI

The question hovering above three films about violent extremism in this year’s DOXA Festival is both timeless and urgently topical: Why do people believe things that are obviously not true? Each film provides intimate access to a dangerous fantasy. Of Fathers and Sons follows an Al-Nusra Front fighter in Syria who sees brutal violence as spiritual salvation. No Man’s Land embeds itself with armed white ranchers in Oregon who think they are a persecuted minority. And Golden Dawn Girls tracks the rise of a neo-Nazi political party in Greece that insists it has zero links to Hitler. Together the films hint at something transcendent—that even the most delusional beliefs can have real-life benefits for the people who hold them.

This includes basic survival. Syrian filmmaker Talal Derki spent two years with a jihadist family in northwest Syria by claiming to be a sympathetic photojournalist.

The world that Al-Nusra fighter Abu Osama and his eight adoring sons inhabit in Of Fathers and Sons is a nightmare. “The country is completely destroyed,” Abu

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Osama says to Derki as they drive past blocks of bombed buildings. Meanwhile, a voice on the radio declares: “Start the beheading and prepare to die, bastards.”

Abu Osama likens what’s happening in Syria to an apocalyptic standoff between good and evil. “The Muslims set off to fight the Antichrist,” he says. “And then the Mahdi appears and kills the Antichrist. He replaces all the tyranny in the world with justice.”

Abu Osama sees no contradiction between this vision of peace and the violence he inflicts on other people. “He fell off his motorbike, Allah is great!” Abu Osama yells after firing from his snipers rifle. And his children casually reference another act of violence when explaining how they killed a small bird: “We put his head down and cut it off, like how you did it, father, to that man.” Derki provides little commentary during such moments. He fully immerses viewers in the logic of Abu Osama’s world. “It’s God’s will, my son, don’t be sad,” Abu Osama groans after

GOLDEN DAWN GIRLS

coming home injured from battle. It’s a necessary denial of reality, passed down from one generation to the next. His family, viewers plainly see, is living in the midst of absolute chaos.

The armed ranchers filmmaker David Byars embedded himself with also believe they’re on a holy crusade. “This is Armageddon now, [the government] might kill us,” says one of the militiamen involved in a 2016 occupation of Oregon’s Malheur Wildlife Reserve. In No Man’s Land, Byars combines intimate footage of the standoff with illuminating interviews. A sheriff compares the militia to the “domestic threat” he saw as an army medic in Afghanistan and Somalia, while journalist Hal Herring suggests the occupation’s leaders are fixated on persecution that may only exist in their heads. “I could not understand given my experience in, say, Mexico or Central America, how these people could feel they were being tyrannized,” Herring says.

The protest is ostensibly about federal restrictions on ranching. But it turns into something larger. The plumbers and fast-food workers who show up with machine guns at the refuge want an explanation for setbacks in their lives. And ranchers like Levoy Finnigan are eager to provide it: the U.S. government has betrayed them. “Candidates always promise to stand up for freedom,” he claims. “What have they done? Nothing.” Byars shows how media help legitimize this fantasy.

The militia stages “scripted press events to keep them in the news [and] to help try to control the agenda,” says journalist Les Kaitz. Ultimately it works. None of the occupiers receive serious criminal sentences. “We win,” exclaims one of their supporters.

A depressingly similar story unfolds in director Håvard Bustnes’ Golden Dawn Girls. The film begins in the aftermath of Greece’s 2012 election, when a neo-Nazi party named Golden Dawn won more than 400,000 votes. “One day, total

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outsiders, the next, 18 members of parliament,” Bustnes explains. He films three women associated with Golden Dawn (the founder’s daughter, an MP’s mother, and another MP’s wife) as they campaign for the 2015 election. Bustnes’ Scandinavian background helps his crew gain access to party headquarters. “It won’t air on Greek TV?” one man asks. “Of course not,” replies Jenny, one of the film’s subjects, “They are Norwegians.”

Bustnes is not a quiet observer. He attempts to get Jenny and the other women to admit something obvious: that a party whose members claim racial superiority and use violence against minorities is operating in a Nazi tradition. “I have nothing to say about that,” states the founder’s 26-year-old daughter Ourania. Bustnes plays video of Golden Dawn members terrorizing immigrants and assaulting women. At one point he confronts Ourania with a picture of her dad in front of a swastika. “I don’t think now, in his sixties, that he’s a Nazi,” she shrugs. Golden Dawn has given her political power. It’s given her an identity. She loses those things by admitting what she’s doing is evil. No amount of fact-checking by Bustnes will change that.

EMBEDDED WITH EXTREMISTS Curated by Geoff Dembicki From an armed right-wing militia in Oregon, to leaders of a neo-Nazi political party in Greece or a radical Islamist family in Syria, this curated program highlights the work of documentary filmmakers who risk everything to uncover the truth about extremist movements.

The films in EMBEDDED WITH EXTREMISTS include:

No Man’s Land (p. 49) (w/ A Night at the Garden) David Byars, US, 2017

SAT MAY 5 | 4:30 PM | VANCIT Y THU MAY 10 | 4:15 PM | VANCIT Y

That’s the scary reality of our times. We live in an era of climate change denial, conspiracy theories, dog-whistle racism, fake news, filter bubbles, and alternative facts. “Truth” has never felt so up for debate. Vox writer David Roberts describes what’s happening as an “epistemic free-for-all” between competing political and social tribes. “Information,” he argues in an important 2017 essay, “is evaluated based not on conformity to common standards of evidence or correspondence to a common understanding of the world, but on whether it supports the tribe’s values and goals and is vouchsafed by tribal leaders.” It’s hard to say where it all leads.

In 2016, filmmaker David Byars infiltrated a group of armed protesters who occupied the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in a stand-off symbolic of America’s deeply polarized political climate.

But the three films provide clues to how we got here. They show that fractured societies breed violent fantasies. Delusional ideas are legitimized by an uncritical media. And not even the most fastidious fact-checking can dislodge lies crucial to someone’s identity. We’ve been here before. In 1939, 20,000 people gathered for a Nazi rally in New York. Filmmaker Marshall Curry assembled forgotten footage of the event to create A Night at The Garden, a short film showing along with No Man’s Land. “In the end, America pulled away from the cliff,” Curry recently told Field of Vision. Our society may be once more charging towards it. “We can see it already, leaders who harness the energy of our dissatisfactions,” says Herring in No Man’s Land. “And if you get enough people who’ve lost faith in reality… we all go over.”

Of Fathers and Sons (p. 59)

THE SATURDAY MAY 5 SCREENING IS PART OF THE JUSTICE FORUM SERIES AND WILL INCLUDE A POSTFILM DISCUSSION. READ MORE ON PAGE 18.

Talal Derki, Germany/Syria/Lebanon, 2017

SUN MAY 6 | 5:30 PM | VANCIT Y FRI MAY 11 | 4:45 PM | VANCIT Y

Director Talal Derki spent more than two years embedded with a radical Islamist family in northern Syria, where militant Al-Qaeda affiliated groups have a stronghold.

Golden Dawn Girls (p. 69)

Geoff Dembicki is a freelance journalist and author based in Vancouver. He is a regular contributor to VICE and The Tyee. His work also appears in outlets like the New York Times, Foreign Policy and the Guardian. His first book, Are We Screwed? How a New Generation is Fighting to Survive Climate Change, won the 2017 Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award.

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Håvard Bustnes, Norway, 2017

TUE MAY 8 | 6:45 PM | VANCIT Y

Håvard Bustnes arrived in Greece to uncover why the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party has become a legitimate political option for a significant percentage of Greek voters.

IN THESE AUTO-ETHNOGRAPHIC FILMS, MADE BY TIBETANS ABOUT TIBETANS, LIFE UNFOLDS AS IT IS LIVED—

S I M P L E , N AT U R A L AND

SINCERE

FROM OUR EYES C U R AT E D B Y Y I C U I E S S AY B Y Y I C U I A N D D A R A C U L H A N E

TOURISTS

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WE USED TO DOCUMENT WITH

When discussing his documentary film Yak Dung, Tibetan herdsman Dhazey says:

WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS.

ollections mark the beginning of what has turned out to be the first documentary training program in China initiated by members of an Indigenous community.

BUT I DON’T TRUST WORDS— With the temperature falling as low as minus 40ºC on The collaboration between the residents in Nyanpo Yuzee the pasture, yak dung brings warmth to our family. As a SO MUCH OF THE WRITTEN and From Our Eyes exemplifies movements created by Innon-polluting fuel, the yak dung burns at the fire-cleanse HISTORY ABOUT TIBET IS digenous peoples in recent decades. These movements are ceremony, and lights the lamp in the darkness. It is the committed to subverting twentieth century ethnographimaterial for building our homes, the natural fertilizer for cal conventions, where filmmakers from other parts of the the grassland, a cleanser to rid of dirt, and a medicine to world position themselves as detached observers of Indigheal maladies. Little children can make it into toys; artists enous “others,” rendering them into passive objects. For can turn it into sculptures. The dung tells about the health decades, many films have been produced about Tibet by of the pasture, and indicates any illness in the yaks. As a TASHI SANGE non-Tibetan filmmakers, but far fewer films have actually people on the plateau, we cannot live without it. However, been made by Tibetan people themselves. The image of Tibetan people have typa life without yak dung is coming closer to us. It will be a time when we are lost. ically has been romanticized, distorted, and even disgraced.

Catastrophes will come into our lives and the nature will become our enemy. At that time, our compassion, kindness, and the Dharma will all leave us.

In the auto-ethnographic films produced by From Our Eyes, made by Tibetans about Tibetans, life unfolds as it is lived—simple, natural, and sincere. We see the Dhazey made his film with the help of From Our Eyes, an organization that supquotidian details of ordinary existence in the production of milk, butter, and tea, ports Indigenous audiovisual creation. This collaboration began in 2010, when as well as the mystery of wild animals in the high mountains. We witness the strugTashi Sange, a highly-respected monk, and naturalist, and a pivotal advocate gles brought by tourism and garbage disposal, while we also see gradual changes for environmental conservation and cultural revitalization, asked From Our Eyes enacted in religious rituals. Behind the simple stories is a living culture that celProgram Director Lu Bin to teach a documentary workshop for a group of local ebrates coexistence between humans and nature, as people move through their Tibetans in Nyanpo Yuzee, a remote region on the Tibetan plateau. Lu Bin was landscape following the seasons and herds, contending with forces both ancient pleasantly surprised and accepted Tashi Sange’s invitation. He still remembers his and new. first encounter with the workshop participants: “It was as if I came to a battlefield, where the soldiers tried to be as armed as they could. From Hi8 to a camera no The screen on which these films are projected is not simply a mirror, but also a bigger than a razor blade—they brought all they could find to make video images. transformative element that intervenes directly in community life. For the herdsThe equipment was simple, while everybody was so eager to learn.” Lu Bin’s rec- men and monks, the intended audience of their films is not national or interna-

NOT TELLING THE TRUTH.

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VULTURE

YAK DUNG

tional, but local. Their films are made to be shown to the other community members and to provoke thoughts and actions in response to changes around them.

When Tashi Sange was asked why he wanted to introduce documentary filmmaking to Nyanpo Yuzee, he said, “Our environment is changing so fast—sometimes too fast to keep those important things. The least we can do is to document the changes, and let people in the future see how it is now. We used to document with words and photographs. But I don’t trust words—so much of the written history about Tibet is not telling the truth.”

SNOW LEOPARD

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In The Disquiet of the Worshipers, monk Paltse directs his camera to a sacred lake where excessive offering of treasure has led to water pollution. Paltse shows his community that their prayers are causing damage. This film sparked a local movement that combined the efforts of living buddhas, monks, and herdsmen to clean up the pollution and help protect the lake. Paltse’s devotion to filmmaking is inseparable from his devotion to the land and his community.

The camera is not merely observing or recording—it is also participating in and extending the experience. It is this intrinsic link between film and life that engenders a unique aesthetic. Even without studying Brecht, Tibetan filmmakers often break the fourth wall and directly address the audience. In Sunshine on the Pilgrimage or My Himalayan Vulture, for example, the continuous space linking that which is in front of the camera with the filmmaker behind the camera embraces the warm and compassionate relationship between the filmmakers and their subjects. Without learning Brakhage or Deren, the filmmakers are already practicing a cine-dance that reverses the polarity between the eye and the camera. In Dhazey’s film when a yak turns and looks into the lens, we clearly feel the filmmaker’s tender gaze at his animal. Here, in the filmmaker’s hands, is a living camera that transcends the mechanics of a machine, and operates as a physical

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and emotional extension of the body holding it. As spectators, we are invited into the lived world of the filmmaker and we look at his world through his third organic eye.

Young filmmaker Lhape Lokar recalls his experience filming an old Mani stone carver: It took me two years to finish the shoot. For the entire first year, I repeatedly visited the old man with my camera, but I didn’t film anything. I wanted to understand his life before turning on the camera. The project started with me wanting to make a film about Mani stone carving. As I spent time with the old man who lives by himself, though, I realized the question that my film had to ask is how one faces the loneliness that comes when life approaches its end. When I completed the shoot and was about to leave, the old man said to me, ‘Young man, you are my friend. Now your film is finished, but I hope you still come here like in the past two years, and we drink tea and chat.’

Lhape Lokar said that in that moment, he couldn’t hold back his tears. It became clear to him that the bond established between the pair was more precious than the film itself.

Watching these films and listening to the stories behind them, I cannot help but wonder where the boundary is between film and life. Time and again throughout film history, this boundary has been tested and challenged—from Medvedkin’s ambitious cine-train project across the vast expanses of the Soviet Union, to the American avant-garde’s courageous cine-dance intended to unite the body and the camera. Perhaps these humble films made on the Tibetan plateau can open a new dialogue with radicals and pioneers, dissolving the boundary between film and life through grassroots cinema. Anthropologist Guo Jing, a member of From Our Eyes, asks, “Where is the meeting point between the moving image and the Tibetan tradition? Can we see filmmaking as an extension of the buddhist practice through the camera eye? Can filming, debate, and screening be incorporated into a new ritual?”

These are fascinating questions, and I look forward to not only discovering the answers, but also the journey that leads to them.

Yi Cui was born and raised in northwest China and currently lives between her homeland and Canada. Before starting to make films, she worked in conservation ecology. She received her MFA in Film and Video from York University in Toronto. Her body of work consists of experimental, documentary, narrative and essay films. The constant search for the poetics in film medium is a recurring theme in her work. Yi is currently working on a film project in Tibet and teaching filmmaking at The Jigme Gyaltsen Tibetan Welfare College.

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FROM OUR EYES Curated by Yi Cui For decades, most films about Tibet have been produced by filmmakers from other parts of the world.

Far fewer films have actually been made by the Tibetan people themselves. From Our Eyes is a collection of films made by Tibetan herdsman and youth that subvert twentieth century ethnographic conventions, and offer an intimate look into the daily life of their communities.

The films in FROM OUR EYES include: PROGRAM ONE:

The Light of Home and Play (p. 76)

Various Directors, Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, China, 2017-2018

FRI MAY 11 | 6:00 PM | CINEMATHEQUE

In The Palyul Elementary School, a teacher named Palden Nyandrak offers us a close look his pupil’s daily life — from the classroom to the playground. Yak Dung explores how manure provides everything from heat and light to children’s toys and Buddhist figurines.

PROGRAM TWO:

The Disquieting Whisper (p. 78)

Various Directors, Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, China, 2018

SAT MAY 12 | 12:00 PM | CINEMATHEQUE

Whether it’s examining local wildlife or observing the interaction between locals and tourists, this group of short films reflect on the shifting realities of the environment and economy.

PROGRAM THREE:

The Song and Sunshine (p. 79)

Various Directors, Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, China, 2018

SAT MAY 12 | 2:30 PM | CINEMATHEQUE

From New Year rituals and teenage pilgrimages to the life of ants and campus culture at the Gyaltsen Tibetan College, this collection of short films offers a poetic look at the everyday life of contemporary Tibetans.

LE CINÉASTE ALAIN CAVALIER – PHOTO: CÉDRIC MAL

CHAQUE CHOSE QUI BOUGE DANS CHAQUE ÊTRE CHAQUE BOUGIE GHÉRASIM LUCA

EACH THING THAT MOVES IN EACH BEING EACH CANDLE

A CERTAIN ART OF THE PORTRAIT

BY THIERRY GARREL

SPECIAL PROGRA M

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THE MOST ENTERTAINING SURFACE ON EARTH IS THAT OF THE HUMAN FACE.

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GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG

For centuries, the tradition of court painters reserved portraiture for the powerful aristocracy, and later the rich bourgeois. Still, from Rembrandt’s Kitchen Maid to Vermeer’s Lacemaker, and Van Gogh’s Postman, portraits of simple people provide one of the richest chapters in art history. Cinema, through documentary, has continued this tradition of depicting real human beings, their uniqueness, their idiosyncrasies, and their secret tragedies.

To some extent, all the films presented in FRENCH FRENCH this year are portraits. Time plays a peculiar and important role, adding a third dimension: time passing over a character and revealing their evolution; the ravages of time; restricted shooting time which allows only for the truest snapshot; and, finally time travel, which brings back memories, sometimes fond, and sometimes painful.

What is most at stake in auteur-driven documentaries is the unwritten contract, the powerful pact between the filmmaker and the person who agrees to become a character. And, by that same token, between the filmmaker and the viewer, allowing complex and risky situations to be shot and shared, going beyond the surface, without voyeurism, to something far deeper.

In Belinda, Marie Dumora filmed the same character at ages 9, 16, and 24 in a daring close-up vérité style. Belinda is a member of Yeniche people—travellers ostracized in France for centuries as gypsies. But despite struggling with a difficult life of foster homes, separations and prison, Belinda maintains her tremendous energy for survival.

Michèle Smolkin accompanies her 102-year-old uncle Sam in her deeply affectionate and charming film If You’re Hungry, Sing. If You Ache, Laugh (Si tu as faim, chante. Si tu as mal, ris). Rich archives, poetic animation, and gentle humour interlace as Sam recounts a century of political, social, and personal turmoil.

In her film Secret Nest (Maternité secrète) Sophie Bredier, born in Korea and adopted by French parents, invites women to remember their time in a Normandy chateau for unwed mothers, where they would give birth and often abandon their babies. Through honest accounts and a capella songs, mothers, daughters, and nurses remember the deeply moving tragedies that shaped them.

Ruth Zylberman spent three years reconstructing and portraying the entire population of a Parisian apartment building in a working class district before WWII. The Neighbours (Les Enfants du 209 rue Saint Maur, Paris Xe) confronts family memories and slowly reveals the tragic destiny that befell many of the building’s Jewish residents during the Vichy collaboration with the Nazis. While the faces of the disappeared persons are screened on the building’s facade, the survivors and their children gather in the courtyard to bear witness.

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ESSAY

Thirty years ago, Alain Cavalier declared “Enough with ‘films de maquillage’ (make-up movies)!” and began a completely different career. With this legendary series of Portraits, each no longer than 13 minutes, Cavalier, a renowned cineaste of the Nouvelle Vague and awarded a Palme d’Or in Cannes, shifted to documentary and a style of poetic diary.* Cavalier’s films of elderly women working in small disappearing trades were shot in one day and focused on the faces, hands, gestures, and the specific tools used by his subjects. Peaceful, sublimely elegant, and intriguing, this collection brought the film portrait to a new level of artistic excellence.

FRENCH FRENCH will include six of these original portraits, alongside Six Portraits XL, which saw Cavalier anointed Maître du Réel (Master of the Real) at Visions du Réel Film Festival last year. This new series of Portraits combines the filmic material Cavalier took of his friends, some famous, like writer-journalist Philippe Labro preparing his filmed interviews, but mostly little-known people— an old cobbler who is the secret soul of his neighbourhood, an ambitious baker, a compulsive lottery player, a woman in mourning, and an actor/playwright. Filmed over the course of many years, each individual is captured partaking of the same rituals that have marked their lives. Through meticulous and delicate observation, Cavalier allows us to share the intimacy of six of his friends, as if he was peeking backstage to capture the hidden secret of real life.

“For us, the most entertaining surface on earth is that of the human face,” wrote Lichtenberg 250 years ago. In a world dominated by the market, documentaries are painting a family portrait of our society. They mirror our common soul, and offer us a redemptive portrait of our true ourselves.

In celebrating real life, documentary filmmakers pursue a passionate and persistent interest toward the other. Their films refresh our spirit, reassure us about our own struggle with personal difficulties and suffering, and fuel our desire to invent new forces to overcome them. One is never happier as when caught by a strong feeling of living only in this world, or as Dominique Dubosc wrote in Le documentariste, “There is but one world and I belong to it.”

Thierry Garrel, a French Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres and Prix des Auteurs de la SCAM 2015, joined the Research Department of French Television (ORTF) at the age of twenty and went on to Head of the Documentary and Junior Authors Division at the Institut National de l’Audiovisuel (INA). He founded and directed from 1987 to 2008 Documentary Film Unit of ARTE France, European cultural channel. Since 2009, he works as a consultant and tutors international seminars and workshops focusing on young documentary creators and professionals * Vancouver spectators discovered his Paradise (Le Paradis) at DOXA 2015

L’ORANGÈRE

LA FILEUSE

LA DAME-LAVABO

LA MATELASSIÈRE

LA FLEURISTE

LA TREMPEUSE

SPECIAL PROGRA M

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SIX PORTRAITS XL: N°2 DANIEL

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Curated by Thierry Garrel DOXA is very proud to offer our fourth edition of FRENCH FRENCH with five new extraordinary films, and a special program dedicated to the work of Alain Cavalier.

Cavalier, awarded Maître du Réel (Master of the Real) at Visions du Réel Film Festival last year, and a renowned member of the Nouvelle Vague, authored a new style of film portrait more than thirty years ago. These beautifully observed capsules (13-minutes each) are encounters of the rarest kind—intimate, elegant and filled with a profound sense of humility.

FRENCH FRENCH will include six of these original portraits, paired with Cavalier’s latest Six Portraits XL, created from material he filmed of six different friends over the course of many years.

Although all of the work presented in FRENCH FRENCH is informed by the idea of portraiture, each individual film deals very differently with this approach. Whether it is a vérité profile, like Marie Dumora’s Belinda, or the illustrated memories of 102-year-old man in Michèle Smolkin’s If You’re Hungry, Sing. If You Ache, Laugh (Si tu as faim, chante.

Si tu as mal, ris)—the intent is to fully illuminate the reality of human experience in all of its complexity, pain and joy.

The films in FRENCH FRENCH Four include:

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SPECIAL PROGRA M

SIX PORTRAITS XL: N°5 BERNARD

ALAIN CAVALIER

Six Portraits XL: N°1 Jacquotte (p. 37)

Six Portraits XL: N°4 Philippe & N°5 Bernard (p. 55)

FRI MAY 4 | 6:00 PM | CINEMATHEQUE

SUN MAY 6 | 12:00 PM | CINEMATHEQUE

In an untouched bourgeois house, invaded by swallows and dust, Jacquotte wanders through her childhood. Toys, paintings, stuffed animals, clothes and old umbrellas—how can she ever throw away all these memories?

Philippe Labro, a famous journalist, novelist, and filmmaker, meticulously sketches out the details for each of his four interviews that day.

Alain Cavalier, France, 2017, 50 mins

PRECEDED BY

Portraits

Alain Cavalier, France, 1987, 3 x 13 mins

La Matelassière • La Trempeuse • La Fileuse

Six Portraits XL: N°2 Daniel & N°3 Guillaume (p. 41)

Alain Cavalier, France, 2017, 2 x 52 mins

SAT MAY 5 | 12:00 PM | CINEMATHEQUE

In his small apartment, an old bachelor named Daniel talks with an uncomplaining humour about the difficulties in his life, including his erratic romances with street girls, and his addiction to playing the lottery.

Gently bickering with his wife and his daughter, as he prepares for the grand opening of his new bakery and cake shop, Guillaume’s 15-hour workdays are packed with preparations.

Alain Cavalier, France, 2017, 2 x 52 mins

Backstage or in the dressing room, when stage fright rises up, and after the show when family life restarts, Cavalier films his friend Bernard on the path to success with more than 500 performances of Motobécane.

Six Portraits XL: Portrait N°6 Leon (p. 78)

Alain Cavalier, France, 2017, 52 mins

FRI MAY 11 | 8:30 PM | CINEMATHEQUE

In his tiny shop, Léon strips, cuts, glues, nails, polishes, and sometimes grabs a quick nap. More than a cobbler, he is the secret soul of the neighbourhood.

PRECEDED BY

Portraits

Alain Cavalier, France, 1987, 3 x 13 mins

L’Orangère • La Dame-lavabo • La Fleuriste

BELINDA

LES ENFANTS DU 209 RUE SAINT-MAUR, PARIS XE

NEW FRENCH

Dernières nouvelles du cosmos (Latest News From The Cosmos) (p. 39) Julie Bertuccelli, France, 2016, 84 mins

FRI MAY 4 | 8:30 PM | CINEMATHEQUE THU MAY 10 | 6:00 PM | CINEMATHEQUE

At almost age thirty, Hélène Nicolas can’t speak or hold a pen, and she never learned to read or write.

Yet, she is a singular artist intimately connected with the mysteries of the universe.

Belinda (p. 47)

Marie Dumora, France, 2017, 107 mins

SAT MAY 5 | 2:15 PM | CINEMATHEQUE THU MAY 10 | 8:00PM | CINEMATHEQUE

A warts-and-all look at the marginalization of the Yeniche people in France through the experience of one resilient young woman shot over many years.

Maternité secrète (Secret Nest)

Les Enfants du 209 rue Saint-Maur, Paris Xe (The Neighbours) (p. 61)

Ruth Zylberman, France, 2017, 103 mins

SUN MAY 6 | 6:00 PM | CINEMATHEQUE MON MAY 7 | 8:45 PM | VANCIT Y

Through detailed drawings, architectural maquettes and photos, Ruth Zylberman reconstructs the fate of the Jewish residents who called the apartment building on 209 rue Saint-Maur home.

Si tu as faim, chante. Si tu as mal, ris (If You’re Hungry, Sing. If You Ache, Laugh) (p. 57) Michèle Smolkin, France, 2017, 58 mins

SUN MAY 6 | 2:15 PM | CINEMATHEQUE

Sam Rechtman entered the world one hundred and four years ago on July 7th, 1914 in the Polish village of Chelm. He recounts a century of experience through the timeless art of storytelling.

(p. 49) Sophie Bredier, France. 2017, 82 mins

SAT MAY 5 | 4:30 PM | CINEMATHEQUE MON MAY 7 | 6:30 PM | VANCIT Y

Former residents remember their time spent at Château Bénouville in Normandy, a home for unwed mothers, who came to wait out their pregnancies, and give birth in secret.

SPECIAL PROGRA M

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STEPHEN QUINN

THURSDAY MAY 3

OPENING GALA SCREENING

7:00 PM PLAYHOUSE

The Rankin File: Legacy of a Radical Teresa Alfeld, Canada, 2018, 90 mins

In Vancouver, politics are anything but boring. The year is 1986. Expo 86 has just ended and affordability is at the top of everyone’s mind. Harry Rankin, World War II veteran, criminal lawyer, city councillor, and outspoken socialist decides to run for mayor against a young upstart named Gordon Campbell.

More than twenty years later, director Teresa Alfeld unearthed reels of 16mm footage of Harry’s campaign trail to bring us The Rankin File: Legacy of a Radical.

Combining rich archival footage (originally captured by lawyer-turned-documentary-filmmaker Peter Smilsky) with present-day interviews, Alfeld crafts a wildly entertaining primer on Vancouver civic politics. A cast of local politicians and activists including—former BC premier and Mayor of Vancouver Mike Harcourt; former city councillor and MP Libby Davies; Downtown Eastside activist Jean Swanson; Union of BC Indian Chiefs president Grand Chief Stewart Phillip and his wife, Joan Phillip, Penticton Indian Band councillor; and Gordon Campbell— describe Harry Rankin’s character and the many controversies that he attracted.

Whether he was a chameleon, a hypocrite, or a wanton Machiavellian manipulator, Rankin was also an ally of the powerless, taking on cases and causes that no one else would touch, including the 1972 inquest into the death of Fred Quilt, an Indigenous man who died in police custody in Tsilhqot’in territory.

But what do the results of an election that took place more than thirty years ago, have to do with the current state of Vancouver? Quite a bit, it turns out! The issues that Rankin fought for—affordable housing, equality, and accessibility— have become lightning rods in the city. What elevates Alfeld’s film from a simple biography is the road not taken aspect. Rankin’s mayoral fight came at a pivotal moment for Vancouver, when critical decisions were being undertaken. The values that determined the course of the city’s development hung in the balance, and we all know where things ended up.

With another civic election around the corner (October 20th, 2018), we are excited to open the 2018 DOXA Festival with a film that asks: Who will pick up where Rankin left off? -SC ADDITIONAL SCREENING

TUESDAY MAY 8 | 6:00PM | SFU THE MAY 8 SCREENING IS PART OF THE JUSTICE FORUM SERIES AND WILL INCLUDE A POSTFILM DISCUSSION. READ MORE ON PAGE 18.

SCREENING PARTNERS

Ian G. Waddell Q.C.

OPENING GAL A SCREENING

33

SATURDAY MAY 12

CLOSING GALA SCREENING

7:00 PM SFU

Kusama - Infinity Heather Lenz, US, 2018, 80 mins

At age 88, Yayoi Kusama is one of the world’s most successful living artists and one of the top-selling female artists in history. For those unfamiliar with her prolific body of work, her gargantuan polka dot paintings, phallic soft sculptures, and nude performance anti-war protests cleverly straddle pop art and the avant-garde. Her selfie-crazed Infinity Mirrors exhibitions have seen a whopping 5 million museum visitors since 2013. However, Kusama’s journey to the top of the art world wasn’t an easy climb.

Born in Matsumoto, Japan to a conservative family, Kusama was discouraged from pursuing art by everyone around her, especially her mother. After seeing Georgia O’Keeffe’s Black Iris, Kusama wrote a letter to the older American artist beseeching her help. This singular act of desperation developed into a correspondence with O’Keeffe, who encouraged Kusama to move to New York City and pursue a career as an artist.

The uncomfortable truths of Kusama’s life and work are depressingly similar to the experience of many women artists. In addition to the garden variety sexism of the art world and the indifference of largely male collectors and curators, Kusama also battled racism, poverty, and her own mental health issues. There was also the

curious timing of other artists such as Claes Oldenburg, Lucas Samaras, and Andy Warhol creating similar work, only months after Kusuma’s initial shows.

Heather Lenz’s warm and expansive portrait is constructed from a wealth of archival photos, letters and film, alongside interviews with high profile curators and art collectors as well as Kusama herself. Not recognized in Japan until the 1980s (school groups in Matsumoto now go to see her work), Kusama - Infinity is a tale of redemption and survival. To this day, Kusama continues to make work in her studio, just two blocks from the psychiatric hospital where she lives. In her own words: “I hope that the power of art can make the world more peaceful.”

With this gentle philosophy in mind, we couldn’t be happier to conclude DOXA 2018 with Kusama - Infinity as our Closing Gala screening. -SC ADDITIONAL SCREENING

CULTURAL PARTNER

SATURDAY MAY 12 | 9:00PM | VANCITY THE SFU SCREENING WILL BE PRECEDED BY: 2018 DOXA AWARDS PRESENTATION AND FESTIVAL CLOSING REMARKS.

CLOSING GAL A SCREENING

35

A LW AY S T H E S M A R T C H O I C E

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THE HOTEL OF CHOICE FOR 2018 DOXA FILM FESTIVAL A PROUD HOSPITALITY PARTNER Sandman Suites Vancouver - Davie Street is an all-suite hotel situated in Vancouver’s 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 | Moxie’s Grill & Bar with room service | pHresh Spa & Wellness Club | Outdoor pool | Meeting & banquet facilities | Fitness facilities

sandmanhotels.com | 1 800 SANDMAN (726 3626)

FRIDAY MAY 4

6:00 PM CINEMATHEQUE

FRIDAY MAY 4 SUNDAY MAY 13

6:45 PM VANCITY 6:15 PM CINEMATHEQUE

NO 1. JACQUOTTE

Six Portraits XL

Dreaming Murakami

No 1. Jacquotte

The Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami is read by millions of fans around the world who know his prose only through the art of translators. In Denmark, that translator is Mette Holm, a serene and hypnotic figure who sees the rules governing reality as fluid—perhaps both a cause and effect of her affinity and involvement with Murakami. The challenge of translating from one language to another is more than simple accuracy, it’s a call to immerse oneself in another worldview and to convey that experience to a reader. Director Nitesh Anjaan uses Holm’s mediation between worlds to investigate personal creativity, the nuanced and exacting art of translation, and the power of ideas and words. The result is essential viewing for fans of the novelist and a captivating portrait for anyone who believes in the necessity of art. -KR

Alain Cavalier, France, 2017, 50 mins

“For fifteen years, I’ve been filming Jacqueline Pouliquen each time when, heading off on holiday to La Baule, she passes by Chalonnes to open the house of her beloved parents who are no longer there. Cupboards, wardrobes, drawers, everything is revisited, she remembers. But it has to be sold, floor by floor. It all ends up stacked in the attic” - ALAIN CAVALIER In the untouched bourgeois house invaded by swallows and dust, Jacquotte wanders through her childhood. Toys, paintings, stuffed animals, clothes and old umbrellas—how could she ever throw away all this memorabilia? Year after year, she takes inventory and saves her past until it is “saved for eternity.” -TG PRECEDED BY

Nitesh Anjaan, Denmark, 2017, 58 mins

PRECEDED BY

Portraits

GIVE

Alain Cavalier, France, 1987, 3 x 13 mins

David de Rozas, US, 2018, 16 mins

La Matelassière: Aline’s hands have been deformed by the large needle she uses to make wool mattresses. In addition to her life’s work, she has raised her five kids by herself.

Reverend Roland Gordon creates a monumental collage comprised of thousands of photographic portraits, newspapers, and magazines cutouts, providing an alternative visual history of the black community in San Francisco. -SC

La Trempeuse: One by one, Mauricette cuts, dyes, paints, embosses, creases, rolls, and pieces together the various petals of artificial roses.

La Fileuse: From madder roots, Anna prepares the famous red dye bath for the wool she spins by hand, as part of a project to reproduce 11th Century Bayeux tapestry.

THIS FILM IS PART OF THE FRENCH FRENCH PROGRAM. MORE ON PAGE 30.

DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

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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

FRIDAY MAY 4 THURSDAY MAY 10

8:30 PM CINEMATHEQUE 6:00 PM CINEMATHEQUE

FRIDAY MAY 4 SUNDAY MAY 13

8:30 PM VANCITY 4:15 PM SFU

Dernières Nouvelles du Cosmos

Ethiopiques: Revolt of the Soul

Julie Bertuccelli, France, 2016, 84 mins

In the late 1960s, in the capital of Ethiopia, record store owner-turned-music producer Amha Eshete noticed something strange—there was no Ethiopian music being produced and sold in his country. Herein began the birth of recorded Ethiopian music, imbued with the flavours of funk, soul and jazz. While technically illegal at the time, the music was celebrated by the people and tolerated by the country’s then-monarch. But in 1975, new governmental powers hit the pause button on this new musical expression, forcing Eshete into exile and imprisoning many artists. Like many great stories, however, things did not end there! A 1970s recording from Mahmoud Ahmed fell into the hands of Francis Falceto, a French music journalist, who was absolutely smitten by the sound. Falceto embarked on a two-decade long journey that took him to Ethiopia and the United States in an attempt to revive Ethiopian music and share it with the world.

(Latest News from the Cosmos)

At almost age 30, Hélène Nicolas can’t speak or hold a pen, and she never learned to read or write. It wasn’t until she was 20 years old that her mother Véronique discovered Hélène was able to communicate by arranging laminated letters on a board. Taking the pen name Babouillec Sp, this severely autistic young woman began producing poetry and novels, and is now collaborating with a theatre director to adapt her work for the stage. Her writing is marked by a visionary sense of space and time that is both symbolic and metaphoric, as well as wicked sense of humour. As she stresses, she is part of “A miscalibrated batch that fits nowhere.”

Director Julie Bertuccelli followed this remarkable young woman for two years, with the intent to induce curiosity and understanding. Her film captures Hélène’s spiritual connection, in constant communication with the cosmos at large, offering an almost telepathic sense of other realities, other worlds. Latest News from the Cosmos is more than a portrait of a singular artist, it is also a path towards a genuine encounter, and a demonstration that autism needn’t mean confinement or disability. Rather, it has the potential to offer a new and profound connection with the mysteries of the universe. -TG

Maciek Bochniak, Poland/Germany, 2017, 70 mins

Maciek Bochniak’s film is a lively compilation of interviews with Eshete, Falceto, and many of the Ethiopian musicians—including Girma Bèyènè, pianist and arranger for the Walias Band—whose voices evoked a passion for this unique musical culture. -SP

THIS FILM IS PART OF THE FRENCH FRENCH PROGRAM. MORE ON PAGE 30.

DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

39

WE THINK FRANCE AND CANADA HAVE A LOT TO SHARE IN THE ARTS AND CULTURE...

Want to know more?

Francecanadaculture.org

We're Le� Right Minds and we help you navigate the online world.

Learn to love your technology again.

www.leftrightminds.com

SATURDAY MAY 5

12:00 PM CINEMATHEQUE

SATURDAY MAY 5 SUNDAY MAY 13

12:00 PM VANCITY 4:15 PM CINEMATHEQUE

NO. 3 GUILLAUME

Six Portraits XL

The Creator of Universes

No. 2 Daniel

Sixteen-year-old Juan has a passion for creating amateur telenovelas. His partner in crime is his 97-year-old grandmother Rosa, who is fully involved in the creative process and often plays the role of the villain. Juan has Asperger syndrome and his grandmother is dealing with her own health issues, but in spite of this the pair are dedicated to their shared creations, plotting out scenes, undertaking character development, and writing (often wildly obscene) dialogue. The result, captured on Juan’s camcorder, is a luridly melodramatic world full of gonzo action and bloody vengeance.

Alain Cavalier, France, 2017, 104 mins

“Daniel Isoppo writes short texts that he plays in the theatre. He also acts in films.

In his youth, he was a filmmaker. Everyday, in cafés, he plays Rapido grids and also enthusiastically indulges in the many scratch cards offered by the French Lottery.”

- ALAIN CAVALIER

In his small apartment, an old bachelor talks frankly with an uncomplaining humour about the difficulties in his life, his erratic romances with street girls, and his hope to repeat the 20,000 Euros he once won. “Unhappy in love, happy in games,” he says. As the years go by, he hides nothing from Cavalier’s camera including his invasive OCD rituals of cleanliness and security. Sometimes he feels he is on the verge of losing it, but somehow he copes. -TG

No. 3 Guillaume “Guillaume Delcourt, 34-years-old, supported by his wife Jasmine, is such a talented baker that there are queues outside his premises. But the bakery and the cake shop are narrow. Guillaume is looking for a bigger location to blossom, to turn his name into a reference. He’s a perfectionist, he visits and visits, but nothing suits him.”

Mercedes Dominioni, Uruguay, 2017, 78 mins

Juan’s older sister Mercedes Dominioni affectionately captures the filmmaking duo in a warm, intimate, and deeply humourous behind-the-scenes story. In this interplay between the real and the imagined, what unfolds is a tender portrait of the unique bond between grandmother and grandson. The two play a crucial role in each other’s lives. But as Rosa’s health deteriorates, the reality of the situation becomes increasingly apparent. The Creator of Universes is a testament to how we connect through stories, and a gentle reminder of what the act of creation can offer when the ordinary and wildly imaginative combine into genuine poetry. -MS

–ALAIN CAVALIER

Gently bickering with his wife and his daughter Clara, as he prepares for the grand opening of his new bakery and cake shop, Guillaume’s 15-hour workdays are packed with preparations. The dough must be brought to the right stage of acidity, and then there is the baking of croissants, pastries, and macaroons. Still, he is moved by “the magnificence of a successful ganache.” -TG THIS FILM IS PART OF THE FRENCH FRENCH PROGRAM. MORE ON PAGE 30.

DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

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PLAY IT F RWARD

PROUD PARTNER OF THE 2018 DOXA DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL

TELEFILM.CA

D O X A 2 0 1 8

F

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S

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THURSDAY MAY 3 7:00 PM | THE PLAYHOUSE

THE RANKIN FILE: LEGACY OF A RADICAL - 90 MINS (p 33)

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6:00PM | THE ANNEX

7:45 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE

THE ROAD TAKEN - 52 MINS WITH THE ISSUE OF MR. O’DELL - 35 MINS

7:00 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE PRIMAS - 95 MINS (p 53) 8:45 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE DESOLATION CENTER - 92 MINS (p 53) 9:30 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE DISTANT CONSTELLATION - 82 MINS (p 55)

84 MINS (p 39)

8:30 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE

ETHIOPIQUES: REVOLT OF THE SOUL -

70 MINS (p 39)

SUNDAY MAY 6 12:00 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

SATURDAY MAY 5

SIX PORTRAITS XL: PORTRAIT N°4 PHILIPPE & PORTRAIT N°5 BERNARD -

104 MINS (p 55) 12:00 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

SIX PORTRAITS XL: PORTRAIT N°2 DANIEL & PORTRAIT N°3 GUILLAUME -

104 MINS (p 41)

12:00 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE

THE CREATOR OF UNIVERSES - 78 MIN (p 41)

2:00 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE (p 47)

LETTER FROM MASANJIA - 77 MINS

2:15 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE BELINDA - 107 MINS (p 47) 4:30 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

MATERNITÉ SECRÈTE (SECRET NEST)

- 82 MINS (p 49)

E

103 MINS (p 61)

A NIGHT AT THE GARDEN - 7 MINS

6:45 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE OUR NEW PRESIDENT - 78 MINS (p 51)

DERNIÈRES NOUVELLES DU COSMOS (LATEST NEWS FROM THE COSMOS) -

L

(p 49)

WITH

6:00 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

8:30 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

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6:00 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

(p 51)

6:45 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE DREAMING MURAKAMI - 58 MINS WITH GIVE - 16 MINS (p 37)

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4:30 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE NO MAN’S LAND - 80 MINS

FRIDAY MAY 4 SIX PORTRAITS XL: PORTRAIT N°1 JACQUOTTE - 50 MINS WITH PORTRAITS - 39 MINS (p 37)

E

2:15 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

SI TU AS FAIM, CHANTE. SI TU AS MAL, RIS (IF YOU’RE HUNGRY, SING. IF YOU ACHE, LAUGH) - 60 MINS (p 57)

LES ENFANTS DU 209 RUE SAINTMAUR, PARIS XE (THE NEIGHBOURS) -

QUEERCORE: HOW TO PUNK A REVOLUTION - 82 MINS (p 63)

8:30 PM | SFU-GCA

CO-CREATORS: THE RAT QUEENS STORY - 87 MINS (p 63)

8:45 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE THE PAIN OF OTHERS - 71 MINS (p 65)

MONDAY MAY 7 12:00 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE PRIMAS - 95 MINS (p 53) 2:45 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE ORIONE - 67 MINS (p 65) 4:30 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE HARVEST MOON - 69 MINS (p 67) 6:00 PM | SFU-GCA

THE THIRD OPTION - 75 MINS (p 67)

6:00 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE MINDING THE GAP - 93 MINS (p 68)

3:15 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE ANOTE’S ARK - 77 MINS (p 57) 4:15 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

LOVERS OF THE NIGHT - 57 MINS HOLY WATER - 14 MINS (p 59)

WITH

5:30 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE OF FATHERS AND SONS - 98 MINS (p 59) 6:00 PM | SFU-GCA CIELO - 78 MINS (p 61)

DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

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MONDAY MAY 7 (CONT) 6:30 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE

MATERNITÉ SECRÈTE (SECRET NEST)

- 82 MINS (p 49)

8:15 PM | SFU-GCA

MR. GAY SYRIA - 87 MINS (p 68)

8:30 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE CIELO - 78 MINS (p 61)

WEDNESDAY MAY 9 12:00 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE

RETHINKING REPRESENTATION: SHORTS PROGRAM - 66 MINS (p 71)

2:45 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE THE THIRD OPTION - 75 MINS (p 67) 4:30 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE THE QUIET ZONE - 45 MINS

WASTELAND NO. 1: ARDENT, VERDANT - 4 MINS (p 70)

WITH

8:45 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE

LES ENFANTS DU 209 RUE SAINTMAUR, PARIS XE (THE NEIGHBOURS)

- 103 MINS (p 61)

6:00 PM | SFU-GCA

THE CLEANERS - 88 MINS (p 71)

6:00 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

LORELLO AND BRUNELLO - 86 MINS (p 72)

TUESDAY MAY 8 12:00 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE MINDING THE GAP - 93 MINS (p 68)

6:15 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE

FRAMING LANDSCAPES: SHORTS PROGRAM - 74 MINS (p 72)

8:00 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

A FEELING GREATER THAN LOVE - 93 MINS

2:45 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE THE ROAD TAKEN - 52 MINS

(p 73)

(p 51)

8:30 PM | SFU-GCA

WITH

THE ISSUE OF MR. O’DELL - 35 MINS

5:00 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE THE PAIN OF OTHERS - 71 MINS (p 65) 6:00 PM | SFU-GCA

OUR NEW PRESIDENT - 78 MINS (p 51)

8:30 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE

VIRTUALLY ABSURD: SHORTS PROGRAM - 67 MINS (p 73)

THE RANKIN FILE: LEGACY OF A RADICAL - 90 MINS (p 33)

6:30 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE HARVEST MOON - 69 MINS (p 67) 6:45 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE GOLDEN DAWN GIRLS - 94 MINS (p 69) 8:30 PM | SFU-GCA

WAJD: SONGS OF SEPARATION -

89 MINS (p 69)

8:45 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE THE QUIET ZONE - 45 MINS

WASTELAND NO. 1: ARDENT, VERDANT - 4 MINS (p 70)

WITH

8:45 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE

GOD STRAIGHTENS LEGS - 70 MINS (p 70)

44

#DOX A 2018

THURSDAY MAY 10 12:00 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE MR. GAY SYRIA - 87 MINS (p 68) 2:30 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE

GOD STRAIGHTENS LEGS - 70 MINS (p 70)

4:15 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE NO MAN’S LAND - 80 MINS WITH

A NIGHT AT THE GARDEN - 7 MINS (p 49)

6:00 PM | SFU-GCA

METAMORPHOSIS - 85 MINS (p 74)

6:00 PM - THE CINEMATHEQUE

DERNIÈRES NOUVELLES DU COSMOS (LATEST NEWS FROM THE COSMOS) -

9:15 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE THE CLEANERS - 88 MINS (p 71)

85 MINS (p 39)

12:00 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

SHIFTING WORLDS: SHORTS PROGRAM - 88 MINS (p 77)

2:00 PM | SFU-GCA 6:15 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE ROLLER DREAMS - 80 MINS (p 74) 8:00 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE BELINDA - 107 MINS (p 47) 8:15 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE EX-SHAMAN - 81 MINS (p 75) 8:30 PM - SFU-GCA

PUNK VOYAGE - 97 MINS (p 75)

A SIX DOLLAR CUP OF COFFEE - 70

SATURDAY MAY 12 12:00 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

THE DISQUIETING WHISPER: SHORTS PROGRAM -83 MINS (p 78)

12:00 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE LORELLO AND BRUNELLO - 86 MINS (p 72) 2:00 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE

WHITE RAVENS: A LEGACY OF RESISTANCE - 86 MINS (p 76)

FRIDAY MAY 11 12:00 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE METAMORPHOSIS - 85 MINS (p 74) 2:30 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE

FRAMING LANDSCAPES: SHORTS PROGRAM - 74 MINS (p 72)

2:30 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

THE SONG AND SUNSHINE: SHORTS PROGRAM - 83 MINS (p 79)

4:30 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE

THOSE WHO COME, WILL HEAR 77 MINS WITH TO WAKE UP THE NAKOTA LANGUAGE - 7 MINS (p 79)

5:00 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE 4:45 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE OF FATHERS AND SONS - 98 MINS (p 59) 6:00 PM | SFU-GCA

RETHINKING REPRESENTATION: SHORTS PROGRAM - 66 MINS (p 71)

6:00 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

THE LIGHT OF HOME AND PLAY: SHORTS PROGRAM - 79 MINS (p 76)

7:00 PM | MUSEUM OF VANCOUVER

WHITE RAVENS: A LEGACY OF RESISTANCE - 86 MINS (p 76)

7:00 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE

SHIFTING WORLDS: SHORTS PROGRAM - 88 MINS (p 77)

WAJD: SONGS OF SEPARATION -

89 MINS (p 69)

7:00 PM | SFU-GCA

KUSAMA – INFINITY - 80 MINS (p 35)

7:00 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE EX-SHAMAN - 81 MINS (p 75) 7:30 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE ORIONE - 67 MINS (p 65)

MINS (p 80)

2:30 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE LOVERS OF THE NIGHT - 57 MINS WITH HOLY WATER - 14 MINS (p 59) 3:00 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE ANOTE’S ARK - 77 MINS (p 57) 4:15 PM | SFU-GCA

ETHIOPIQUES: REVOLT OF THE SOUL -

70 MINS (p 39)

4:15 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

THE CREATOR OF UNIVERSES - 78 MINS

(p 41)

5:00 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE

CO-CREATORS: THE RAT QUEENS STORY - 87 MINS (p 63)

6:00 PM | SFU-GCA

TBC (REPEAT)

6:15 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

DREAMING MURAKAMI - 58 MINS GIVE - 16 MINS (p 37)

WITH

7:15 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE ROLLER DREAMS - 80 MINS (p 74) 8:00 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

FREAKS AND GEEKS: THE DOCUMENTARY - 71 MINS (p 77)

9:15 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE 9:00 PM | VIFF’S VANCITY THEATRE KUSAMA – INFINITY - 80 MINS (p 35)

DISTANT CONSTELLATION - 82 MINS (p 55)

9:15 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

DESOLATION CENTER - 92 MINS (p 53)

8:15 PM | SFU-GCA

FREAKS AND GEEKS: THE DOCUMENTARY - 71 MINS (p 77)

8:30 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

SIX PORTRAITS XL: PORTRAIT N°6 LÉON - 52 MINS WITH PORTRAITS - 39 MINS (p 78)

SUNDAY MAY 13 12:00 PM | SFU-GCA PUNK VOYAGE - 97 MINS (p 75) DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

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SATURDAY MAY 5

2:00 PM VANCITY

SATURDAY MAY 5 THURSDAY MAY 10

2:15 PM CINEMATHEQUE 8:00 PM CINEMATHEQUE

Letter from Masanjia

Belinda

When Julie Keith from Damascus, Oregon found a mysterious letter hidden in her Halloween decorations, she never imagined that it would lead to international scandal, and the closure of a notorious forced labour camp in China. The plea for help, penned by a prisoner of the Masanjia labour camp, detailed the appalling living conditions and torture practices taking place in the facility. As news of Julie’s unusual discovery spread in the international media, a soft-spoken engineer and Falun Gong practitioner named Sun Yi came forward as the author of the letter.

Although no longer imprisoned, Sun Yi still suffered from the constant fear of retaliation from the Chinese government. In spite of this, he bravely set forth on a journey to share his story with the help of Vancouver filmmaker Leon Lee.

When we first meet the eponymous heroine of Marie Dumora’s film, she is a coltish nine-year-old, happily waving at trucks on the street, and hanging around with her older sister Sabrina. Flashforward a few years, and Belinda has grown into a tough-talking teenager, but that little girl is still apparent in her shy gaze. A few more years, and Belinda is getting ready to marry her boyfriend Thierry. Things aren’t easy for the couple, as their wedding plans derail in spectacular fashion.

Leon Lee, Canada, 2018, 77 mins

Filmed largely in secret, and incorporating striking animated sequences, Letter from Masanjia uncovers the reality of China’s police state and the true meaning behind the ominous phrase “re-education through labour.” Following his Peabody Award-winning exposé Human Harvest, director Leon Lee continues to expose human rights abuses in China with this message in a bottle thriller. -MS THIS SCREENING IS PART OF THE JUSTICE FORUM SERIES AND WILL INCLUDE A POST-FILM DISCUSSION. READ MORE ON PAGE 18.

INDUSTRY PROGRAM SUPPORTER

Marie Dumora, France, 2017, 107 mins

As a film portrait, Belinda is a remarkable achievement. Foregoing a sentimental approach, it is a warts-and-all look at prejudice, intolerance, and marginalization in French society through the experience of one young woman. The history of the Yenish people, an itinerant population, like the Roma or the Irish travelers, is obliquely indicated, but Dumora’s approach is the opposite of didactic. She allows Belinda to tell her own story, and it is her resilience and stubborn refusal to give up her dreams that most endures. -DW Like the family movies of a very problematic family, Belinda tracks several years in the life of its titular—a French girl of Yenish origins who has a knack for getting into trouble. Not that we can’t see why, and in this tough yet loving portrait by documentary filmmaker Marie Dumora, we witness Belinda’s evolution from a girl thrown into a group home and separated from her sister at a young age, to a teenager and adult who can’t quite escape the criminal tendencies of her clan. - THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER THIS FILM IS PART OF THE FRENCH FRENCH PROGRAM. MORE ON PAGE 30.

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SATURDAY MAY 5 MONDAY MAY 7

4:30 PM CINEMATHEQUE 6:30 PM VANCITY

SATURDAY MAY 5 THURSDAY MAY 10

4:30 PM VANCITY 4:15 PM VANCITY

Maternité secrète

No Man’s Land

Sophie Bredier, France, 2017, 82 mins

In early 2016, President Donald Trump still seemed like a bad punchline, yet the angry roots of the movement that lifted him to power had already been formed.

An early, unheeded sign of Middle America’s frustration came in January, when armed militants led by activist Ammon Bundy occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon. The loosely organized right-wing militia was united by a shared hatred of what they perceived as tyranny and overreach by the federal government. The last straw was a dispute over grazing rights that led to an armed standoff with law enforcement that polarized neighbouring towns and eventually the whole of America. Filmmaker David Byars takes a fly-on-the-wall approach to documenting the Malheur standoff, enjoying unfettered access to the militia and its members. As what started out as a simple land dispute begins to unravel, the true horrors of what can happen when trust breaks down between people and institutions is revealed. Bullets literally start to fly, breaking whatever bonds of trust that may have existed between the extreme occupiers and their government. No Man’s Land is a harrowing reminder of what can happen when the ties that bind are severed. -CP

(Secret Nest)

“I got the coach one morning, not knowing where I was going. ‘To a place with girls like you,’ they told me. It was the first time I’d left home. I was shocked to see the gates closing behind me, as if I had just arrived at a prison. I was in a different world.”

An anonymous woman remembers her first glimpse of the Château Bénouville in Normandy, a home for unwed mothers, who came to wait out their pregnancies, and give birth in secret. As one of the nurses who worked at the Château recalls, young women were often convinced to abandon their newborn babies and hide their pregnancies for fear of bringing shame on their families.

Director Sophie Bredier’s exquisitely constructed film brings back some of the women who lived at the Château—groundskeepers, midwives, children, and nurses—to remember their time there. Inside its stately halls and elegant rooms, the women recount some of the most difficult moments in their lives with lullabies and bittersweet recollections. But there is joy here as well, as the film’s penultimate scene demonstrates. As children play on the manicured lawns under the tender watch of their parents, the healing power of memories met and faced unfolds with gentleness and resolution. -DW THIS FILM IS PART OF THE FRENCH FRENCH PROGRAM. MORE ON PAGE 30.

David Byars, US, 2017, 80 mins

PRECEDED BY

A Night at the Garden Marshall Curry, US, 2017, 7 mins

In 1939, 20,000 Americans rallied in New York’s Madison Square Garden to celebrate the rise of Nazism in an event largely forgotten from American history.

THE SATURDAY MAY 5 SCREENING IS PART OF THE JUSTICE FORUM SERIES AND WILL INCLUDE A POST-FILM DISCUSSION. READ MORE ON PAGE 18. PART OF EMBEDDED WITH EXTREMISTS, CURATED BY GEOFF DEMBICKI. READ MORE ON PAGE 20.

DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

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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. www.sfu.ca/davidlamcentre/for-community.html

On the front lines, behind the scenes.

Our crew is working for your care.

We’re the Hospital Employees’ Union.

www.heu.org

SATURDAY MAY 5 TUESDAY MAY 8

6:00 PM ANNEX 2:45 PM VANCITY

SATURDAY MAY 5 WEDNESDAY MAY 9

6:45 PM CINEMATHEQUE 8:30 PM SFU

THE ISSUE OF MR. O’DELL

To celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Documentary Organization of Canada, DOXA is proud to present two films about labour and civil rights pioneers in Canada and the US. Please join us for a reception following the May 5 screening of this program.

The Road Taken

Selwyn Jacob, Canada, 1996, 52 mins

From the early 1900s through the 1960s, black men from across Canada, US, Africa and the Caribbean worked as sleeping-car porters for Canada’s railway companies. As one of the few jobs available for people of colour at the time, the occupation was well-respected but also full of challenges. Set to a jazz score by Joe Sealy (whose father was also a porter), Selwyn Jacob interviews retired porters and their families to craft a vibrant portrait of these civil rights trailblazers. -MS PRECEDED BY

The Issue of Mr. O’Dell Rami Katz, Canada, 2018, 35 mins

In the early 1960s, when America was brimming with racial tension and Martin Luther King was marching in Alabama, Jack O’Dell was at his side. At age 94, O’Dell eloquently recounts his experiences and views—from his early membership in the Communist Party to his opinions on the current state of racial affairs in the US, as well as the significance of Black Lives Matter. -PP

Our New President

Maxim Pozdorovkin, US/Russia, 2018, 78 mins

Did you know Hillary Clinton lost the presidency because she was cursed by a Siberian mummy? That’s the outlandish conspiracy theory that opens Maxim Pozdorovkin’s deeply troubling film. The film recounts how, over the past 20 years, Vladimir Putin has systematically eliminated and discredited Russian independent media, replacing it with a centrally controlled broadcast system that has little regard for the truth. The mummy theory isn’t fringe in Russia, it is reported by stone-faced journalists on the nation’s most popular newscast. By skillfully combining the distorted journalism of Russia’s state controlled media with the YouTube videos of regular Russians responding to the 2016 US Presidential election, Pozdorovkin reveals the mechanisms and consequences of the Russian fake news apparatus. While slick newscasters peddle stories about Clinton’s health troubles and connections to pedophile rings, we see webcam footage of everyday Russians confessing their undying love for Trump.

Mixing dark comedy with astute media critique, Our New President offers a revealing look at the potent combination of propaganda and technology in Putin’s Russia. The film touches, but doesn’t focus on, the Russian attempts to influence American public opinion—instead it shows just how thoroughly the public can be manipulated once evidence-based reporting is completely replaced with feelings and bluster. As powerful voices in Canada and the United States question the factual basis of everything from climate change to sexual assault allegations, the film may well present a chilling look into our not so distant future. -JC

INDUSTRY PROGRAM SUPPORTER

DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

51

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SATURDAY MAY 5 MONDAY MAY 7

7:00 PM VANCITY 12:00 PM VANCITY

SATURDAY MAY 5 SATURDAY MAY 12

8:45 PM CINEMATHEQUE 9:15 PM CINEMATHEQUE

Primas

Desolation Center

Rocío and Aldana are two young women whose lives have already been marked by profound trauma. The two girls are cousins, and while they go about their daily lives in Argentina facing the same excitement and challenges as their peers, they both carry the weight of the respective experiences that have shaped them. When she was only ten years old, Rocío, now 18, was kidnapped by a stranger, raped, and horribly burned by the side of a road. Her cousin Aldana suffered ongoing sexual abuse by her father, and is only now beginning to come to terms with the full psychological and emotional damage.

Before Burning Man, Coachella, or Lollapalooza, there was the Desolation Center. A far cry from the alt-chic and nouveau riche nature of its many successors, the “desert shows” put on by the anarchist group were not so much festivals, but gathering grounds for punks and other outcasts who found themselves in Los Angeles in the early 1980s. In the middle of the DIY movement was Stuart Swezey, a 20-year-old broke LA punk with a knack for innovation and ingenuity.

Swezey had previously organized many of the warehouse shows under the banner of the Desolation Center, but he was eager to expand and take the Center’s ethos beyond dingy warehouses to a site that the LAPD couldn’t touch. With little more than a few rented school buses, and friends from legendary punk outfits the Minutemen and Savage Republic, Swezey organized the Desolation Center’s first “Mojave Exodus” in 1982. Although there were no stages, little shelter, and a shoddy PA system, some 250 holders of homemade cardboard tickets were transfixed, and a movement was born. Inspired by a trip to Berlin, Swezey incorporated outsider art into Desolation Center events. Soon explosions, robots, and gunshots became commonplace at the Center’s shows alongside music from the likes of Sonic Youth, the Meat Puppets, and a young Perry Farrell. Anyone with a little bit of a rebellious streak in them will be surely draw gonzo inspiration from this journey back to a time of avant-garde punk nirvana. -CP

Laura Bari, Canada/Argentina, 2017, 95 mins

Laura Bari’s moving and poetic film follows the two girls as they begin to claim agency and tell their truths to themselves and each other. Through expressive journaling and reflection, as well as opening up to their aunt’s camera, Rocío and Aldana allow space for their grief and confusion, but also demonstrate their incredible strength and resilience. Memories are blurred with pain and the girls’ emotions are given full life through Bari’s lens, which eloquently expresses the fragile and vulnerable process of learning to heal. At Bari’s invitation, the cousins travel from Argentina to Montreal, where they use dance, theatre, and movement to process their experiences and reclaim their bodies and spirits. The result, powerfully captured in Primas, is a poignant exploration of growth out of trauma, and life and creativity persisting in the face of suffering. -PP

Stuart Swezey, US, 2017, 92 mins

THE MONDAY MAY 7 SCREENING IS PART OF RATED Y FOR YOUTH AND WILL INCLUDE A POST-FILM DISCUSSION. READ MORE ON PAGE 19.

INDUSTRY PROGRAM SUPPORTER

DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

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We believe in the power of film to tell important stories about complex global issues. We hope that this film will promote an open dialogue about human rights and the foundation of democracy around the world.

The United Nations Association in Canada (Vancouver Branch) is proud to sponsor the screening of 'The Cleaners' and congratulates the 2018 DOXA Documentary Film Festival on this year’s exceptional program.

UNA-Canada is a national charitable organization established in 1946. Our mandate is to engage the Canadian public in the work of the United Nations and the critical international issues which affect us all. We accomplish our goals through a dynamic staff team at the National Office and a network of volunteer-driven regional branches. www.unavancouver.org

unavancouver@gmail.com

UNAVancouver

UNACVancouver

SATURDAY MAY 5 SUNDAY MAY 13

9:30 PM VANCITY 9:15 PM VANCITY

SUNDAY MAY 6

Distant Constellation

Six Portraits XL

Life in a Turkish old folks home is ostensibly the subject of Shevaun Mizrahi’s film, but that is only the entry point into this beautifully layered observational documentary. The residents spend their days taking elevator rides to nowhere, and remembering better, more interesting days. One elderly man recounts the Parisian sex parties of his youth, while another talks about his glory days as a photographer. Meanwhile, just outside the windows of the facility, progress gallops along, fed by the relentless pace and appetite for development. The construction workers, busily at work on the building next door, add another subset of characters. Mizrahi has an exceptional eye for detail, and as her elderly subjects tell their stories, her camera is free to roam, picking up small (telling) things, like a dashing image of the elderly photographer, or rebar spikes on the semi-finished building next door, jutting forlornly against the sky. Ultimately, life in its vicissitudes will have its way with all of us. -DW

No. 4 Philippe

Shevaun Mizrahi, US/Turkey/Netherlands, 2017, 82 mins

“…an evocative, often touching documentary, about the journey between being young and old, that will surely delight and inspire audiences…” –VOX JURY’S SPECIAL MENTION AWARD LOCARNO 2017

FIPRESCI PRIZE VIENNALE 2017

12:00 PM CINEMATHEQUE

Alain Cavalier, France, 2017, 104 mins

“In the morning, Philippe Labro, with his team around a table, prepares his four interviews for that afternoon. An actor, a writer, a theatre actor, and a boxer. Each is filmed in the studio in a single 28-minute take with tracking shots and mirror effects.

No room for mistakes. This is high level sport.” -ALAIN CAVALIER Cavalier films a real professional at work during the day. Labro, a famous journalist, novelist, and filmmaker sketches out the stages of each interview (preparation, encounter, filming, and debriefing) without neglecting any detail. Ten years later, Cavalier films his friend again in his office, with the same energy. -TG

No. 5 Bernard “Bernard Crombey is an actor. On stage, he plays the role he wrote himself, of a man unjustly accused of having abused a little girl, whereas he wanted to protect her from the violence of her parents. I’ve been filming him for eleven years, from a community centre to a Parisian theatre, passing via the Avignon Festival every year. At every performance, they add chairs. It’s surprising. It’s disturbing. Bernard expects that it will be the same in ten years time.” -ALAIN CAVALIER Backstage or in the dressing room, before the show when stage fright rises up, and after the show when family life restarts, Cavalier films his friend on the path to success with more than 500 performances of Motobécane. His wife, his daughter and his black cat grow older with him. “I wish I could be in his shoes,” whispers the filmmaker. -TG THIS FILM IS PART OF THE FRENCH FRENCH PROGRAM. MORE ON PAGE 30.

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SUNDAY MAY 6

2:15 PM CINEMATHEQUE

SUNDAY MAY 6 SUNDAY MAY 13

3:15 PM VANCITY 3:00 PM VANCITY

Si tu as faim, chante. Si tu as mal, ris

Anote’s Ark

Michèle Smolkin, France, 2017, 60 mins

Anote Tong is a man on a mission. He is the President of Kiribati, an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean with more than 100,000 inhabitants. The Republic of Kiribati resembles a paradise on Earth. Blue water, bright sun, palm trees, a land where fishing and harvesting coconuts are the inhabitants’ main activities. But things aren’t exactly as they appear in these picture postcard shots. Kiribati is quickly disappearing as a consequence of global warming. The rise of the sea, along with increasingly violent storms and typhoons are leading this beautiful land and its culture towards an inexorable fate.

(If You’re Hungry, Sing. If You Ache, Laugh)

Sam Rechtman entered the world 104 years ago on July 7th, 1914 in the Polish village of Chelm. The second of four siblings, born to a communist mother and deeply religious father, young Sam came of age when Russian pogroms still necessitated hiding places for Jewish kids to escape being murdered. He recounts the wilder aspects of his childhood—from an early run in with the 1917 Revolution in Warsaw to the rampant prejudice faced by Jewish families—with wry humour and equanimity shaped by more than a century of experience.

Director Michèle Smolkin illustrates her uncle’s anecdotes through charming animation, archival footage, and a buoyant score. But the real star of the film is the timeless art of storytelling. As Sam remembers his childhood and teenage years, his experience as an army gunner during the war, and working with the French Resistance, the film becomes more than just a portrait of one man’s life and times.

History comes alive, in all its palpable, idiosyncratic detail. As Sam recounts his ferociously strong-willed mother or a reunion with his younger brother after the liberation of France, family and long-lost friends are brought back to vivid bright existence. We start to feel like part of the family. Sam’s long life, filled with grandchildren, and great grandchildren, is a powerful reminder of the resilience of the human spirit. -DW

Matthieu Rytz, Canada, 2018, 77 mins

Beautifully shot, Anote’s Ark is the first film from photographer-turned-director Matthieu Rytz. We follow President Anote Tong as he travels the world to spread the word, not for his own country—it is already too late, as he says himself—but for the sake of the whole planet. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the archipelago have started to seek asylum abroad. Far from being rancorous or reproachful, the film shows the consequences of climate change and gives a strong and clear illustration of what we should expect if we don’t change the way we live. -ML THE SUNDAY MAY 6 SCREENING IS PART OF THE JUSTICE FORUM SERIES AND WILL INCLUDE A POST-FILM DISCUSSION. READ MORE ON PAGE 18.

THIS FILM IS PART OF THE FRENCH FRENCH PROGRAM. MORE ON PAGE 30.

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Metro Vancouver’s online arts & culture event guide

Metro Arts Xperience www.maxguide.org

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Now recycling at a depot near you.

Find your local depot at return-it.ca/locations

SUNDAY MAY 6 SUNDAY MAY 13

4:15 PM CINEMATHEQUE 2:30 PM CINEMATHEQUE

SUNDAY MAY 6 FRIDAY MAY 11

5:30 PM VANCITY 4:45 PM VANCITY

Lovers of the Night

Of Fathers and Sons

This delicate study of seven monks living at a remote Irish monastery achieves a rare level of intimacy. Through the patient observation of daily routines—chapel prayers, tending livestock, and watching televised soccer matches—the film becomes a document of daily life, in its sweetness and truth. All of the subjects share their hopes and dreams, but it’s Father Alberic’s revelations that are the most touching. He acknowledges that although he greatly values his sequestered life of worship, he is keenly aware of the sacrifices it demands. What he misses most is never being with a woman. His assessment of what is critically absent in patriarchal society (namely, the feminine) is remarkable, as is his insistence that it must be reclaimed. He conjoins the experience of physical love with spiritual awakening, equating lovers becoming one to the mystical union offered by the monks’ nightly prayers. Director Anna Frances Ewert’s accomplished first film captures moments of atmospheric lyricism as these elderly men speak their gentle truths and prepare for the ultimate union with the divine. -MB

Following his 2013 Sundance award-winning documentary Return to Homs, Syrian-born, Berlin-based filmmaker Talal Derki has crafted another deeply immersive frontline look at the war in Syria. Derki spent more than two years embedded with and filming the lives of one radical Islamist family in the north of Syria, where militant Al-Qaeda affiliated groups have a stronghold. His camera introduces us to Abu-Osama and his sons, a group of young boys who grow up in a landscape where children’s games and sibling spats share the same stage as gunshots and landmines. Abu-Osama is committed to the ideal of an Islamic Caliphate, and spends his days fighting regime troops and risking his life to deactivate landmines.

But when he returns home, his attention is with his children. What Derki’s footage reveals is complex and human: the power of religious zeal and radical fundamentalism, but also the love of a father for his sons. As Abu-Osama’s two oldest sons Osama and Ayman reach young adulthood, they face assimilation into the ranks of armed combat. Since birth, they have learned that they are in the midst of a holy war, and that they must eventually play their part. As we witness the young boys don army fatigues and learn how to fire high-calibre weapons, the shattering weight of the film becomes evident. Of Fathers and Sons reveals the human face of war, but perhaps not the one we were expecting. -PP

Anna Frances Ewert, Ireland/Germany, 2017, 57 mins

PRECEDED BY

Holy Water

Mauro Maugeri, Italy, 2018, 14 mins

Director Mauro Maugeri captures the celebratory moments shared by a small Italian community that include boat racing, nightly bonfires, and even Madonna and Child sailing forth amidst a flotilla of revelers! -MB

Talal Derki, Germany/Syria/Lebanon, 2017, 98 mins

PART OF EMBEDDED WITH EXTREMISTS, CURATED BY GEOFF DEMBICKI. READ MORE ON PAGE 20.

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Cielo

Les enfants du 209 rue Saint-Maur, Paris Xe

In a remote region of Chile, Canadian filmmaker Alison McAlpine immerses herself amongst people who watch the sky. Some are there for the stars and planetary bodies, others just happen to live nearby in the harshly beautiful valleys, mountains, and deserts. Narrated by the filmmaker, Cielo is a personal story about the celestial realm, as well as an investigation into the human mind and spirit.

Ruth Zylberman, France, 2017, 103 mins

The camera captures people’s hardscrabble lives with animals and rusted-out cars just below the world-famous telescopes. From algae gatherers who work by moonlight, to goat herders and/or astronomers who muse about the profundity of space, Cielo is a potent and powerful reminder to be humble and attentive to what it means to live on a precarious planet. Mythology, storytelling, imagination, and infinity—the sky is the first thing that invites us to think beyond ourselves. It is impossible to overstate the extraordinary visual quality of this film, with starscapes and light shows which are wild, intense, and literally cosmic. -KR

Through detailed drawings, architectural maquettes, photos, and tiny replicas of furniture, Zylberman reconstructs the histories of the people who called the apartment block located on 209 rue Saint-Maur home. “I wish to tell the story of this anonymous building, and moreover, to recreate a present-day, tangible, ‘felt’ account of these destroyed lives,” explains the filmmaker. The names of families are carefully ascribed to the different parts of the building where they lived.

Painstaking and exact in its approach, the film becomes a fully fleshed portrait of a time and place in French history. Agonizing memories resurface, as people recount their mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters being detained by the police, and later deported. Even those who managed to live through the war, never truly escaped the experience. Layers of time have done little to erase the pain. As one elderly woman says about her childhood friend who died in the camps, “I never forgot her face.” -DW

Alison McAlpine, Canada/Chile, 2017, 78 mins

INDUSTRY PROGRAM SUPPORTER

(The Neighbours)

“Parisian apartments were built to last, they’re good buildings. The kind that don’t fall apart. The kind that survive centuries, indifferent to war, death, and collapse,” states director Ruth Zylberman. Human beings, on the other hand, are decidedly more fragile.

THIS FILM IS PART OF THE FRENCH FRENCH PROGRAM. MORE ON PAGE 30.

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Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution

Co-Creators: The Rat Queens Story

Homocore and queercore started in the 1980s as a farcical fantasy created by artists and activists such as Toronto’s Bruce LaBruce and G. B. Jones. Inspired by the early radicalism of punk rock and ideas from the French situationists, the movement’s founders pretended that there was already an underground punk gay scene. A few radical punks in various cities created personae and characters and started the magazines J.D.s and Homocore, which convinced others that the scene really did exist. In turn, this encouraged people to start bands, make films, get active in revolutionary politics, and find communities of outsiders even within the gay subculture. The fringe of the fringe, marginalized both from mainstream punk and mainstream gay culture, became queercore. Yony Leyser’s film is clearly influenced by the DIY fanzine and experimental film aesthetic that it celebrates, with all of the art, music, and film clips you might expect, as well as insightful interviews with members of seminal bands like Pansy Division, and Tribe 8, and riot grrrl performers like Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill.

Sometimes your faves become problematic. Co-Creators: The Rat Queens Story is a warts-and-all document of the comic book community’s once favourite co-creators. Vancouver director Lonnie Nadler follows Kurtis Wiebe, writer of the New York Times bestselling comic book series Rat Queens, as he builds a successful feminist comic book while dealing with publishing deadlines, a somewhat rabid fandom, and the pressures of starting a family. At the height of the book’s popularity, artist and co-creator Roc Upchurch is arrested for domestic abuse. Herein things get increasingly complex.

Yony Leyser, Germany, 2017, 82 mins

Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution is a story about music, sexuality, and politics that is not afraid to ask the hard questions. Has gay culture lost its roots and vitality by trying to be like mainstream society? The film is not afraid to suggest that the dominant paradigm still needs to be further subverted, and perverted. It is the spirit of irreverence, camp, and shock value that makes the film a delight to watch, as it makes a case for rejecting the status quo and embracing full on weirdness. -KR

Lonnie Nadler, Canada, 2018, 87 mins

Superhero and fantasy comics often depict women in gratuitous sexy poses, sprinkled in manic pixie dream girl fairy dust. However, the characters in Rat Queens, despite being created by two men, have agency—they are queer, diverse, and weird. Outcasts or not, they fight the good fight, beat up “the bad guys” and sometimes slay the dragon, or at least come to an understanding. Nadler’s documentary actively contends with the idea that we are all composite creations of our mistakes and our accomplishments. Kurtis Wiebe embodies this idea, with almost tortured glibness, as he writes about monsters who are all too human. -JB MEDIA PARTNER

MEDIA PARTNER

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THE CCE RECOGNIZES THE FINE WORK OF OUR FELLOW EDITORS AT DOXA 2018 The 2018 CCE Awards, honouring the best in Canadian editing, takes place on May 31st, in Toronto. Get your tickets today!

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The Pain of Others

Orione

Using found footage and YouTube testimonials, The Pain of Others examines Morgellons, a mysterious illness that many medical professionals are quick to dismiss as a delusional or psychogenic disorder. But thousands of people around the world claim they have the syndrome, including singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell.

Candid home-videos made by three women who suffer from the illness describe the feeling of parasites crawling under their skin, long coloured fibers emerging from lesions, and a host of other bizarre symptoms. Penny Lane juxtaposes footage of the women demonstrating the many, sometimes disturbing, ways they self-diagnose and cope—alongside that of skeptical medical professionals.

In a quaint, tidy apartment, a woman is preparing a child’s themed cake from scratch. In voice-over, she candidly talks about the fate of her son Alejandro “Ale” Robles. Ale became a gang member in the neighbourhood of Don Orione in Buenos Aires, only to be killed by a police bullet. Like the cake—lovingly built layer by layer—Orione is a compelling creation that unfolds in multiple chapters inverting the narrative of a typical crime story. Through deeply felt and intimate moments in Ale’s life, including a home video of happier times, and a personal letter from Ale to his mother, Orione becomes a family scrapbook and a memento mori of the most delicate and painful kind. These sweet bits of memory are offered in contrast to other, darker aspects that bubble to the surface, including a trip to a mortuary, grisly crime scene footage, and a young boy’s painful testimony about his father’s kidnapping. Orione weaves together disparate elements and narrative threads, to paint a disquieting portrait of Argentinean society spilling over with contradictions and irreconcilable truths. -JM

Penny Lane, US, 2018, 71 mins

Longtime DOXA filmgoers may remember Penny Lane’s previous work, including The Voyagers (DOXA 2011), Our Nixon (DOXA 2014), and Nuts! (DOXA 2016).

The Pain of Others, in keeping with Lane’s curious and empathetic approach, remains open to what other people might see as freakish or grotesque. By recontextualizing YouTube footage, Lane creates a controlled and mediated viewing experience. The result isn’t so much a conclusion about the validity of the illness, but rather a radical push towards active listening, understanding, and acceptance. -SC

Toia Bonino, Argentina, 2017, 67 mins

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MONDAY MAY 7 TUESDAY MAY 8

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MONDAY MAY 7 WEDNESDAY MAY 9

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Harvest Moon

The Third Option

Each September, Bolot Tagaev and his family practice a centuries old tradition, harvesting walnuts in one of the oldest walnut forests in Kyrgyzstan. Over the course of a single season, director Zaheed Mawani gracefully captures delicate sequences such as a child interacting with a snake, or sacks of walnuts being laid gently across an attic bed. Stories attached to the forest are told and retold over the fire at night, adding a mythic dimension.

Provoking some of the most uncomfortable yet critically important questions being asked in this year’s Justice Forum series, The Third Option takes an encompassing look at the ethics and implications of prenatal screenings, as well as the decisions that follow should the results be considered ‘abnormal’. The weight of these philosophical questions is given plenty of room to breathe in Thomas Fürhapter’s visually striking film essay. Long, painterly scenes brimming with life and colour—such as swimming pools and children’s parks—call to mind the synchronized cinematography in Jacques Tati’s Playtime. Kids doing gymnastics and mothers practicing yoga are juxtaposed against more industrial environments of workers making wheelchairs and prosthetics.

Zaheed Mawani, Canada/Kyrgyzstan, 2018, 69 mins

As the narrative subtly charts the family’s way of life, their financial struggles, domestic chores, and conversations reveal a profound, and yet, wonderful isolation.

Dialogue is sparse but poignant, reflecting upon their relationships, as well their connection with nature and faith. The film deliberately highlights the extraordinary landscape, providing a stark contrast to the modernity of the exterior world.

A patient and meditative documentary, Harvest Moon illuminates a traditional livelihood which somehow persists, despite the ever-changing society outside. -AP

Thomas Fürhapter, Austria, 2017, 75 mins

Medical professionals, psychotherapists, philosophers, and disability rights advocates provide a foundation to explore the increasingly blurred line between responsible obstetric management and the politics of eugenics. But it is the personal experiences that most resound, including a woman who talks about the decision to terminate a late-term pregnancy. -SC THE MONDAY MAY 7 SCREENING IS PART OF THE JUSTICE FORUM SERIES AND WILL INCLUDE A POST-FILM DISCUSSION. READ MORE ON PAGE 18.

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MONDAY MAY 7 TUESDAY MAY 8

6:00 PM CINEMATHEQUE 12:00 PM VANCITY

MONDAY MAY 7 THURSDAY MAY 10

8:15 PM SFU 12:00 PM VANCITY

Minding the Gap

Mr. Gay Syria

To call Bing Liu’s debut documentary a coming of age story is a disservice to its artfulness, honesty, and visual mastery. Director/cinematographer Liu recorded countless hours of footage of his friends growing up and dealing with the onset of adult life in unexpected ways. A passion for skateboarding cemented their friendship, and the film comes alive as it follows Liu and his buddies carving lines through the streets of Rockford, Illinois. But systemic racism, family abuse, and violence have left their mark on each of the young people profiled here. Liu’s own difficult childhood—including dealing with his father’s abuse—is poignantly captured in a scene in which Liu confronts his mother about the situation. His decision to stop filming is a testimony to his restraint as a filmmaker, and more importantly his humanity and compassion. -AP

Twenty-four-year old Husein lives in exile. Along with his parents, wife, and young daughter, he was forced from his home in Syria to Istanbul, where he awaits possible asylum in Europe. But Husein’s is a double exile—estranged from his country by war, he is also estranged from his family because of who he is. Husein is gay.

Unable to tell his family, he is forced to live a double life—finding another kind of refuge in the small but tight-knit gay community of Syrian refugees in Turkey. For Husein and his friends, the Gay World competition represents an opportunity to make visible their uniquely difficult situation. Having escaped war, they now face discrimination and repression from an increasingly intolerant Turkish regime. Berlin-based competition organizer Mahmoud Hassino devises the competition as a means to raise awareness about the plight of LGBTQ refugees. But for Husein, the visibility that comes from being named Mr. Gay Syria will mean revealing his true self to his family.

Bing Liu, 2018, US, 93 mins

This year’s Sundance may well be defined by the host of innovative ways filmmakers found to tell personal stories … the most touching of these self-reflexive projects was Bing Liu’s intimate look at a pair of childhood friends he’s been filming for nearly a decade. – VARIETY A lyrical skateboard ballet when it wants to be and critical introspection amidst the tumult of family and friendship when it absolutely has to be. – INDIEWIRE THE TUESDAY MAY 8 SCREENING IS PART OF RATED Y FOR YOUTH AND WILL INCLUDE A POST-FILM DISCUSSION. READ MORE ON PAGE 19.

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Ayse Toprak, France/Germany/Turkey, 2017, 87 mins

Director Ayse Toprak weaves together an intimate portrait of Husein’s life—delicately detailing his painful relationship with his family while showing the strength in community, and the powerful sense of belonging that is offered by Husein and his fabulous friends. In achieving this fine balance, Toprak reminds us that even in war, the freedom to live and love as we truly are remains fundamental to our humanity. -JC THE THURSDAY MAY 10 SCREENING IS PART OF RATED Y FOR YOUTH AND WILL INCLUDE A POST-FILM DISCUSSION. READ MORE ON PAGE 19.

TUESDAY MAY 8

6:45 PM VANCITY

TUESDAY MAY 8 SATURDAY MAY 12

8:30 PM SFU 5:00 PM CINEMATHEQUE

Golden Dawn Girls

Wajd: Songs of Separation

The rise of the far right in Europe is a puzzling, terrifying phenomenon. Norwegian filmmaker Håvard Bustnes arrived in Greece to uncover why the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party has become a legitimate political option for a significant percentage of Greek voters. The result is bizarre, chilling, and more than a little mesmerizing.

After the trauma, turmoil, and dislocation of war, how does one begin to pick up the pieces and heal? In 2010, Syrian-Canadian filmmaker Amar Chebib headed to Syria, just months before chaos broke out, to film a short documentary about traditional Sufi music. Five years later, the friends he encountered on his trip are dispersed around Europe, and have become refugees like so many others who were forced to flee Aleppo. Wajd: Songs of Separation introduces us to three men—Ibrahim, Abdulwahed, and Mohamad—all talented musicians, who are re-assembling their lives in Turkey and Holland while they await uncertain futures.

What unites them all is a love of Syrian music and a devotion to their country.

Håvard Bustnes, Norway, 2017, 94 mins

In an age when most Europeans are media savvy and familiar with documentary filmmaking, it is a little shocking that the three women profiled in Golden Dawn Girls (a mother, a wife, and a daughter of party bigwigs) give extensive interviews, and allowed their activities to be filmed. As Bustnes reports, they did not question him about his own politics or ideas before agreeing to the film. Instead, they believe that by showing their daily lives, they will help to humanize the movement and its ideology. Snippets of conversations before and after formal interviews, when the women seem unaware of the candid fly-on-the-wall footage being shot, provide the most insight and impact. Bustnes almost sees his mission as a rescue attempt, but his hope that the women will show compassion for humans outside their faction turns out to be naive. Perhaps the chaos in the Greek economy is enough to explain the appeal of Golden Dawn. Or perhaps, there are political masterminds in the organization who hid from Bustnes. Either way, the film is a profoundly disturbing peek inside a troubling phenomena and its membership. -KR PART OF EMBEDDED WITH EXTREMISTS, CURATED BY GEOFF DEMBICKI. READ MORE ON PAGE 20.

Amar Chebib, Canada, 2018, 89 mins

Ibrahim and Abdulwahed recover from the loss of loved ones and imprisonment by finding a music teacher to help them channel their creative energies and nostalgia for home; Mohamad, living in a Syrian refugee house in the Netherlands, anxiously awaits his family’s arrival while commiserating over all that has been left behind.

Chebib’s film is a moving testament to both the heartbreak and loss of civil war, and also the resilience of the individuals at its centre. It is also a beautiful meditation on the healing and life-affirming power of music and creative expression.

While each man has witnessed unspeakable horrors and suffered terrible pain, they find connection and balm in the lyrics and melodies of their homeland. -PP AUDIENCE PARTNER

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TUESDAY MAY 8 WEDNESDAY MAY 9

8:45 PM CINEMATHEQUE 4:30 PM VANCITY

TUESDAY MAY 8 THURSDAY MAY 10

8:45 PM VANCITY 2:30 PM VANCITY

The Quiet Zone

God Straightens Legs

Originally created to protect the Green Bank Radio Telescope from terrestrial radio transmissions, the National Radio Quiet Zone in West Virginia, is home to a community of people who suffer from electromagnetic hypersensitivity. Broadcasts in the area are limited to emergency services and a single AM channel.

Community members regularly police the area to scout for random wifi signals and ensure that the zone remains free of unwanted transmissions.

On the surface of Joële Walinga’s film things appear normal—the sky is blue, the clouds are fluffy, and the grass is carefully manicured in the generic townhouse complex where a woman named Renée is waiting for a miracle. As the television blares in Renée’s bedroom, tuned either to televangelist Joseph Prince or the “eezee-listening” channel, a growing sense of unease begins to creep in. Hairline fractures reveal themselves in stilted conversation about the nature of divinity and human frailty, and the acid blue sky and verdant lawn takes on a different cast.

Elisa Gonzalez and Daniel Froidevaux, Canada, 2017, 45 mins

Filmmakers Elisa Gonzalez and Daniel Froidevaux profile the residents who have chosen to live in a place that is free of technology. Instead of Netflix and endless hours on the Internet, they opt for cooking, square dancing, and playing bingo.

Life as an “electrosensitive” and the range of symptoms that sufferers endure may have precipitated the decision, but the consequence is a very different experience of time passing. Lush cinematography and a textured soundscape evoke a sci-fi atmosphere, while static shots of abandoned buildings, and empty schoolyards hint that the town is slowly fading away. Not unlike a distant radio signal. -SC PRECEDED BY

Wasteland No.1: Ardent, Verdant Jodie Mack, US, 2017, 4 mins

In this silent film, close-up shots of circuit boards, frenetically intercut with saturated images of flowers, come to resemble apocalyptic cityscapes. -SC

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Joële Walinga, Canada, 2018, 70 mins

What is truly at stake is the relationship between the filmmaker and her subject, who also happens to be her mother. As Renée waits for divine intervention to cure her breast cancer, her daughter is busy with more earthly details: providing her mother with the bedroom of her dreams that includes a huge headboard, a vase of white roses with baby’s breath, and movers dressed in matching blue t-shirts to assemble it all. God Straightens Legs is a film about details, and the way that they embed inside of us during moments of terrible grief and sadness. The emotion that runs underneath, like an underground river, rises up, and clings to the mundane, investing it with a curious and irrevocable form of grace, that is, in itself, miraculous. -DW

WEDNESDAY MAY 9 FRIDAY MAY 11

12:00 PM VANCITY 6:00 PM SFU

WEDNESDAY MAY 9 FRIDAY MAY 11

6:00 PM SFU 9:15 PM VANCITY

LOOKING AT EDWARD CURTIS

Rethinking Representation: Shorts Program Whether it’s repurposing archival footage, honouring activism through a monument, or reflecting on the legacy of settler documentation, this selection of short films showcases Indigenous filmmakers reclaiming their images and narratives. -SC

Three Thousand • Asinnajaq, Canada, 2017, 14 mins Images taken from the National Film Board’s archive are chronologically interwoven with original animation, ending with the filmmaker’s vision of the future.

Looking at Edward Curtis • Marie Clements, Canada, 2018, 23 mins Marie Clements (The Road Forward, DOXA 2017) confronts the legacy of photographer Edward Curtis, and raises necessary questions about the ethics of documenting Indigenous experience.

Butterfly Monument • Jules Koostachin & Rick Miller, Canada, 2018, 29 mins Jules Koostachin and Rick Miller affectionately capture the legacy of the young Cree education advocate Shannen Koostachin, highlighting her community’s effort to build Canada’s first public statue honouring an Indigenous youth.

THE WEDNESDAY MAY 9 SCREENING IS PART OF RATED Y FOR YOUTH AND WILL INCLUDE A POST-FILM DISCUSSION. READ MORE ON PAGE 19.

INDUSTRY PROGRAM SUPPORTER

The Cleaners

Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck, Germany/Brazil, 2018, 88 mins

When Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook from his dormitory at Harvard in 2004, he meant the platform to be used as a tool to “share anything with anyone.” Little did he know just how far and fast the concept would spread. Social media has become an integral part of how we live our daily lives. From hot takes on the latest news item to images of what we ate for breakfast—we share, and we do it often. But where are the limits drawn as to what, exactly, can be shared? The Cleaners reveals the dark underbelly of our globalized social media culture and the people who are charged with determining what is unacceptable. Content moderators are hired by third-party companies to determine what stays up and what comes down. As social media has increasingly taken on the role of more traditional media outlets in disseminating information and holding institutions accountable, companies like Google, Twitter, and Facebook are being taken to task for their choices to censor or to allow certain kinds of online content to flourish. The individuals on the frontlines of this conversation are paid to make these decisions, in front of computer screens in anonymous offices in Manila. While companies freely outsource the ethics of their platforms, the psychological labour performed has very real consequences on the moderators’ lives. Furthermore, each choice to delete or ignore a red flag can have far-reaching global effects, resulting in increasingly urgent conversations around free speech and the role of technology in our societies. -PP THE WEDNESDAY MAY 9 SCREENING IS PART OF THE JUSTICE FORUM SERIES AND WILL INCLUDE A POST-FILM DISCUSSION. READ MORE ON PAGE 18.

AUDIENCE PARTNER

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WEDNESDAY MAY 9 SATURDAY MAY 12

6:00 PM CINEMATHEQUE 12:00 PM VANCITY

WEDNESDAY MAY 9 FRIDAY MAY 11

6:15 PM VANCITY 2:30 PM VANCITY OCCUPATION OF MEMORY

Lorello and Brunello Jacopo Quadri, Italy, 2017, 86 mins

Lorello and Brunello are twin bachelor-brother farmers in Grosetto, Italy. In director Jacopo Quadri’s patiently observed study of their life and work, the gentle rhythms and cycles of nature cast an irrevocable spell. The Biondi Brothers are a taciturn pair, what we learn about them comes from an aged relative named Ultimina, who talks to the camera while collecting her mail. She adores her nephews, but not so much their hapless cousin Giuliano and his truant pigs. She wants Brunello married, but he seems content with occasional visits from flamboyant girlfriend Mirella. Essentially, the brothers are married to the land, and through the film’s arresting cinematography—burnished tawny fields, threshing haze, swirling smoke—we come to understand its hold over them.

The life of those who work the land is structured into four seasonal parts with its attendant tasks: sheep shearing in summer, raking and wood-burning in autumn, fence-building in winter, pruning and planting in spring. And of course, the daily constant of sheep-milking. But despite such cyclical repetitiveness, there are also surprises like wolf attacks, equipment failure, and financial losses. The film’s score with its pop-up snatches of varied musical styles and instrumentation, elevates the quotidian existence of the brothers from tedium into a mysterious and magical state. -MB

Framing Landscapes: Shorts Program In a journey through light, dust, and snow, this set of formally conscious films reflects on cinema’s ability to reveal histories hidden in physical environments. -MS

Occupation of Memory • Jade Baxter, Canada, 2017, 5 mins The legacy of colonial memory is directly confronted on Nlaka’pamux territory.

Wind Should Be Heard Not Seen • Claire Sanford, Canada, 2018, 13 mins A striking reminder that we are all connected through the air we breathe.

Kingsway • Jeffery Chong, Canada, 2017, 7 mins Kingsway is reimagined as a frenetic collage of lights, signs and movement.

Empire Valley • Ryan Ermacora, Canada, 2018, 13 mins Exquisitely composed images of Tsilhqot’in territory in central British Columbia are captured on 16mm, obscuring the boundaries between light, land, and time.

Tracking Sasquatch • Christina Battle, Canada, 2016, 8 mins Google Earth imagery takes us on a journey in search of this elusive biped.

Optimism • Deborah Stratman, Canada/US, 2018, 15 mins

CULTURAL PARTNER

Using Super 8 film and audio interviews, internationally-renowned artist Deborah Stratman crafts a playful winterscape portrait of Dawson City, Yukon Territory.

Nuuca • Michelle Latimer, Canada/US, 2017, 13 mins A haunting essay that contemplates the connection between the abuse of the natural landscape and violence inflicted upon Indigenous women and girls.

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WEDNESDAY MAY 9

8:00 PM CINEMATHEQUE

WEDNESDAY MAY 9

8:30 PM VANCITY DEEP DOWN TIDAL

A Feeling Greater Than Love Mary Jirmanus Saba, Lebanon, 2017, 93 mins

In the early 1970s, two bloody uprisings at tobacco and chocolate factories in Lebanon held the promise of popular revolution and women’s emancipation. But when the Lebanese civil war erupted only a couple of years later, the cultural significance of the women and workers’ movement was wiped clean from the country’s collective memory.

In her directorial debut, Mary Jirmanus Saba sheds light on this little-known piece of Middle Eastern labour history using a collage of contemporary interviews, rare archival footage captured by activists, as well as clips from agitprop films. The story spontaneously unfolds from the testimonials of the former workers themselves. Re-united for a group interview, the former-revolutionaries ruminate on the politics and ideology of the time, and describe facing bullets to defend their movement. Stories of solidarity between the labourers and the women activists offer lessons for future movements, while present-day interviews with farmers explain how little has changed over forty years. With its roaming discursive cinematography, A Feeling Greater Than Love plays more like a sensorial investigation than a textbook narrative. In one striking sequence, Saba highlights footage of one of the factories, captured in an militant film from the time. A jump cut reveals that the Mall of Beirut currently occupies the same location. It’s moments like this that beg the question: How can the past transform the present? -SC FIPRESCI INTERNATIONAL CRITICS PRIZE BERLINALE FORUM 2017

Virtually Absurd: Shorts Program Mixing net.art aesthetics with found footage, this collection of short films offers a refreshing, yet poignant critique of global capitalism and technology. -SC

Baby iPad • Tom Whalen, Canada, 2013, 2 mins Babies are satirically portrayed as consumers. Lol.

Deep Down Tidal • Tabita Rezaire, South Africa, 2017, 21 mins A documentary-narrative hybrid that cleverly employs DIY green screen and motion graphics to trace the parallels between Internet connectivity and colonial trade routes.

.TV • G. Anthony Svatek, US, 2017, 22 mins An anonymous caller from the future guides us through a network of found footage of Tuvalu, a remote island nation at risk of disappearing due to rising sea levels.

Having sold its domain extension .TV to streaming platforms around the world, a virtual record of Tuvalu may yet endure.

Pure Difference • Byron Peters, Canada, 2018, 22 mins An essay-collage that mimics educational and training videos using YouTube footage and computerized narration, Pure Difference questions the intrinsic values embedded in the language of mathematics, science, and data.

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THURSDAY MAY 10 FRIDAY MAY 11

6:00 PM SFU 12:00 PM VANCITY

THURSDAY MAY 10 SUNDAY MAY 13

6:15 PM VANCITY 7:15 PM VANCITY

Metamorphosis

Roller Dreams

This feature documentary by Nova Ami and Velcrow Ripper offers a new narrative around climate change and delivers a profound message of hope. Filmed in locations around the world including Vanuatu, New Mexico, Alberta’s Badlands, the Canary Islands, California, Japan, and Mexico, Metamorphosis confronts beauty and loss with powerful visual imagery. Every country is experiencing intense climate events and most reasonable people agree that it is the most pressing issue of our time. But how do we cope with this level of change and reverse the harm we have caused? Ami and Ripper are optimists even in the middle of the most dire crisis imaginable. Metamorphosis presents images of tourists trudging through floodwaters in Venice, communities displaced by massive storms, and disappearing waterways in California valleys. But within this sobering catalogue of disasters are dedicated and passionate people raising awareness in a variety of inventive ways: using swimming pools in California to grow food, removing lawns and reintroducing native plants, building ecologically efficient houses, installing free solar panels in low-income neighborhoods, and teaching greater self-sufficiency.

Disaster can be an opportunity for transformation and a means for humanity to reshape itself in startling and radical new ways. -KR

Roller Dreams is a fascinating and unexpected story of a utopian scene created by African Americans in the late 1970s. Roller skate dancing briefly blossomed into a genuine national craze, but when Hollywood represented the culture, it was white actors who played all the roles and white dancers who took the credit.

Nova Ami and Velcrow Ripper, Canada, 2017, 85 mins

THE FRIDAY MAY 11 SCREENING IS PART OF RATED Y FOR YOUTH AND WILL INCLUDE A POST-FILM DISCUSSION. READ MORE ON PAGE 19.

HEU

AUDIENCE PARTNER

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#DOX A 2018

Kate Hickey, Australia/US, 2017, 80 mins

Roller Dreams offers the feel-good vibes you might expect from scenes of young people dancing on wheels to disco music at Venice Beach in Los Angeles. The film combines giddy entertainment value with untold stories about the quest for creative expression, and the American dream against a backdrop of police harassment, gentrification, and the threat of downward social mobility. Director Kate Hickey’s film is filled with unforgettable characters including charismatic Mad, who runs the beach; Sally, who leaves her Middle Eastern immigrant upbringing behind when she falls in love with roller skating (and Mad); and Duval, who fashions his own wacky outfits and is often dressed as Superman. In the present, many of the people in the film suffer from health problems and poverty, but a beach reunion promises an opportunity to come to terms with the past. Amazing archival footage of coordinated dance routines and other roller-dancing sessions on the beach make this an unmissable experience. -KR

THURSDAY MAY 10 SATURDAY MAY 12

8:15 PM VANCITY 7:00 PM VANCITY

THURSDAY MAY 10 SUNDAY MAY 13

8:30 PM SFU 12:00 PM SFU

Ex-Shaman

Punk Voyage

“Genocide kills people in their physical bodies and ethnocide in their spirit, their essence, their way of living, their culture.” - A Manifesto of Indigenous People of Brazil

The four members of the Finnish punk band Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät (PKN) have autism or Down syndrome, but that hasn’t stopped them from representing Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest.

The Paiter Suruí people, whose territory is located in the Brazilian Amazon, didn’t have contact with the outside world until the late 1960s. Since then their traditional way of life has been threatened by the encroachment of Western values, religion, medicine, and technology. Perpera, an elder who works as a doorman at the local church, recounts how he stopped his shamanism after the village priest denounced the practice as connected to the devil. But Perpera can still speak to the spirits of the forest, and when illness strikes, the community turns to him, seeking his ancestral knowledge.

Directors Jukka Kärkkäinen and J-P Passi first began documenting PNK in their 2012 film The Punk Syndrome. Punk Voyage continues the band’s journey, examining their next steps as personal tensions deepen, and international fame continues to grow. Self-doubt, love triangles, and moments of unexpected tenderness (along with many, many beers) line the path that will lead the band either to retirement, or to Eurovision glory.

Luiz Bolognesi, Brazil, 2018, 81 mins

Coinciding with Ex-Shaman’s world premiere at the Berlinale, a group of twenty-seven Indigenous leaders from various territories in Brazil released a powerful manifesto calling for the respect of shamans, the natural world, and traditional cultures. In the spirit of this message, Luiz Bolognesi’s immersive cinematography elucidates the gentle rhythms of village life and the surrounding environment. The manifesto’s call to action: “More Shamans, more Sky, more Spirits, more Forest, more Life. Less hate. Less intolerance. Less racism,” could not be more necessary or more vital. -MS

Jukka Kärkkäinen and J-P Passi, Finland/Denmark/Norway/Sweden, 2017, 97 mins

Using a cinéma vérité style, Punk Voyage takes you deep into the centre of the conversations, rehearsals, and mosh pits that make up the PNK experience.

Emotionally raw, uproariously funny, and often somewhere in between these two things, Punk Voyage is a wildly entertaining look at how to move forward and what to leave behind. -AL

CULTURAL PARTNER

CULTURAL PARTNER

DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

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6:00 PM CINEMATHEQUE

The Light of Home and Play: Shorts Program

Various Directors, Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, China, 2011-2014, 79 mins

The Palyul Elementary School • Palden Nyandrak, 2014, 30 mins Palden Nyandrak, a teacher at the Palyul Elementary School, offers us an intimate look at children’s daily life—from the classroom to the playground.

Yak Dung • Dhazey Golog, 2011, 49 mins With temperatures falling as low as minus 40ºC on the Tibetan plateau, yak dung is a valuable heating source for Tibetan herdsmen. Filmmaker Dhazey Golog explores how this essential resource provides everything from heat and light, to toys and Buddhist figurines.

PART OF FROM OUR EYES, CURATED BY YI CUI. READ MORE ON PAGE 23.

AUDIENCE PARTNER

FRIDAY MAY 11 SATURDAY MAY 12

White Ravens: A Legacy of Resistance Georg Koszulinski, Canada/US, 2018, 86 mins

“Do we have to wait for the older generations to die off before we have any justice? I have more hope than that.”—GEOFF GREENE (HAIDA ARTIST) How do you resist cultural assimilation and maintain a sense of history and tradition in the face of recurring aggression? White Ravens is a critically important lesson about how a people can stand together and fight back with power and dignity. Shot entirely on the remote islands of Haida Gwaii, Georg Koszulinski’s film is a touching portrait of the Haida People. The men and women featured in the film—William, Geoff, Raven, Erika, Ralph, Lisa, Vern, and a poet named Towustasin Stocker—share their stories of pain, anger, and trauma. But it is their resilience, respect for tradition, and deep love for the natural world that most endures.

White Ravens takes us on a remarkable journey to a place of astonishing beauty, but the film maintains its focus on the people who call this extraordinary place home. Their dedication and deep ties to the land give them the strength to fight a Herculean battle. The film shows that the fight is not over for the Haida people, nor for other Indigenous people all over the world. -ML SCREENING PARTNER

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7:00 PM MOV 2:00 PM VANCITY

FRIDAY MAY 11 SUNDAY MAY 13

7:00 PM VANCITY 12:00 PM CINEMATHEQUE

Shifting Worlds: Shorts Program This selection of short films explores the multilayered effects of displacement through a variety of refugee, immigrant, and Indigenous-centred stories. -MS

Flat Rocks • Courtney Montour, Canada, 2017, 10 mins With poetic narration in the Mohawk language, Flat Rocks documents Louis Diabo’s fight against the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Kyirong

• Alex de Boer, Canada, 2018, 11 mins

A conversation between father and daughter reveals their healing bond.

Crisanto Street

• Paloma Martinez, US, 2018, 10 mins

A young boy captures a moment of change for his immigrant family in California.

At Home with the Horses • D. Alansari & E. Sanderson, Canada, 2017, 16 mins Fourteen-year-old Reem struggles to adapt to a new reality after fleeing Syria.

The Fourth Kingdom • Adán Aliaga & Àlex Lora, Spain/US, 2017, 14 mins Against the backdrop of the American Dream and a kingdom of plastic, a bottle return depot serves as a refuge for a community on the fringes of society.

Oh Brother Octopus

• Florian Kunert, Germany, 2017, 27 mins

An idyllic rural landscape, shaped by traditional beliefs and practices, is juxtaposed with its dystopian equivalent in rapidly expanding Jakarta.

FRIDAY MAY 11 SUNDAY MAY 13

8:15 PM SFU 8:00 PM CINEMATHEQUE

Freaks and Geeks: The Documentary Brent Hodge, Canada/US, 2018, 71 mins

Though only eighteen episodes in length, the cultural relevance of Freaks and Geeks continues to grow. Not only has it achieved cult status and amassed a legion of dedicated fans, it also helped usher in a new era of Hollywood talent including Judd Apatow, Paul Feig, Seth Rogen, James Franco, and Busy Philipps among others. Along with its oddball cast, its heartfelt, hilarious, and ultimately realistic storylines fundamentally changed the way high school is depicted in popular media.

Filmmaker Brent Hodge, whose previous DOXA screenings include A Brony Tale and Pistol Shrimps, explores the life and death of this television phenomenon through a series of emotionally honest interviews with its entire creative team. Hodge reveals that, much like the show itself, the behind-the-scenes story of Freaks and Geeks is a true underdog tale. Constructed by a group of former-geeks-cum-television-writers and a cast of actors who looked nothing like the teenagers on 90210, the show became a critical hit and yet was cancelled after only one season. Those closest to the show passionately explain the reasons for its success and downfall, as well as the impact it had on their own career trajectories.

Funny, vulnerable, and deeply affectionate, Freaks and Geeks: The Documentary offers a balance of nostalgia and dissection in examining what makes a show good versus what makes a show successful. It is an intimate conversation with one of the most awkwardly endearing (and therefore accurate) depictions of the high school experience ever presented on TV. -AL

AUDIENCE PARTNER

DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

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8:30 PM CINEMATHEQUE

SATURDAY MAY 12

12:00 PM CINEMATHEQUE THE SUORI FAMILY AND THE SNOW LEOPARD

Six Portraits XL

The Disquieting Whisper: Shorts Program

No. 6 Léon

My Himalayan Vulture • Tashi Sange, 22 mins

Alain Cavalier, France, 2017, 52 mins

“A surly, clever and sensitive cobbler, Léon Maghazadjan has been repairing shoes in his district for 47 years. He’s a star. With one hint after another, he announces his forthcoming retirement. Desolation ensues.” -ALAIN CAVALIER In his tiny shop, Léon strips, cuts, glues, nails, polishes, and sometimes grabs a quick nap. More than a cobbler, he is the secret soul of the place. His old customers from the neighbourhood pay him a last visit. He listens to their stories and makes them smile. His lease has finally sold, and he has to move the accumulated paraphernalia, including his old sewing machine and the many impeccably repaired shoes that nobody will ever claim. -TG PRECEDED BY

Portraits • Alain Cavalier, France, 1987, 3 x 13 mins L’Orangère: Emilienne has braided crowns of orange blossoms, symbol of the pure virginal maiden, for 40 years. But she is sometimes dark and gloomy.

La Dame-lavabo: For 20 years in the basement of the Grand Café Royal Printemps in Paris, Amelia recognizes the sound of a 20-cent or 50-cent tip that customers leave for her after a visit to the lavatory.

La Fleuriste: “Flowers are my life, flowers are my way,” explains Violette, who runs a little shop in a Parisian street for many years and has no time to care for a husband.

THIS FILM IS PART OF THE FRENCH FRENCH PROGRAM. MORE ON PAGE 30.

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Various Directors, Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, China, 2013-2017

Traditionally, when livestock passed away, Tibetan herdsmen left the carcasses as food for vultures and other carnivores. Now that it’s become more common to sell them at the market, a local monk named Tashi Sange wonders if this will lead to the decline of the Himalayan vulture.

The Disquiet of the Worshipers • Paltse, 16 mins As local Tibetans have become wealthier, there has a been an increase in the ritual of sacrificing goods to water. Monk Paltse reflects on changing traditions asking the question, “Is the worship turning into damage?”

The Tourists • Dhukar Kyab, 16 mins A group of Tibetans guide tourists through the beautiful and expansive land of Nyanpo Yuzee. A young herdsman named Dhukar Kyab captures the interaction between the locals and outsiders with his video camera.

The Suori Family and the Snow Leopard • Druk Kyab, 28 mins Snow leopards are descending from the mountains to feed on livestock. Filmmaker Druk Kyab explores this phenomenon through the experience of one family.

PART OF FROM OUR EYES, CURATED BY YI CUI. READ MORE ON PAGE 23.

AUDIENCE PARTNER

SATURDAY MAY 12

2:30 PM CINEMATHEQUE

SATURDAY MAY 12

4:30 PM VANCITY

SUNSHINE ON THE PILGRIMAGE

The Song and Sunshine: Shorts Program

Those Who Come, Will Hear

The Light • Gonpo Tashi, 8 mins

“When a word is offered it never dies. Those who come will hear. Menutakuaki aimun, apu nita nipumakak. Tshika petamuat nikan tshe takushiniht.” -JOSÉPHINE BACON

Various Directors, Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, China, 2018

In this mesmerizing cinematic study, young filmmaker Gonpo Tashi captures moments of campus life at the Jigme Gyaltsen Tibetan College, where he is currently studying.

The Search • Losang Nyima, 6 mins Inspired by a Tibetan proverb, Losang Nyima devotes a short film to the observation of ants.

The Fire-cleanse-throne • Tserang Thar, 13 mins A visual poem that highlights how the traditional fire-cleanse throne is made and used in the local Tibetan New Year rituals.

Sunshine on the Pilgrimage • Lhape Lokar, 28 mins A group of young men embark on a spiritual pilgrimage full of jokes, games, laughter, and moments of daydreaming.

The Song of Home • Bey Choesam, 28 mins A loving contemplation of the filmmaker’s family life in the summer pasture, high in the mountains.

PART OF FROM OUR EYES, CURATED BY YI CUI. READ MORE ON PAGE 23.

AUDIENCE PARTNER

Simon Plouffe, Canada, 2017, 77 mins

(INNU POET)

Simon Plouffe’s atmospheric and immersive film offers an opportunity to explore the musicality and cultural significance of many Indigenous languages, all of which are at risk of disappearing. Contemporary speakers of a variety of languages in Northern Quebec including: Abenaki (language from Odanak); Atikamekw (language from Manawan); Innu (language from Mani-Utenam); Inuttitut (language from Inukjuak); Kanien’keháka (Mohawk) (language from Kahnawake); and Naskapi (language from Kawawachicamach) share their knowledge, struggles, and passion to protect their ancestral oral traditions.

Those Who Come, Will Hear makes the case that simple activities such as singing hymns at church, hosting a radio show, or teaching children can become radical acts of language revitalization and decolonization. -SC PRECEDED BY:

To Wake Up the Nakota Language Louise BigEagle, Canada, 2017, 8 mins

A tender portrait of Armand McArthur, the last fluent speaker of the Nakota language in Pheasant Rump First Nation, Treaty 4 territory in southern Saskatchewan. “When you don’t know your language or your culture, you don’t know who you are,” explains Armand. -SC THIS SCREENING IS PART OF THE JUSTICE FORUM SERIES AND WILL INCLUDE A POST-FILM DISCUSSION. READ MORE ON PAGE 18.

DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

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SUNDAY MAY 13

2:00 PM SFU

HARD WORK

VALUES SOCIAL CHANGE

A Six Dollar Cup of Coffee Andres Ibañez and Alejandro Diaz, Mexico, 2017, 70 mins

ACTIVISM AUTHENTICITY

COMMUNITY

What would you think is more shocking: a one-dollar cup of coffee or a six-dollar cup of coffee? All operators of the coffee industry agree on the answer: a one-dollar cup of coffee shouldn’t even be a reality. Unfortunately, as the film demonstrates, this is the only thing they can agree on.

When a coffee co-op founded by Indigenous producers in Chiapas, Mexico decides to sell processed coffee, instead of selling green coffee, a Japanese company buys most of their product. Everything seems great. But after a fungus destroys 70% of the production, and the Japanese sell their chain restaurants, the co-op has to start all over again. From the mountains of Mexico to a fancy coffee shop in Seattle, the narrative takes us through the entire process of coffee-making and trading. Through a wide range of interviewees, all coffee aficionados, the two directors reveal how complex this highly globalized market has become. Despite a facade of good intentions, fair solutions are not easy to come by. A Six Dollar Cup of Coffee doesn’t try to provide answers or solutions to the current situation.

Rather, co-directors Andres Ibañez and Alejandro Diaz, themselves coffee lovers, aim to remind people what is behind the scenes. And the real price of the coffee that we all so enjoy. -ML THE SCREENING IS PART OF THE JUSTICE FORUM SERIES AND WILL INCLUDE A POST-FILM DISCUSSION. READ MORE ON PAGE 18.

SCREENING PARTNER

www.ccec.bc.ca

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TICKETS AND GENERAL FESTIVAL INFORMATION

MEMBERSHIP

$2 • DOXA presents films that have not been seen by Consumer Protection BC. Under BC law, anyone wishing to see these unclassified films must be a member of The Documentary Media Society, and at least 18 years of age, unless otherwise stated.

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.

INDUSTRY

INDUSTRY PANELS (each) $15 / INDUSTRY PASS $65

For DOC BC, CMPA-BC and Capilano U members: INDUSTRY PANELS (each) $10 / INDUSTRY PASS $40 The Industry Pass provides access to all Industry programming. See page 14-15 for details.

HOW TO BUY TICKETS

GENERAL ADMISSION: $15

Weekday evenings and weekends WEEKDAY MATINEE TICKETS: $13

Weekday films starting at 5:00pm or earlier STUDENTS (with valid ID) / SENIORS (65+) / LOW INCOME $2 discount from regular prices for any film screening except for opening and closing night films SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS: $18

Opening night, closing night and screening at the Annex MOV SCREENING: $19 / EARLYBIRD $14

See page 76 for details

FESTIVAL PASS

ONLINE

doxafestival.ca • Tickets are available for purchase online up to two hours in advance of the screening. If the screening takes place within two hours, tickets must be purchased at the venue box office.

COMMUNITY BOX OFFICE

#110 – 750 Hamilton St. • From April 21- 22 (12pm to 5pm), buy your hard copy tickets in person at the DOXA office.

VENUES

VIFF’s Vancity and The Cinematheque (May 4-13) • Tickets available for all festival screenings. Box office opens 30 minutes prior to the first screening of the day at the venue.

SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts (May 6-13) • Tickets are available for all festival screenings and events at this venue. Box office opens 30 minutes prior to the first screening of the day at the venue.

$195

Includes membership; valid for all film screenings including opening and closing films

REFUND POLICY

All sales are final. DOXA only offers refunds in cases of technical failure or cancellation of screening.

FESTIVAL TICKET PACKS

5 TICKETS: $65 / 10 TICKETS: $115

Festival 5 and 10 Ticket Packs are only available online and are valid for one ticket per screening. All films must be chosen at time of purchase.

NOTE: Ticket Packs are NOT valid for opening, closing, MOV screening or Annex screening and do not include the $2 membership.

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EXCHANGE POLICY

Tickets may be exchanged for a $3 service fee for each ticket exchanged. This must be done in person at a DOXA Box Office at least one hour before screening time. Exchanges can only be issued to the original purchaser with a valid picture ID. Complimentary and contest tickets cannot be exchanged.

RUSH TICKETS

Rush tickets may be available at the door when all advance tickets have been sold.

A generous allotment of seats are reserved for passholders. Any unclaimed seats will be released starting 10 minutes prior to the screening on a first come, first serve basis.

WILL CALL

Will Call opens 60 minutes prior to opening, closing, and 30 minutes prior for all other screenings. Please arrive in advance to allow time to pick up your order. You must present your ID for pick up.

AUDIENCE AUDIENCE AUDIENCE SURVEY AUDIENCE SURVEY SURVEY SURVEY

THEATRE PROCEDURES FOR FESTIVAL PASSHOLDERS

Bring your festival pass and membership and arrive at least 15 minutes prior to the screening you wish to attend. Festival passholders are not guaranteed seating to sold-out shows. All passes are strictly non-transferable and passholders are required to show ID.

ACCESSIBILITY

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 for advance ticket purchases. Attendants accompanying people with disabilities will be admitted at no cost.

Fill out DOXA’s 2018 Audience Survey and Fillyou outcould DOXA’s 2018 Audience win goodies from ourSurvey pals atand Fill out DOXA’s 2018 Audience Survey youDOXA’s could win goodies fromCity ourBrewing palsand atand FillModo, out 2018 Audience Survey JJ Bean, and Central you could win goodies from our pals Modo, JJ win Bean, and Central City Brewing you could goodies from our pals at at Modo, Bean, and Central City Brewing Modo, JJ JJ Bean, and Central City Brewing

DOXA OFFICE

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

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

Find the survey at every screening venue and online at Find the surveydoxafestival.ca/survey at every screening venue and online at Find the survey doxafestival.ca/survey at every screening venue and online at Find the survey at every screening venue and online at doxafestival.ca/survey doxafestival.ca/survey DOX AFESTIVAL .CA

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PHOTOS: AVRIL WOODEND

DOXA’S FALL FUNDRAISER

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DOXA’s annual fundraiser featured a rollicking pop culture quiz night hosted by the Vancouver Quizmasters. Attendees put their pop culture trivia skills to the test against the city’s biggest and baddest film nerds, while enjoying food, drinks, and more than a few laughs at Big Rock Urban.

liisa hannus

The Pint

Line 21 Media

Theatre Replacement

Lisa Lou Chocolate Bar

Thomas Hass

Lorne and Lapham

Touchstone Theatre

Thank you to all these folks who donated items for our silent auction:

Mint Records

UFCW 1518

Music on Main

Urban Caribou B&B

National Film Board

Vancouver Aquarium

OK Tire - Richmond Foundation

Vancouver Folk Music Festival

PuSh Festival

Vancouver International Film Festival

Raku Therapeutic Japanese Head Massage

Vancouver International Wine Festival

Air North

Chris Dafoe

Amy & Michael Shibasaki

The Cinematheque

Arts Club

Coastal Jazz & Blues Society

Arts Umbrella

The Cultch: Vancouver East Cultural Centre + York Theatre

Banyen Books Bard on the Beach Bicycle Sports Pacific Bonniebrook Lodge & Chasters Restaurant

Dance House Easy Park Ecomarine Paddlesport Centres Elena Medi Spa

Brassneck Brewery

Forbidden Vancouver

Burrowing Owl Estate Winery

Fusion Cine

Cactus Club

G Adventures - Vancouver Concept Store

Captain Cook Travel Caravan World Rhythms CBC Vancouver Chan Centre for the Performing Arts Chateau Ste. Michelle

A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO OUR WONDERFUL EVENT SPONSORS:

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Georgia Straight Great Canadian Gaming Hastings Park Racecourse

Rebus Creative

Vancouver Opera

Red Cat Records

Vancouver Queer Film Festival / Out On Screen

Rogue Folk Club

Vancouver Symphony Orchestra

Saul Good Gift Co.

Westcoast Sightseeing Tour

Save On Meats

Women in Film & Television

Seattle International Film Festival Shelter Point Distillery Sidesaddle Smartypantz Escape Room St Genève

International Cellars

Tabua Tattoo

John Fluevog Shoes

The Keg

This evening would not be possible without the assistance of our incredible volunteers, DOXA’s hardworking Board of Directors, and the dedicated Fundraising Committee. Thanks team!

DOXA

CHAMBAR

FILMMAKER BRUNCH FUNDRAISER

LIVE MUSIC • MEET THE FILMMAKER WHEN SUNDAY 29 APRIL 2018 1:30PM – 4:00PM

WHERE CHAMBAR 568 BEATTY ST. VANCOUVER, BC

WAJD: SONGS OF SEPARATION

REGISTRATION REQUIRED

•

FOR MORE INFORMATION

DOXAFESTIVAL.CA/BRUNCH

M O R E G R E AT F I L M F E S T I VA L S

Reel 2 Real International Film Festival for Youth

Vancouver Jewish Film Festival

April 8-14, 2018 | r2rfestival.org

November 8-18, 2018 | vjff.org

R2R is a week-long celebration of diverse, imaginative, fun, and inspiring films for children and youth ages 6-19 and their families. Programs include live-action, animated, and documentary films from around the world with filmmaker guests in attendance, hands-on workshops, a Youth Media Conference, and a showcase of films made by youth. Don’t miss Sunday Fun Day! Come early for a pancake breakfast, then spend the day watching films and making animation. R2R is sure to delight, move and amaze audiences of all ages.

The Vancouver Jewish Film Centre will present its 30th annual Vancouver Jewish Film Festival in November 2018 with an engaging mix of narrative and documentary films to amuse, educate and provoke conversation. The Jewish Film Centre screens films monthly at various venues around Vancouver. We present films that showcase the diversity of Jewish culture, heritage and identity. We foster community consultation, multiculturalism and inclusiveness.

Celebrating 30 years

The Vancouver Queer Film Festival

Rendez-VousFrench Film Festival

August 9-19, 2018 | queerfilmfestival.ca

February 2019 | rendez-vousvancouver.com

The Vancouver Queer Film Festival is the largest queer arts event in Western Canada and Vancouver’s second largest film festival. The Festival screens films that highlight the tremendous diversity of queer, trans and Two Spirit stories from around the world. Hosting a variety of performances, workshops, panels, and parties featuring dynamic and thought-provoking visiting and local artists, the Festival creates a uniquely queer community space where artists and can celebrate and explore together. 2018 is the Festival’s 30th year, and will take place in various venues throughout Vancouver.

Visions Ouest Productions celebrates its 25th Anniversary! VOP offers a variety of events & activities throughout the year. The 25th Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois et francophone, in February 2019, recognizes the success of Canadian and Francophonie Internationale cinema, celebrating the diversity and talent of our artists. The Rendez-Vous French Festival, Beaux Jeudis Serie and the School Matinees screenings provide ideal opportunities to foster the link with the francophone community via the presentation of top quality films presented with English subtitles.

16th Vancouver Latin American Film Festival

Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Official Documentary Film Festival

August 23 - September 2, 2018 | vlaff.org I’m more kick-ass than beautiful, and I’m very beautiful. -MARÍA FELIX

February 2019 | kdocsff.com

Come join us for the 16th Vancouver Latin American Film Festival as we showcase an amazing lineup of films from over 17 countries in 11 different languages (always with English subtitles). Highlights this year will include a focus on films from Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru as part of our Cine Andino Guest Region and a Spotlight on Black Filmmakers. Have a great time at DOXA and see you all on August 23!

Uniting learners through social justice, global citizenship, and creative solution-building, KDocs is Metro Vancouver’s premiere social justice film festival. KDocs showcases award-winning documentary films, keynote speakers, filmmakers, panelists, exhibitors, and community members. Participants engage in lively discussion, debate, and dialogue as they investigate today’s most pressing global issues.