2024 DOXA Documentary Film Festival

CONTENTS The Documentary Media Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Thank You to Our Donors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Welcome from DOXA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 In Memoriam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Greetings from Our Funders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

SPOTLIGHT

Paint Me a Film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 SPOTLIGHT

“The Devil Stole Our Laughter” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 SPOTLIGHT

True Lies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Rated Y for Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 CURATED PROGRAM

Anna by Dennis Lim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Screening Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Venues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 RETROSPECTIVE

SPOTLIGHT

Awards and Juries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Children of the Sun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Cédric Dupire + Gaspard Kuentz . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

DOXA Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

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

Tickets and General Festival Information . . . . . . 77

SCREENINGS Adrianne & the Castle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

In Praise of Slowness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Quiet As It’s Kept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story . . . . . . 29

Intercepted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

The Real Superstar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Am I the skinniest person you’ve ever seen? . . . 74

I Used to Live There . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Red Fever . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Amor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Journal Afghan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Sarcophagus of Drunken Loves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

The Anarchist Lunch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Just a Soul Responding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Anna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Kamay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

The Secret Garden ‫ الحديقة السرّيّة‬. . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Seeking Mavis Beacon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Années en parenthèses 2020-2022 (Years in Brackets 2020-2022) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Kings of the Wind & Electric Queens . . . . . . . . . 45

A Short Film About a Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

The Archive: Queer Nigerians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

La Cancha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Singing Back the Buffalo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

La Guardia Blanca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Some Thoughts on the Common Toad . . . . . . . . 70

As Grey Falls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

La Laguna del Soldado . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Songs of Love and Hate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Between Pictures: The Lens of Tamio Wakayama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Last Things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

The Stimming Pool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Black Box Diaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Le Sentier des Asphodèles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Sugarcane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Let The Red Moon Burn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Tea Creek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Life is Beautiful . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Testudo Hermanni . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Los dos lados de la tortuga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

This Line Connects the Void . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Mambar Pierrette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Tongo Saa (Rising Up at Night) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

A Man Imagined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Twig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Bye Bye Tiberias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Cake and Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 The Cemetery of Cinema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 City of Poets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Cold and Dark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Dau:añcut (Moving Along Image) . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Diaries from Lebanon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Dinosauria, We . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying . . . . . . . . . 74 Elefsina Notre Amour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Meezan ‫ میزان‬. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55

Union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Minutes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

The Wasp and the Orchid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

The Movie Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

We Don’t Care About Music Anyway... . . . . . . . 66

My Worst Enemy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Where Zebus Speak French . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

nanekawâsis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

While the Green Grass Grows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

El Neceser Rojo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

The Nights Still Smell of Gunpowder . . . . . . . . . 57

Wilfred Buck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

The Originals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

The World is Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Eternal You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Ottu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Wouldn’t Make It Any Other Way . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Families’ Albums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Persian Pride . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Yintah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Here and There . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Plastic People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

The Zola Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Holiday Native Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Prends, Seigneur, Prends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

I’m Not Everything I Want to Be . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Quebrante . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

THE DOCUMENTARY MEDIA SOCIET Y

OUR MISSION:

DOXA STAFF, BOARD & COMMITTEES:

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

DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS + FINANCE

WE’RE COMMITTED TO: • Cultivating curiosity and critical thought • Promoting the intersection of actuality and artistic expression • Fostering a local and international community interested in non-fiction media OUR MANDATE: DOXA is presented annually by The Documentary Media Society, a Vancouver based non-profit, charitable society (incorporated in 1998) devoted to presenting independent and innovative documentaries to Vancouver audiences. The Documentary Media Society is a founding member tenant of the 110 Arts Co-op, which manages The Post at 750, a collection of office and studio facilities.

The Documentary Media Society is located on the traditional and stolen territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples. We are immensely thankful for the opportunity to present challenging and affirming nonfiction media on these lands, which have been cared for by xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and səlilwətaɬ peoples in perpetuity.

To work and live on stolen land requires consistent interrogation of given histories, systems and identities.

We believe that documentaries can be an important tool in this process.

Atenas Contreras DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMMING

Sarah Ouazzani DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT + SPECIAL PROGRAMS

Sarah Bakke

VOLUNTEER SERVICES + OPERATIONS DIRECTOR

Gina Garenkooper

PROGRAMMING + INDUSTRY MANAGER

Özgün Gündüz

MARKETING + COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER

Jasmine Monton

PROGRAMMING + AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR

anata laylay calcitas

HOSPITALITY + GUEST SERVICES COORDINATOR

Jeana Hamilton

DIGITAL PRINT TRAFFIC COORDINATOR

Eirinn McHattie

VENUE MANAGERS AND CASHIERS

Aya Alvarez Prue Baker Charlie Cooper Kathleen Edwards Mónica Perea Alina Quarin Amélia Simard Jelena Simović Mustafa Syed Monique Teate Harmeet Kaur Virdee Graham Wong PROGRAMMING CONSULTANTS

Dharra Budicha Selina Crammond Jesse Cumming PROGRAM BOOK + WEBSITE COPY EDITOR

Patrick Geraghty MEDIA RELATIONS

Marnie Wilson / Artsbiz Public Relations

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Steve Chow / chowdesign.ca

WEB DEVELOPMENT

PROGRAM OUTREACH + VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR

Left Right Minds / leftrightminds.com

AUDIENCE SERVICES COORDINATOR

Roelof Bootsma

Rea Chatterjee

Mickey Brazeau

DEVELOPMENT OFFICER

Anthony Kit Chun Lee

BOARD OF DIRECTORS TREASURER

Martin Gerson Jamala MacRae SECRETARY

Michelle Mason Debra Pentecost CHAIR

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PROGRAMMING COMMITTEE

Laura Arboleda Brit Bachmann Sarah Bakke Dharra Budicha Josie Boyce anata laylay calcitas Joseph Clark Selina Crammond Özgün Gündüz Jessica Johnson Julie Le Hegarat Bailey Nicholson Sarah Ouazzani Carson Pfahl Anant Prabhakar Kristina Rothstein Barney Sprague SCREENING COMMITTEE

Laura Arboleda Brit Bachmann Sarah Bakke Jurgen Beerwald Josie Boyce Dharra Budicha anata laylay calcitas Atenas Contreras Selina Crammond Derrick Daniel Isabel Gonzales Özgün Gündüz liisa hannus David House Michael Ioannou Gerald Joe Jessica Johnson Viktor Koren Julie Le Hegarat Samantha Marier Abigail Markowitz Jasmine Monton

Bailey Nicholson Sarah Ouazzani Kristina Rothstein Barney Sprague Sara Wylie FUNDRAISING COMMITTEE

Sarah Bakke Joseph Bardsley Susan Lavitt Jamala MacRae Gina Garenkooper ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Nova Ami Kris Anderson Colin Browne Szu Burgess Peg Campbell Mel D’Souza Cari Green Alex Mackenzie Wendy Oberlander Carmen Rodriguez Aerlyn Weissman GUEST CURATOR

Dennis Lim WRITERS

Tania Alekson Sarah Bakke Michelle Bjornson Dharra Budicha anata laylay calcitas Joseph Clark Özgün Gündüz liisa hannus Jasmine Monton Sarah Ouazzani Kristina Rothstein Barney Sprague

THANK YOU TO OUR DONORS

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

ADVOCATE

DIRECTOR

Roelof Bootsma Andrea Gin & Joseph Clark Lion’s Mane Fund Tony Fogarassy

For more information about our individual giving program, contact Sarah Bakke, Director of Development + Special Programs, at sarah@doxafestival.ca or 604.646.3200 extension 104.

Laura Moore Not Just Coffee Fund Vivienne Taylor

John Roger Holdstock Eileen Mate Debra Pentecost In memory of Jeanne Pentecost Vancouver Film Studios Marcie Good and Allan Klassen Gifting Fund

Layne Hellrung Neil Jones Rodway Stacy LeBlanc Jamala MacRae Kenji Maeda Moshe Mastai Carol Newell

Joseph Planta Veronica Singer Teri Snelgrove Sally Taylor Kam Wai Dim Sum

THANK YOU

MOTIVATOR

Colin Browne Patrick Carroll Janice Chutter Marian Collins Simon Cowell Blair Cresswell Martin Gerson

SUPPORTER

Mike Archibald Peter Cameron Paul Coulter Tara Flynn Marco Fratarcangeli liisa hannus Carol Jerde Bruce Pentecost

FRIEND

Carson Pfahl Ana Policzer Michele Rechtman Smolkin Mo Simpson In honour of Haida Paul Leslie Thompson Ashleigh Withall David Wong

Conor B Christopher Bailey Harold Bakke Janet Berry Michelle Bjornson D. Mark Budd Stephanie Cansfield Linda Chinn Carole Clubb BE Maike Engelbrecht Tanya Fader Miriam Gropper Maude Henri-Bhargava Ian Hibbert

Xinying Hu Annie Huston Jessica Isbister Laura Jones To Roger, best English teacher!

Kirk Jong Shona Lam Denise A Lee Janice Lo Robin Macqueen Melissa McCluskey Terri Newell Patsy Pang Jorge Pereira Efrain Perez

Nancy Pollak Bonnie Soon Karen Springle Yana Tarassova Jay Michael Weiler Carmen Wiseman Ryan Wong Leanne Wood Brandon Yan ...and all of our anonymous donors

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WELCOME FROM DOXA WELCOME FROM THE CHAIR OF THE BOARD

WELCOME FROM THE PROGRAMMING DIRECTOR

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Documentary Media Society, I am very pleased to welcome you to the 2024 DOXA Documentary Film Festival.

Welcome back to the Documentary Galaxy!

This year marks the 23rd edition of the festival. As incoming Board Chair and a long-standing DOXA board member, I am honoured to have been part of this festival for over a decade. Throughout the years, I have watched dedicated staff work tirelessly to bring documentary cinema, in its myriad forms, to Vancouver audiences. Whether the films enlighten and embolden understanding, critique and call for social change, or embrace innovation and experimentation with the cinematic form, DOXA always embraces its mission: to support a better understanding of the complexity of our times through engaging audiences in documentary media as an art form. It is vitally important that we be reminded of the power of nonfiction storytelling to enhance our understanding of the world by sharing a diversity of experiences and voices.

We extend a warm welcome to the local, national, and international filmmakers whose films will screen at this year’s festival. In the spirit of our commitment to cultivating curiosity and fostering critical thought, we are proud to provide a forum for discussion. These opportunities for vibrant dialogue are the very essence of the festival, and are what separates the viewing room of one’s living room from the shared communal experience of the theatre at festival time. We are proud of our long-standing festival streams, including Rated Y for Youth, Justice Forum, and DOXA Industry.

Organizing the festival is an immense task involving many talented people. It would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of our staff, volunteers, and Board members. Thank you to you all. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank former Board Chair, Ken Tsui, for the passion and care he extended to DOXA. Ken brought knowledge, experience, and intelligence to the position and these, along with his infectious energy, are missed by us all.

I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to our funders, sponsors, and donors.

Finally, we are deeply grateful to the filmmakers and audiences who will join us in fostering discourse through documentary. We hope that you will be engaged and entertained with this year’s program. Enjoy the festival!

Debra Pentecost BOARD CHAIR

All year long we’ve been looking forward to this great reunion of our documentary family; to gather around the warm fire of the theatre screen and share an experience together.

First of all, I am forever grateful to the programming team—screening and programming committees, staff, our guest curator Dennis Lim—and to the filmmakers, who trust us to share their stories. As well, I thank the many DOXA supporters and friends: Natasha Tony, Ken Tsui, Thierry Garrel, Ashleigh Withall, Lizzy Karp, Roger Holdstock, Julie Le Hegarat, Dorothy Woodend, Selina Crammond, Milena Salazar, Dharra Budicha and many more (you know who you are!). Finally, all my gratitude to our volunteers, Board, partners, donors and audience members.

This year’s 23rd edition is a labour of love from the whole team. We hope you will join us for our Opening, Mid-Week and Closing Galas, as well as Industry and networking events, so that we can get together and exchange as a community full of people who care about the future of documentary. All three special presentations this year are Canadian, and we are proud to feature such creative and bold works.

In addition, we are giving a special place to short films this year—there is an abundance of engaging and daring shorts, and I encourage all to seek them out. Our four Spotlight programs are similarly cosmic, and Justice Forum and Rated Y for Youth programs continue to cultivate critical thinking, a DOXA tradition. It is a privilege to welcome so many talented and visionary filmmakers to the festival, to attend their screenings and dialogue with the audience. Don’t miss this opportunity to meet and share with them.

At a time when the world is bleeding, and documentary festivals, arts and culture are going through an unprecedented crisis, I asked myself often while preparing this edition: “What’s the point?” This edition was prepared from a place of permanent mourning. The films in the program were a comforting refuge.

If creative and critical documentary films are now only being watched by a handful of already convinced cinephiles, and if the cultural world itself—though (hopefully) driven largely by shared humanist ideals—struggles today to demonstrate solidarity, how can we cultivate lasting hope and create, discuss and disseminate art that we consider essential to a better understanding of our shared world?

Perhaps it’s time to return to the very essence of cinema. Opposite from mainstream media and social networks, cinema is by nature a posteriori; it is often produced over a long period of time, written with the benefit of hindsight, and received over a period of years. Artists’ views of the world will remain, far into the future.

Sarah Ouazzani

DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMMING

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I N

M E M O R I A M

We would like to dedicate the festival to a long-time colleague and friend of DOXA, who passed away earlier this year.

Allyson McGrane For many years, Allyson was an integral part of the DOXA extended universe, helping to craft the festival’s website and digital presence alongside her partner, Shane Birley. Her punchy and often dry sense of humour was a welcome respite from the chaos of festival planning. She was an integral spark to the DOXA flame, and her friendship will be incredibly missed.

IN MEMORIAM

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Celebrating

independent and innovative visions with the DOXA Documentary Film Festival

TELEFILM.CA

GREETINGS FROM OUR FUNDERS

On behalf of Premier David Eby and the Government of British Columbia, welcome to the 2024 DOXA Documentary Film Festival.

Documentaries are a great educational tool, helping us to learn, appreciate and understand the world around us.

Every year, DOXA presents the finest documentary content from Canada and beyond. Over the course of the festival, audiences will have the opportunity to watch a range of independent and innovative documentaries and participate in panel discussions, public forums, and educational programs.

BC’s creative sector is a crucial economic driver in our province, and we are proud of its ongoing success. Film festivals, such as DOXA, play an important role in showcasing the diversity and strength of our creative sector. That’s why our government is proud to support DOXA through Creative BC and the BC Arts Council.

I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to the filmmakers behind DOXA. Your passion and hard work shine through in the powerful stories you bring to the screen.

Thank you for shedding light on important social issues and sparking conversations that matter.

As we embark on this cinematic journey together, may DOXA continue to be a driving force for exploration, empowerment, and positive change.

Best wishes for another successful event.

Sincerely,

The Honourable Lana Popham MINISTER OF TOURISM, ARTS, CULTURE AND SPORT

Welcome to the DOXA Documentary Film Festival.

This thought-provoking gathering attracts some of the best documentary films from Canada and around the world, while giving audiences a chance to connect with the filmmakers to discuss their vision and craft. For those in the industry, DOXA gives them a chance to network and connect with their peers.

Our government supports the arts across Canada, including this festival. We know that artists inspire positive change, curiosity, understanding and inclusion in our society.

As Minister of Canadian Heritage, I thank everyone involved in this year’s celebration.

To better understand the human condition, fully experience the world around us and challenge our assumptions, we need art, now more than ever.

More engagement, connection and inspiration are what the arts promise us and what you are bringing to life, collectively, through this unique gathering of the arts and culture in Canada.

The Canada Council for the Arts is a proud supporter of the DOXA Documentary Film Festival, and I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to all those involved.

Michelle Chawla DIRECTOR AND CEO CANADA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS

Enjoy the shows!

The Honourable Pascale St-Onge MINISTER OF CANADIAN HERITAGE

Showcasing and celebrating the works of Canadian creators is at the heart of what we do at Telefilm. That is why we are proud to partner with the 2024 DOXA Documentary Film Festival, to further boost our support for Canadian creatives at home and around the world.

In this ever-evolving cultural landscape, festivals continue to play an important role in the film industry, growing the talent pool, as well as allowing audiences to celebrate and connect with distinctive Canadian films and the talent behind them.

We encourage you to keep supporting Canadian talent in theatres and on digital platforms!

Julie Roy EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND CEO TELEFILM CANADA

Welcome to DOXA! The BC Arts Council is proud to support the DOXA Documentary Film Festival for another year of documentary films that cultivate curiosity and critical thought.

Through the art of documentary cinema, storytellers help us understand the complexity of our world. They bring us stories that showcase ideas, highlight global and local issues, and perhaps challenge the way we think.

What makes DOXA so special is that their programs allow us to hear directly from filmmakers and engage in critical dialogue with one another.

Congratulations to the team and volunteers for another successful festival!

Sincerely,

Dr. Sae-Hoon Stan Chung CHAIR BC ARTS COUNCIL

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS FUNDERS

MAJOR PARTNER

PREMIER MEDIA PARTNER

PREMIER PRINT MEDIA PARTNER

CULTURAL PARTNERS AND CONSULATES

AWARD PARTNERS

INDUSTRY PROGRAM PARTNERS

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INDUSTRY PROGRAM PREMIER PARTNERS

MAJOR MEDIA PARTNER

MEDIA PARTNERS

HOSPITALITY PARTNERS

PRINT PARTNER

TRANSPORTATION PARTNER

TECHNICAL PARTNER

DISTRIBUTION PARTNER

SCREENING PARTNERS

AUDIENCE PARTNERS

ACFC WEST, LOCAL 2020 UNIFOR

LABOUR STUDIES PROGRAM

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A W A R D S

A N D

J U R I E S

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.

NIGEL MOORE AWARD FOR YOUTH PROGRAMMING

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

DOXA is very happy to welcome an outstanding group of filmmakers, film critics and industry professionals to the Award Juries this year. Jury members meet during the course of the festival to choose the winning films, as well as award honourable mentions to selected films. See doxafestival.ca for more information on this year’s juries.

ELEVATE AWARD

PRESENTED BY

The Elevate Award celebrates outstanding work by a filmmaker from an equity-deserving community. Filmmakers with lived experience outside the white, cis-hetero, neurotypical and able-bodied “norm” face barriers to success in the documentary industry— the Elevate Award amplifies their excellence.

IN COMPETITION

Conor McNally nanekawâsis (p. 27)

Mohamed Jabaly Life is Beautiful (p. 51)

Ilyas Yourish and Shahrokh Bikaran Kamay (p. 45)

Myriam El Hajj Diaries from Lebanon (p. 39)

Inadelso Cossa The Nights Still Smell of Gunpowder

Nantenaina Lova Where Zebus Speak French (p. 67)

(p. 57)

Jennifer Wickham, Brenda Michell and Michael Toledano Yintah (p. 69) Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie Sugarcane (p. 64) Lina Soualem Bye Bye Tiberias (p. 37) Lisa Jackson Wilfred Buck (p. 68)

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Nelson Makengo Tongo Saa (Rising Up at Night) (p. 65) Saber Zammouri The Wasp and the Orchid (p. 66)

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

IN COMPETITION

Between Pictures: The Lens of Tamio Wakayama (p. 35)

Red Fever (p. 62)

DIRECTED BY CINDY MOCHIZUKI

DIRECTED BY NEIL DIAMOND AND CATHERINE BAINBRIDGE

Here and There (p. 76)

Singing Back the Buffalo (p. 63)

DIRECTED BY CHADI BENNANI

DIRECTED BY TASHA HUBBARD

NIGEL MOORE AWARD JURORS

Tasha Hubbard Singing Back the Buffalo (p. 63) Thierno Souleymane Diallo The Cemetery of Cinema (p. 37)

ANNA HETHERINGTON • DARIUS DARABI • EMILY ASH CUTAJAR • OLIVIA MOORE

PHOTO: TABITHA MORT

DOXA FEATURE DOCUMENTARY AWARD IN COMPETITION

Bye Bye Tiberias (p. 37) DIRECTED BY LINA SOUALEM

The Cemetery of Cinema (p. 37) DIRECTED BY THIERNO SOULEYMANE DIALLO

Diaries from Lebanon (p. 39) DIRECTED BY MYRIAM EL HAJJ

I’m Not Everything I Want to Be (p. 43) DIRECTED BY KLÁRA TASOVSKÁ

COLIN LOW AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN DIRECTOR PRESENTED BY

IN COMPETITION

Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky A Man Imagined (p. 53) Conor McNally nanekawâsis (p. 27) Hejer Charf Années en parenthèses 2020-2022 (Years in Brackets 2020-2022) (p. 33)

DIRECTED BY ILYAS YOURISH AND SHAHROKH BIKARAN

Jennifer Wickham, Brenda Michell and Michael Toledano Yintah (p. 69)

Le Sentier des Asphodèles (The Trail of the Asphodels) (p. 51)

Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie Sugarcane (p. 64)

Kamay (p. 45)

DIRECTED BY MAXIME MARTINOT

Life is Beautiful (p. 51) DIRECTED BY MOHAMED JABALY

The Real Superstar (p. 61) DIRECTED BY CÉDRIC DUPIRE

Seeking Mavis Beacon (p. 62) DIRECTED BY JAZMIN JONES

The Stimming Pool (p. 63) DIRECTED BY THE NEUROCULTURES COLLECTIVE AND STEVEN EASTWOOD

Tongo Saa (Rising Up at Night) (p. 65) DIRECTED BY NELSON MAKENGO

The Wasp and the Orchid (p. 66) DIRECTED BY SABER ZAMMOURI

Where Zebus Speak French (p. 67) DIRECTED BY NANTENAINA LOVA

The Zola Experience (p. 69) DIRECTED BY GIANLUCA MATARRESE

Julien Elie La Guardia Blanca (p. 47) Lisa Jackson Wilfred Buck (p. 68) Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story (p. 29)

Mustafa Uzuner La Cancha (p. 47) Oksana Karpovych Intercepted (p. 43)

DOXA SHORT DOCUMENTARY AWARD IN COMPETITION

Am I the skinniest person you’ve ever seen? (p.74) DIRECTED BY EISHA MARJARA

The Archive: Queer Nigerians (p. 75) DIRECTED BY SIMISOLAOLUWA AKANDE

As Grey Falls (p. 70) DIRECTED BY CHRISTOPHER PAVSEK

Cake and Death (p. 72) DIRECTED BY WILLIAM BROWN

City of Poets (p. 72) DIRECTED BY SARA RAJAEI

Cold and Dark (p. 71) DIRECTED BY PETER HOSTAK

Elefsina Notre Amour (p. 73) DIRECTED BY MAHDI FLEIFEL

El Neceser Rojo (p. 76) DIRECTED BY SERGE GARCIA

Families’ Albums (p. 74) DIRECTED BY MOÏA JOBIN-PARÉ

In Praise of Slowness (p. 76) DIRECTED BY HICHAM GARDAF

I Used to Live There (p. 74)

Let The Red Moon Burn (p. 71) DIRECTED BY RALITSA DONCHEVA

Los dos lados de la tortuga (p. 70) DIRECTED BY OSCAR X. ILLINGWORTH

Ottu (p. 76) DIRECTED BY SANDRA IGNAGNI

Persian Pride (p. 71) DIRECTED BY BITA JOUDAKI

Quebrante (p. 71) DIRECTED BY JANAINA WAGNER

The Secret Garden ‫الحديقة السرّيّة‬ (p. 73)

DIRECTED BY NOUR OUAYDA

A Short Film About a Chair (p. 73) DIRECTED BY IBRAHIM HANDAL

Some Thoughts on the Common Toad (p. 70) DIRECTED BY G. ANTHONY SVATEK

Twig (p. 75) DIRECTED BY CLAIRE SANFORD

Wouldn’t Make It Any Other Way (p. 74)

DIRECTED BY HAO ZHOU

DIRECTED BY RYAN MCKENNA

Pablo Alvarez-Mesa La Laguna del Soldado (p. 49) Shahab Mihandoust Meezan ‫( میزان‬p. 55) Shannon Walsh Adrianne & the Castle (p. 25) 13

M AY 5 S U N DAY

SFU WORLD ART CENTRE

149 WEST HASTINGS ST.

11:00AM

In Focus: International Co-production

DOXA INDUSTRY MAY 5-15 DOXA Industry brings together a diverse community of filmmakers and industry professionals to discuss the art and craft of non-fiction storytelling. Through a series of workshops, roundtable discussions, masterclasses and networking events, we invite filmmakers at all levels of experience to engage in vital conversations while building the skills and connections needed to propel their projects forward.

Please visit doxafestival.ca for full event descriptions, including exact scheduling and registration details.

Making a documentary takes a village, and an increasingly international one. How can Canadian producers make connections abroad and collaborate on a larger scale? Join us as we learn from the expertise of Ina Fichman (Intuitive Pictures) and Hind Saïh (Bellota Films), discussing the landscape of international co-production today.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

1:00PM

Funders Roundtable Local funders come together for an in-depth conversation with producers to provide an overview of their funding streams, detail the recent changes to the funding landscape, and offer advice for emerging to mid-career filmmakers.

3:00PM

In Conversation with Cédric Dupire Join us as we dive deep into the sensorial universe of Cédric Dupire’s filmography. The filmmaker will share his inspirations and motivations in continually pushing the documentary form (and in turn his audience), as well as the process of working with archival footage.

M AY 5 S U N DAY

375 WATER ST.

4:00PM

PRESENTED BY

STEAMWORKS GASTOWN

DOC Northwest Industry Mixer DOC Northwest invites you to this year’s DOXA Industry mixer! Come on out, mingle and relax with fellow filmmakers, colleagues and new friends. We will spotlight DOC members with films in the festival and celebrate the great work of our documentary community.

14

DOX A INDUSTRY

M AY 6 M O N DAY

SFU WORLD ART CENTRE

149 WEST HASTINGS ST.

M AY 7 T U E S DAY

THE POST AT 750

#110-750 HAMILTON ST.

12:30PM

12:30PM

In Conversation with Shannon Walsh

Spotlight on Editing: Pablo Alvarez-Mesa

Award-winning filmmaker, producer and writer Shannon Walsh (The Gig is Up, Illusions of Control) has created an acclaimed body of documentary work, examining such topics as labour rights, grief and climate change. This moderated conversation will dive into her filmography, including her latest film Adrianne & the Castle as well as her new book, The Documentary Filmmaker’s Intuition.

Join us for a conversation with Pablo Alvarez-Mesa about his multi-hyphenate career as an editor (A Man Imagined), director of photography (Adrianne & the Castle) and now feature-length director (La Laguna del Soldado). We will learn from his documentary editing approach, craft and work process in the edit suite.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

M AY 7, 9 & 15

VPL CENTRAL BRANCH

350 WEST GEORGIA ST.

2:30PM

In Focus: International Sales and Distribution Mustafa Uzuner (La Cancha), the founder of Acéphale—a boutique distribution company that focuses on promoting global contemporary cinema—will share his insights on international sales and distribution practices. During this interactive session, we will delve into a wide range of topics ranging from optimal sales strategies to opportunities for international distribution.

VIDEO WORKSHOPS PRESENTED BY

M AY 7

4:30PM

Case Study: Hybridity in Documentary Inspired by the breadth of hybrid works in the industry today, this case study will examine the blurry line between documentary and narrative forms. When does a documentary become fiction, and vice versa? Can we ever truly separate the two? Learn from filmmakers who are working at the intersection of fact and fiction..

DocUBC Logo & Wordmark Ideas

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

|

2:00PM-3:30PM

I N S P I R AT I O N L A B , L E V E L 3

Let’s Talk Planning a Video Project Do you want to make a video, but aren’t sure where to start? Do you have some experience, but are looking for new ways to channel your creativity? In this session, we’ll go over the key things you’ll want to consider before you hit record. No registration required.

M AY 9

|

2:00PM-3:30PM

I N S P I R AT I O N L A B , L E V E L 3

Video Editing with Premiere Pro Learn the basics of editing video with Adobe Premiere Pro! In this hands-on class we will cover a wide range of skills, including: software navigation, basic editing and effects, working with green screen footage, and rendering a project into a final video file.

Registration required. Seating is limited, so please arrive early.

M AY 15

|

2:00PM-3:30PM

I N S P I R AT I O N L A B , L E V E L 3

Storyboarding Basics What are storyboards, and how do you use them? Join us for a presentation on how to use storyboards when planning out a creative project. No registration required.

DOX A INDUSTRY

15

PA I N T

M E

A

In this assemblage of films, the documentary camera turns inward. Looping from director to lens like a cinematic carousel, the films in this Spotlight contend with the camera’s role against a backdrop of sociopolitical themes, its gaze moving across images as both reckoner and redresser; disruptor and archivist; gatherer and memorialist; manipulator and liar.

Between Pictures: The Lens of Tamio Wakayama (p. 35) Cindy Mochizuki, Canada/USA, 2024, 71 mins

Local artist Cindy Mochizuki explores the life and images of the late Japanese-Canadian photographer Tamio Wakayama, whose internment and relocation during WWII had a profound impact on his photography both in BC and, unexpectedly, on the frontlines of the civil rights movement in America’s deep south.

Preceded by the short film Here and There (p. 76)

F I L M

I’m Not Everything I Want to Be (p. 43) Klára Tasovská, Czechia/Slovakia/Austria, 2024, 90 mins

“I need to make sure I exist.” Amidst the tightening grip of Soviet oppression in Czechoslovakia, photographer Libuše Jarcovjáková sought a life of her own.

With psychedelic charm, director Klára Tasovská follows the meandering trajectory and personal diaries of Jarcovjáková who, following the Soviet invasion of Prague in 1968, turned to her camera to assert her presence in a changing, constrained world.

The Cemetery of Cinema (p. 37)

Thierno Souleymane Diallo, France/Senegal/Guinea/Saudi Arabia, 2023, 96 mins

Camera in hand, Guinean filmmaker Thierno Souleymane Diallo sets out to find a film widely believed to be the first made by a Black French-speaking director: Mouramani (1953). But, no one quite knows where it is. At once tender and quirky, The Cemetery of Cinema is a meandering search through the colonial legacy and cinematic history of Guinea.

The Movie Man (p. 55)

Matt Finlin, Canada, 2024, 89 mins

In the heart of Lake Country, Ontario, lies a miniscule town called Kinmount—which, thanks to the singular vision of local septuagenarian Keith Stata, boasts a multiplex cinema located in the middle of its forest. Ever since his first visit as a 12-year-old, director Matt Finlin has recognized the uniqueness of this place, and shares it with the world in this affectionate portrait.

16

SPOTLIGHT

I’M NOT EVERYTHING I WANT TO BE

S P O T L I G H T

The Stimming Pool (p. 63)

The Neurocultures Collective and Steven Eastwood, UK, 2024, 67 mins

Co-directed by The Neurocultures Collective and Steven Eastwood, The Stimming Pool is a cinematic exploration of a world shaped by neurodiverse perspectives. Using what the directors call an ‘autistic camera’, the film navigates environments that are both inclusive and exclusive of the autistic experience before experimenting with a third, alternative space for neurodivergent life.

The Wasp and the Orchid (p. 66) Saber Zammouri, Tunisia/France, 2023, 66 mins

When television first arrived in rural Tunisia, people began turning toward the screen instead of each other. Broadcast images of France began boring into the consciousness of Tunisian communities in a new kind of colonialism. But as villagers migrate in pursuit of the Parisian dream, Saber Zammouri’s eclectic film questions their agency in doing so: “Did someone drive us out of our own country, or did someone lure us to go somewhere else?”

Preceded by the short film In Praise of Slowness (p. 76)

S P O T L I G H T

-I S E L A

G O N Z Á L E Z

LA GUARDIA BLANCA

“ T H E D E V I L S T O L E O U R L A U G H T E R ” D Í A Z

“If I could write about what has happened,” says Mexican land defender Isela González Díaz, “I would title it The Devil Stole Our Laughter.” In this rich collection of films, loss is the devil’s weapon of choice— painfully wielded over land and life, power and infrastructure, and the historical gains of generations past. Existing in the aftermath, these films present individuals and communities moving (through) earth and sky in search of what truly remains.

Kamay (p. 45)

Ilyas Yourish and Shahrokh Bikaran, Afghanistan/Belgium/ Germany/France, 2024, 106 mins

A deeply poetic and immersive portrait from Afghan co-directors Ilyas Yourish and Shahrokh Bikaran, Kamay follows a grieving Hazari family in search of answers after their daughter, a veterinary student at Kabul University, dies by suicide.

La Guardia Blanca (p. 47)

Julien Elie, Canada, 2023, 109 mins

Julien Elie’s meditative film captures the devastation of farmland in Mexico at the hands of private companies—many of which are Canadian. With breathtaking cinematography, La Guardia Blanca chronicles the reclamation efforts of Indigenous farmers in a country with the highest assassination rate of land defenders in recent years.

Tongo Saa (Rising Up at Night) (p. 65)

Where Zebus Speak French (p. 67)

Nelson Makengo, DRC/Belgium/Germany/Burkina Faso/ Qatar, 2024, 96 mins

Nantenaina Lova, France/La Réunion/Madagascar/Germany/ Burkina Faso, 2023, 104 mins

DR Congo is set to build Africa’s largest power plant on the Congo River. But as international partners renegotiate their involvement, much of the capital city, Kinshasa, remains submerged in floodwater and without electricity. Nelson Makengo’s Tongo Saa (Rising Up at Night) is a gentle observation of an urban population adamant about reinventing itself, through darkness and light.

Already flanked by an airport and military base, one village in Madagascar is resisting the political candy-grab of its surrounding rice fields. Brilliantly satirical in its approach, Nantenaina Lova’s film observes the villagers’ playbook of grassroots defense, ranging from community town halls to comedic puppetry.

The Nights Still Smell of Gunpowder (p. 57)

Inadelso Cossa, Mozambique/Germany/France/Portugal/the Netherlands/Norway, 2024, 93 mins

Reckoning with the aftermath of Mozambique’s civil war, The Nights Still Smell of Gunpowder is a slow, sensorial confrontation of the trauma and memory left by state violence. As he visits his grandmother’s village under the cover of night, Inadelso Cossa explores the silences that remain between the living and the dead.

The World is Family (p. 68)

Anand Patwardhan, India, 2023, 96 mins

Sifting through home videos of elders who fought for India’s independence, acclaimed documentarian Anand Patwardhan seamlessly transforms his family’s oral history into a concise commentary on the political rise and power of Hindu supremacy in present-day India.

Wilfred Buck (p. 68)

Lisa Jackson, Opaskwayak Cree Nation/Onigaming First Nation/Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation, 2024, 97 mins

Cree elder and ceremonial leader Wilfred Buck has dedicated much of his life to the reclamation and (re)transmission of Indigenous astronomy. A hybrid adaptation of Buck’s memoir on the effects of colonialism and addiction in his early years, Lisa Jackson’s celestial portrait follows Buck as he and others turn to the stars for healing.

Années en parenthèses 2020-2022 (Years in Brackets 2020-2022) (p. 33) Hejer Charf, Canada, 2023, 95 mins

When the pandemic abruptly cancels her film projects, Montreal-based Tunisian director Hejer Charf turns to 50 people for moving images and sounds.

Years in Brackets 2020-2022 is a layered video inventory of time and place, punctuated by poetry, uncertainty and death.

SPOTLIGHT

17

S P O T L I G H T

L I E S AMOR

T R U E

The documentary films in this program are not real, nor are they unreal. They’re what filmmaker and photographer RaMell Ross calls “true lies”—real myths, experimental truths and hybrid narratives that blur the lines between what is and what is not.

In this Spotlight, stories take the form of psychedelic portraits and reimagined cities; revived mothers and ghostly liberators; fictional ethnographies and true performances that both horrify and enlighten.

Welcome to the world of docu-fiction onscreen.

A Man Imagined (p. 53)

Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky, Canada, 2024, 62 mins

Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky’s striking film follows 67-year-old Lloyd, a man living with schizophrenia who has survived for decades unhoused, selling discarded objects on the streets. Immersive in sound and jarringly intimate, A Man Imagined invites us into a hallucinatory world saturated with dreams and visions juxtaposed against the bleak urban landscape.

Amor (p. 31)

My Worst Enemy (p. 57)

In Amor, director Virginia Eleuteri Serpieri reckons with the death of her mother and the site it took place: the Tiber River, in Rome. Ethereally shot and hauntingly surreal, the film wades into an alternative universe that looks very much like Rome, but with Serpieri’s mother present.

Filmmaker Mehran Tamadon is searching for the right collaborator—a fellow exiled Iranian citizen willing to reenact their interrogation by the Islamic Republic. But when one participant begins to question the project and Tamadon’s integrity in proposing it, the rising stakes reach a breaking point. My Worst Enemy is a performative subversion of power, confronting the torturer and tortured with their own limits.

Virginia Eleuteri Serpieri, Italy/Lithuania, 2023, 102 mins

Preceded by the short film El Neceser Rojo (p. 76)

La Laguna del Soldado (p. 49) Pablo Alvarez-Mesa, Canada, 2024, 75 mins

Immersing us in ethereal realms of mist and the fevered verses of Simón Bolívar’s 1822 poem “Mi delirio sobre el Chimborazo,” director Pablo Alvarez-Mesa crafts a cinematic tapestry of sound and light. Tracing Bolívar’s steps across contested social and political geography, La Laguna del Soldado oscillates between Colombia’s past and present with eerie hybridity.

Mambar Pierrette (p. 53)

Rosine Mbakam, Belgium/Cameroon, 2023, 93 mins

Sought-after dressmaker Mambar Pierrette is preparing her children for the new school year when she is beset by a series of misfortunes: floods, a deadbeat husband, a broken sewing machine. Filmed with the clarity and simplicity of the most intimate observational documentaries, Mbakam’s film demonstrates how the documentary form can elevate a narrative to reveal the truths of everyday life.

18

SPOTLIGHT

Mehran Tamadon, France/Switzerland, 2023, 82 mins

The Zola Experience (p. 69)

Gianluca Matarrese, Italy/France, 2023, 101 mins

Theatre director and actress Anne plays the role of Gervaise in an adaptation of Emile Zola’s L’Assommoir. But as the play starts to mirror Anne’s personal life, it remains unclear where Gervaise’s story ends and Anne’s begins. Gianluca Matarrese’s expertly woven film takes on the notion of life as art in ways both stimulating and uncanny.

S P O T L I G H T

O F

T H E

S U N ELEFSINA NOTRE AMOUR

C H I L D R E N

Inspired by the late Lebanese painter and poet Etel Adnan, this Spotlight oscillates between the sociopolitical geographies of Palestine and Lebanon, whose histories intertwine with deep and harrowing complexity. In this lineup, Palestinian and Lebanese directors turn to cinematic inquiry as they traverse politics and power cuts, landscapes and loss, migration and water, revolution and war.

As of this writing, the devastation in Palestine continues. In response to annihilatory rhetoric describing Palestinians as “children of darkness,” this spotlight offers a favourite motif and reclamation in Adnan’s work as a descriptor instead: Children of the Sun.

Bye Bye Tiberias (p. 37)

Lina Soualem, Palestine/Qatar/Belgium/France, 2023, 82 mins

Director Lina Soualem reconstructs a history of four generations of Palestinian women in her family from home videos and footage from both the present day and archival sources. Scenes of urban and familial life from before and after the Nakba of 1948 are woven together with personal narratives—stories kept alive despite exile, dispossession and heartbreak. Poignantly and beautifully arranged, Bye Bye Tiberias is the replanting of a family tree (up)rooted in occupied land.

Diaries from Lebanon (p. 39)

Sarcophagus of Drunken Loves (p. 73)

An introduction to the modern history of Lebanon as seen through the eyes of three impassioned citizens, Diaries from Lebanon cinematically surveys three modes of (re)action for a nation seeking change: war, politics or revolution. From the Lebanese Civil War of 1975 to the Beirut port explosion in 2020, director Myriam El Hajj traces recent events to reveal the underlying political corruption, national trauma and protest of a country—and people—in flux.

In Lebanon, power cuts are the rule rather than the exception. But as co-directors Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige observe one summer day, this does not deter residents from visiting the National Museum of Beirut, where they navigate the institution with light from their phones. Illuminating the relics of Lebanon’s past with mobile lights, Sarcophagus of Drunken Loves is a sly commentary on the country’s dim(inishing) present.

Elefsina Notre Amour (p. 73)

The Secret Garden (p. 73)

A fleet of abandoned ships dot the shores of Greece’s Elefsina port. Looming out of the water like maritime ghosts, they are what Danish-Palestinian filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel calls “the neglected refugees of Elefsina.” Visually and sonically arresting, Elefsina Notre Amour is a haunting inquiry into the (hi)stories of migration left untold.

Delightfully narrated through eight chapters, The Secret Garden is a poetic investigation into the sudden, bewildering appearance of mysterious plants in an unnamed city. Scaling up buildings and winding through streets, Nour Ouayda’s experimental film follows two friends in their search for the plants’ origins, all the while suspecting their secrets lie over the garden wall at the city’s edge.

Myriam El Hajj, Lebanon/France/Qatar/Saudi Arabia, 2024, 110 mins

Mahdi Fleifel, Greece, 2023, 9 mins

Life is Beautiful (p. 51)

Mohamed Jabaly, Norway/Palestine/UK, 2023, 93 mins

In 2014, Palestinian director Mohamed Jabaly was touring his films in Norway when the border to his home in Gaza closed indefinitely. Urgently turning to his host country for residency, Jabaly instead found himself at the centre of a bureaucratic process that did not recognize his homeland nor his filmmaking as legitimate. Refusing to be put in a box, Jabaly turned his camera on himself in order to define his identity, find his future, and reclaim his story.

Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Lebanon/France, 2024, 8 mins

Nour Ouayda, Canada/Lebanon, 2023, 27 mins

A Short Film About a Chair (p. 73) Ibrahim Handal, Palestine, 2024, 10 mins

Amidst pandemic and apartment living, a lonely chair on a balcony is watched by an observant photographer living next door. The photographer muses day and night until the chair’s life is changed forever.

A playful and irreverent view overlooking a vibrant neighbourhood.

SPOTLIGHT

19

F O R U M

UNION

J U S T I C E

For 14 years, Justice Forum has been one of DOXA’s cornerstone programs, showcasing films that facilitate active and critical engagement, create space for dialogue, and sow the seeds for social change. Each Justice Forum film is paired with a live or prerecorded conversation between speakers relevant to its issue, including filmmakers, experts in the field, academics and/or community activists. We’re excited to offer a selection of films that foster crucial conversations around a broad range of social issues, offering necessary perspectives for change and progress.

Black Box Diaries (p. 35)

Shiori Itō, Japan, 2024, 103 mins

In 2015, director Shiori Itō became a part of the small minority of women in Japan who report a sexual assault after she was assaulted by an elder journalist and confidant of then-Prime Minster of Japan, Shinzo Abe. Itō’s fight for justice is up against the inflexible Japanese legal system, which has not changed its laws on sexual assault for over one hundred years.

Bye Bye Tiberias (p. 37)

Lina Soualem, Palestine/Qatar/Belgium/France, 2023, 82 mins

Leaving her native village to follow her dream of becoming an actress, Hiam Abbass also leaves behind her mother, grandmother and seven sisters. Thirty years later, she returns with her filmmaker daughter, Lina, to journey through the vanishing places and scattered memories of four generations of daring Palestinian women.

20

JUSTICE FORUM

Eternal You (p. 39)

Tea Creek (p. 64)

If you had the chance to talk to a loved one after death, would you take it? Eternal You follows people from around the globe who use artificial intelligence to connect to their deceased family and friends, employing technology created by AI startups in a rapidly growing market. The inventors of these services, however, deny any responsibility for the profound psychological consequences of their experiments.

Against the backdrop of colonization and the climate crisis, Indigenous entrepreneur Jacob Beaton sets out to turn his family farm into a centre for Indigenous food sovereignty and restore the abundance that once defined Turtle Island. An intimate portrayal of a passionate leader whose vision for change is creating space for Indigenous leaders.

Plastic People (p. 59)

Stephen Maing and Brett Story, USA, 2024, 102 mins

Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck, Germany/USA, 2024, 87 mins

Ben Addelman and Ziya Tong, Canada/France/ the Netherlands/Philippines/USA, 2024, 96 mins

Almost every bit of plastic is ground down into “microplastics”—microscopic particles that drift in the air, float in the water and sit in the soil. And now, leading scientists are finding them in our bodies.

Plastic People ventures far beyond the typical issues of plastic and explores the human drama of our physiological future.

Sugarcane (p. 64)

Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, USA/Canada, 2024, 107 mins

Winner of the Grand Jury award for Directing at Sundance, Sugarcane delves into the harrowing realities of residential schools in North America with unflinching courage and empathy. St. Joseph’s Mission school near Williams Lake is the focal point of this riveting and layered narrative, which blends a pursuit for justice with moments of levity and cultural heritage.

Most importantly, the film is a conduit for healing.

Ryan Dickie, Gitxsan/Tshimshan/Saik’uz/Nisga’a, 2024, 73 mins

Union (p. 65)

The Amazon Labor Union (ALU)—a group of current and former Amazon workers in New York City’s Staten Island—takes on one of the world’s largest and most powerful companies in the fight to unionize. Chronicling the historic efforts of the ALU, Union is an intimate and surprising story of dogged determination, unorthodox tactics, and speaking up—despite David vs. Goliath odds.

Yintah (p. 69)

Jennifer Wickham, Brenda Michell and Michael Toledano, Witsuwit’en, 2024, 125 mins

Filmed over 10 years, Yintah captures both a crucial historical framework and a stirring portrait of resistance by the Witsuwit’en peoples following Coastal GasLink’s (CGL) decision to build a pipeline through their territory. Tsakë ze’ Howilhkat Freda Huson and Tsakë ze’ Sleydo Molly Wickham lead the fight with tenacity, despite an ever-increasing battery of strong-arm tactics from CGL and the RCMP. The fight isn’t over yet.

Y

F O R

Y O U T H SINGING BACK THE BUFFALO

R A T E D

Rated Y for Youth is back for its 15th edition! Curated with the intention of facilitating media literacy through thought-provoking documentaries, this programme assembles films for high school students and youth, providing them with an opportunity to appreciate cinema while engaging in open dialogues on a broad range of social issues. Each Rated Y for Youth film includes a complementary Study Guide to support and enrich classroom conversations, as well as a pre-recorded and/or live discussion with filmmakers and community members.

Between Pictures: The Lens of Tamio Wakayama (p. 35)

Red Fever (p. 62)

Whether capturing the intensity of the civil rights movement in the mid-1960s or chronicling decades of Japanese-Canadian cultural identity at Vancouver’s Powell Street Festival, Tamio Wakayama’s camera immortalized simple acts of courage and indomitable spirits. Director Cindy Mochizuki weaves together interviews, Wakayama’s evocative imagery, and her own whimsical animation in a shared quest for cultural self-awareness and validation.

Preceded by the short film Here and There (p. 76)

From the visionary filmmakers behind DOXA favourites Reel Injun (2009) and RUMBLE: The Indians Who Rocked the World (2017), Red Fever offers a funny, intriguing and provocative look into the enduring fascination with all things “native.” Cree photographer and filmmaker Neil Diamond leads the way as our guide, challenging stereotypes and shattering misconceptions about the origins of some of North America’s most cherished traditions, while revealing the profound impact and vital resonance of Indigenous cultures.

Here and There (p. 76)

Singing Back the Buffalo (p. 63)

Cindy Mochizuki, Canada/USA, 2024, 71 mins

Chadi Bennani, Canada, 2023, 19 mins

As the school year ends, friends Adam, Ana and Dahlia seek a deeper connection with the cultural heritage of their immigrant families. Making baklava, perusing old photographs and spending time with elders help to bridge their many worlds, each trying to find their place in the puzzle.

This film will precede the feature Between Pictures: The Lens of Tamio Wakayama (p. 35)

Neil Diamond and Catherine Bainbridge, Canada, 2024, 104 mins

Tasha Hubbard, Canada, 2024, 98 mins

After a dark recent history, the buffalo herds of North America are awaiting their return, aided by dedicated Indigenous activists, leaders and communities. Together with Blackfoot Elder Leroy Little Bear, director Tasha Hubbard weaves an intimate story of humanity’s connections to buffalo and eloquently reveals how their return to the Great Plains could indeed usher in a new era of sustainability and balance.

An epic reimagining of North America through the lens of buffalo consciousness, and a potent dream of what is within our grasp.

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

21

BY DENNIS LIM

SHOT IN 1972, FIRST SHOWN IN 1975, AND

Anna would remain the lone directorial credit for Sarchielli, a character actor who had roles in Fellini’s Juliet of the Spirits, several spaghetti westerns, and even some Hollywood productions (including Under the Tuscan Sun). Grifi was active in Rome’s avant-garde scene of the 1960s alongside the likes of Carmelo Bene and Gianfranco Baruchello. (Grifi and Baruchello’s 1964 La verifica incerta is a Duchamp-inspired assemblage of genre-movie detritus, a formative classic of the found-footage genre and far ahead of its time.) An early adopter of video, Grifi produced a number of cult documentaries such as Parco Lambro Juvenile Proletariat Festival (1976), a document of a Woodstock-like music festival that spirals into a full-fledged protest, and Lia (1977), a single-shot record of a woman delivering an impassioned speech against the psychiatric establishment.

Simply put, Anna concerns the difficult circumstances faced by its central figure, and the no less turbulent conditions of its own production. Much of it revolves around interactions between this radiant, afflicted, and often dazed teenager and the filmmakers themselves, both of whom appear on-screen. Grifi and Sarchielli offer to put Anna up at Sarchielli’s apartment, in part to get her off the streets and in part to make a film about her. The domestic arrangement makes for some discomfiting moments: in one of the longest, queasiest sequences, Sarchielli, who is not above copping an occasional feel, subjects their lice-infested charge to a strip search-cum-delousing in the shower. When the camera is not trained on Anna, it plants itself in the thick of lengthy, often heated discussions about the girl, along with the filmmakers’ questionable intercession and the burning societal questions of the day. The unruly, opinionated crosstalk at cafes and in town squares—among hippies, vagabonds, angry young men, and a few bourgeois specimens—gives form to the film’s key themes of obligation and intervention. We are left to ponder the dynamics between a state and its citizens, among fellow members of society, and, quite pointedly, between a filmmaker and their subject.

For Anna, Grifi and Sarchielli began with 16 mm film, but switched to video early in the process. Much of the film was shot on a portable open-reel video recorder, then transferred to film by Grifi using a kinescoping system he devised called the vidigrafo. Like many who embraced the new medium, Grifi immediately recognized video’s political potential. In Jean-Luc Godard’s hands, video was a tool of analysis, its editing techniques facilitating a complex method of combining and separating images, sounds, and text; in Grifi’s, it became an instrument for apprehending the flux of moment-to-moment experience. There is the sense here (palpable as well in some signature narrative films of the period, most notably John Cassavetes’s) of being plunged into unfolding lives. The high cost of shooting on celluloid was for Grifi a distortion. As he put it, film “transformed the language of life into the language of money.” Video, on the other hand, “made life filmable,” and opened up “spaces of freedom.” In this regard, it is at least as significant an innovation for the observational documentary as the hand-held sync-sound equipment that catalyzed the previous decade’s cinéma vérité movement.

virtually unseen outside Italy until its restoration by the Cineteca Nazionale and the Cineteca di Bologna in 2011, Anna is a nearly four-hour documentary that takes its name from its central character: an 8-months-pregnant 16-yearold, homeless and on drugs, whom the filmmakers discovered in Rome’s Piazza Navona. The film is an extraordinarily precise record of a particular time and place: the mythical tinder box of militancy, rage, repression, paranoia, and nihilism that was Italy in the 1970s. It’s also a movie that overflows its bounds at every turn. As Robert Kramer said of Milestones (1975), another post-counterculture epic of equivalent scale and intimacy: “Everything has to be in it.” Viewed in a certain light, Anna seems to hold all the possibilities of cinema—even as it acknowledges its limits.

22

ANNA

MANY DEBATES THAT HAVE SURROUNDED

documentary from the start are encapsulated in Anna.

More than that, they are embodied by the film, which poses and stages questions about the effect of the observing camera, the role and responsibility of the filmmaker, the agency of the subject, and the balance of power between the filmer and the filmed. Self-reflexive and self-implicating, Grifi and Sarchielli’s film includes reenactments, explicit attempts to direct the subject, and frequent intrusions from behind the camera. These come not just from the filmmakers, but—most unexpectedly—from the film’s electrician as well, who at one point enters the frame to declare his love for Anna.

Anna’s sounds and visuals bear the glitchy imperfections of early video, and the film often seems like a transmission from another era. The restoration is true to the fragile material’s lo-fi, volatile rawness, and the ghostly translucence of the images (transferred from analog video to film, and now digitally preserved) are fitting for what even back then was a film of phantoms.

The movie’s power has much to do with the complexity of its subject. Anna is undeniably an exploited figure, an object of study, a guinea pig, but also, in a very real sense, the film’s star, a magnetic screen presence, who by turns absorbs and deflects the filmmakers’ persistent, even sadistic gazes. One might even imagine that the camera awakens something in Anna, enabling her to redirect the course of her story even if simply in the form of a denial. It is Anna who determines how the film will end, exiting when she decides to. (No one knows for sure what became of Anna, but her afterlives continue: Rachel Kushner’s 2013 novel The Flamethrowers is dedicated to her and writes her into the narrative, a moving gesture of resurrection. The Austrian artist Constanze Ruhm’s 2020 essay film, The Notes of Anna Azzori, is a feminist update and response to Grifi and Sarchielli’s project.)

Grifi in particular would continue the ambivalent auto-critique that is to some extent built into Anna. In a filmed interview a couple of years after the initial release, he said: “Massimo maintains that we exposed the decay of institutional systems, but ultimately we should have done something more.” His damning conclusion: “We chose a film about reality over the struggle to change reality.”

Like so many emblematic films of the 1970s—“the ultimate post-decade,” in Serge Daney’s words—Anna is about the end of the 1960s. Aside from capturing a period of seismic political change, it marks a techno-existential inflection point: the emergence of video as a medium of documentation. In other words, the birth of our media age. Anna demonstrates the obsessive, immersive possibilities of new technologies, even as it expresses an uneasy, dawning awareness of what it means for life to be fully filmable. It’s a movie born on a cusp, as an urgency to change the world yielded to an urge to record it. -DL *

*

*

*

Dennis Lim is a New York-based film curator and writer. Currently the Artistic Director of the New York Film Festival, he is the author of Tale of Cinema (2022), a monograph on the filmmaker Hong Sangsoo, and The Man from Another Place (2015), a critical biography of David Lynch that has been translated into three languages. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Artforum, Cinema Scope, and Film Comment, and he has taught at Harvard and New York University.

C U R AT E D P R O G R A M

23

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 film, and the new Rogers Series Fund, an equity investor in Canadian series television with a pre-sale to a Canadian broadcaster and an online streamer. 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 24 and Wednesday, August 21, 2024.

Application deadlines for the Rogers Series Fund are Wednesday, June 26 and Wednesday, October 30, 2024.

Series Fund www.rogersgroupoffunds.com

SATURDAY MAY 4

OPENING GAL A FILM

7:00 PM VANCOUVER PLAYHOUSE

Adrianne & the Castle Shannon Walsh, Canada, 2023, 87 mins

“Reality is for those who lack imagination.”

Inventive and whimsical, Adrianne & the Castle is the true story of Alan St-Georges—a mascot-maker and artist in rural Illinois—and the ornate castle he built by hand with his beloved wife Adrianne prior to her passing in 2006. Since Adrianne’s death, Alan has continued to put finishing touches on Havencrest Castle, which now stands as a “temple” dedicated to the couple’s transcendent love. “She really was her own art,” Alan says. His grief threatens to overtake him, but his sorrow connects him to Adrianne’s love, giving him the strength to carry on.

Acclaimed filmmaker Shannon Walsh (The Gig Is Up, Illusions Of Control) collaborates with Alan to tell his and Adrianne’s fairytale love story through fantastical musical sequences: a reenactment of Alan and Adrianne’s first meeting and Alan’s immediate infatuation; opulent theatrical productions in the castle hallways;

dreamy visions of Adrianne in the afterlife, appearing as a bejeweled angel floating in kaleidoscopic light. As he continues his work, Alan grapples with his profound grief, revealing with lucidity and extraordinary candor his struggle to find a way forward without the love of his life.

Adrianne & the Castle is not just about an eccentric couple who unapologetically pursued their grandiose dreams to the fullest, but also about the profound grief those pursuits left behind in their wake. As Alan, the humble and debonair counterpart to his wife’s extravagant persona, puts it: ‘Art is never completed, just abandoned.’ INDIEWIRE In English ADDITIONAL SCREENING:

SATURDAY MAY 11 • 1:45 PM VIFF CENTRE

S P E C I A L P R E S E N TAT I O N

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Covering the issues that matter to you.

Come along with us as we uncover the best of what Metro Vancouver has to offer.

NEWS I FOOD I HOMES I BUSINESS I ARTS

vancouversun.com

WEDNESDAY MAY 8

MID-WEEK GAL A

7:45 PM VIFF CENTRE

nanekawâsis

Conor McNally, Canada, 2024, 80 mins

George Littlechild is a celebrated and beloved nêhiyaw (Cree) artist. At 65 years of age, Littlechild shares his wisdom, perspectives on social issues and Indigenous history, and insights into his personal history and artistic career. After a childhood of trauma and upheaval, Littlechild has achieved a remarkable sense of calm and joy, which shines in this biographical study. A proud Two Spirit person, Littlechild has channeled his desire for healing into the bold and colourful works of art that characterize his unique artistic vision.

Newly filmed 16 mm conversations blend with archival interview excerpts, capturing Littlechild at various moments throughout his life and career. Wit and humour infuse the film, and Littlechild’s presence is enhanced by a powerful focus on landscape and an expressive score. nanekawâsis is the work of Conor McNally, a Métis filmmaker and DOXA Alumni (ôtênaw, 2017). -KR In English and nêhiyawêwin with English subtitles ADDITIONAL SCREENING

FRIDAY MAY 10 • 8:30 PM SFU CINEMA

S P E C I A L P R E S E N TAT I O N

27

CANADA’S ON CLIMATE RECONCILIATIO CONVERSATION Start the conversation with stories by British Columbia’s own Michelle Cyca and Arno Kopecky. Enjoy their award-winning stories and more delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign up today: thewalrus.ca/doxa

SATURDAY MAY 11

CLOSING GAL A FILM

7:00 PM SFU CINEMA

Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story

Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee, Canada, 2024, 99 mins

“I want you to come with me and let’s do this.” Embark on a mesmerizing journey alongside the trailblazing transgender performer Jackie Shane as she fearlessly navigates music and life. From the vibrant R&B of 1950s Nashville to the nightlife of Toronto in the 1960s, Jackie’s unyielding commitment to authenticity and community fed her electrifying performances and captivated audiences for years. And then she vanished.

Join filmmakers Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee as they unveil Jackie’s remarkable tale through stunning rotoscope animation, intimate testimonies from fellow artists, and Jackie’s own poignant artifacts, words, and voice. Delve into the essence of this extraordinary artist and share in the awe-inspiring legacy of Jackie Shane. -TA [Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story] conjures the spirit of an ahead-of-her-time icon who dared to live life on her own terms, even when it came at a great personal cost. SXSW In English

SSPPEECCIIAALL PPRREESSEENNTAT TATIIOONN

29 29

SUNDAY MAY 12

11:45 AM THE CINEMATHEQUE

FRIDAY MAY 3

5:15 PM VIFF CENTRE

Amor

The Anarchist Lunch

“When I look at Rome, I see my mother. It’s been the case since she died.”

Once a week, for the past 35 years, a group of ardent leftists has congregated in the same Chinese restaurant in Vancouver to discuss the important topics of the moment. Among these political conversationalists is the father of filmmaker Rachel Epstein, who now documents the group as they engage with issues inside and out of their familiar eatery. With most members now aged 70 years and older, they represent a contingent of activists who for decades have supported anti-war and anti-nuclear movements and advocated for climate justice, union organizing, Palestinian liberation, and a host of other important issues.

Virginia Eleuteri Serpieri, Italy/Lithuania, 2023, 102 mins

It’s a summer evening from many years ago. The city is empty, and the finale of the soccer world championship is underway. In a surreal depiction, director Serpieri reimagines the death of her mother­, who steps into the waters of the River Tiber, swallowed by the abyss. To bring her mother back, Serpieri travels in the dark of night through Rome, wading into the depths of the city’s waters, its history, its myths and its cataclysms. As her mother resurfaces, she emerges from the Tiber and flies towards Amor— “the planet of care,” where water unites everyone and heals all wounds. Ethereally shot and hauntingly experimental, Amor is a document of grief and place, set in a version of Rome where the past, present and future collide.

In Italian with English subtitles Preceded by the short film El Neceser Rojo (p. 76)

Rachel Epstein, Canada, 2023, 46 mins

The Anarchist Lunch follows these revolutionaries over a period of several years, through the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and during the unfolding of resonant global events. As some members struggle with personal health issues, Epstein’s film takes on new layers to explore the meanings of activism, camaraderie and growing old. -OG In English

31

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SATURDAY MAY 4

6:30 PM THE CINEMATHEQUE

Anna

Alberto Grifi and Massimo Sarchielli, Italy, 1975, 225 mins

Virtually unseen outside Italy until its restoration by the Cineteca Nazionale and the Cineteca di Bologna in 2011, Anna is a nearly four-hour film that takes its name from its central character: an 8-months pregnant 16-year-old, homeless and on drugs, whom the filmmakers discovered in Rome’s Piazza Navona. The two men offer to put Anna up at Sarchielli’s apartment, in part to get her off the streets and in part to chronicle her experiences on film. The ensuing footage is at times discomfiting in its persistence, and does not always showcase the filmmakers in an altruistic light; Anna is undeniably an exploited figure, an object of study and a guinea pig, but also a magnetic screen presence and the film’s star. It is she who determines how the film will end, exiting when she decides to and leaving us with little resolution to her story.

Anna is an extraordinary record of the tinder box of militancy, rage, repression, paranoia, and nihilism that was Italy in the 1970s, a near-mythical time and place.

Viewed in a certain light, it seems to hold all the possibilities of cinema—even as it acknowledges its limits. -DL

TUESDAY MAY 7

8:40 PM THE CINEMATHEQUE

Années en parenthèses 2020-2022 (Years in Brackets 2020-2022) Hejer Charf, Canada, 2023, 95 mins

In many peoples’ minds, the years 2020 to 2022 are contained between brackets. These years reinforced inequalities, brought forth anger and instigated uprisings. Confined to Montreal during this period, director Hejer Charf’s projects were abruptly canceled—but still she continued to film.

Charf asked 50 friends, acquaintances, artists and intellectuals from Canada and elsewhere to send her images and sounds, which she then mixed with excerpts from films, news, literary works and poetry to craft a testament to survival in times of disruption. The resulting film is a cinematic poem, punctuated with reminders of death. In those bracketed years, we lost many icons: bell hooks, Moustapha Safouan, Etel Adnan, David Graeber, Hélène Châtelain, Sarah Maldoror, Nawal El Saadawi, Marie-Claire Blais, Maradona, Moufida Tlatli, Lina Ben Mhenni and Jean-Luc Godard. What world have they left behind?

In multiple languages with English subtitles

In English and Italian with English subtitles

33

JOIN THE COLLECTIVE VOICE OF INDEPENDENT DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKERS ACROSS CANADA, AND BECOME PART OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, YUKON & NORTHWEST TERRIROTIES’ DEDICATED DOC FILM COMMUNITY

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docnorthwest.org

SUNDAY MAY 5 THURSDAY MAY 9

4:15 PM THE CINEMATHEQUE 12:30 PM SFU CINEMA

Between Pictures: The Lens of Tamio Wakayama Cindy Mochizuki, Canada/USA, 2024, 71 mins

Whether capturing the white-hot intensity of the civil rights movement in the mid-1960s or chronicling decades of Japanese-Canadian cultural identity at Vancouver’s Powell Street Festival, Tamio Wakayama’s camera immortalized simple acts of courage and indomitable spirits. His photographs humanized headlines, imbuing them with a “purposeful sense of joy” (as a former colleague eloquently describes them in this uplifting film). Director Cindy Mochizuki weaves together lively interviews, Wakayama’s evocative imagery, and her own whimsical animation to unveil not just the artistry of a Vancouver photographer, but also a shared quest for cultural self-awareness and validation. Against the backdrop of Canada’s complex history, Between Pictures celebrates the resilience and victories of marginalized Asian communities. -TA In English

SUNDAY MAY 5 MONDAY MAY 6

6:45 PM VIFF CENTRE 8:00 PM VIFF CENTRE

Black Box Diaries Shiori Itō, Japan, 2024, 103 mins

A powerful addition to the #MeToo movement from Japanese journalist, author and filmmaker Shiori Itō. In 2015, Itō became a part of the small minority of women in Japan who report a sexual assault, after she was assaulted by an older journalist and confidant of then-Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe. Itō’s fight for justice is up against the inflexible Japanese legal system, which has not rewritten its laws on sexual assault for over one hundred years.

Black Box Diaries is no detached procedural, but rather an achingly intimate portrait of Itō as she refuses to be silenced, and the camera captures the physical and emotional toll of her scrutiny as she seeks a proper prosecution. Despite setbacks, Itō finds strong support from a network of advocates, and this hugely empowering film is a testament to her many years of unwavering perseverance. -KR In Japanese with English subtitles

Preceded by the short film Here and There (p. 76)

35

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THURSDAY MAY 9

5:00 PM VIFF CENTRE

FRIDAY MAY 3

8:30 PM THE CINEMATHEQUE

Bye Bye Tiberias

The Cemetery of Cinema

As a young woman in her early twenties, Hiam Abbass left her native Palestinian village—and her mother, grandmother and seven sisters—to pursue a dream of becoming an actress in Europe. Thirty years later, Hiam and her daughter Lina return to the village, questioning her bold choices, her chosen exile and the way the women in their family influenced both their lives. Jumping between past and present, Bye Bye Tiberias pieces together images of today, family videos from the ‘90s and archival footage to portray four generations of daring Palestinian women who keep their story and legacy alive through the strength of their bonds—despite exile, dispossession and heartbreak.

On its surface, this tour-de-force is a quest to find Mamadou Touré’s 1953 film Mouramani, considered to be the first film made by a French-speaking Black director. But the film soon becomes a playful investigation into why cinema and culture matter, and a reminder of how easily these things can vanish.

Lina Soualem, Palestine/Qatar/Belgium/France, 2023, 82 mins

Braiding together old and new family records with pre-1948 archival material, including poetry and personal narrative, Soualem—in a trenchant and assured follow-up to her feature debut Their Algeria—tells a meditative story about four generations of women working hard to mend the seams of multiple separations, forced and chosen.

NATALEAH HUNTER-YOUNG, TIFF

In Palestinian Arabic and French with English subtitles

Thierno Souleymane Diallo, France/Senegal/Guinea/Saudi Arabia, 2023, 96 mins

Mouramani retains a mythic quality, as filmmaker Thierno Souleymane Diallo crosses Guinea in search of anyone who may have seen this elusive film, or might know where to find it. He wanders the countryside, questioning filmmakers, projectionists, politicians and contemporary film students—as well as his mother, for her blessing. What he uncovers is the modern history of his country, marked by the devastation of colonialism and the suppression and destruction of culture post-independence. Diallo travels to France to continue his search, where his combination of wry humour, vulnerability and determination lead us to an ingenious conclusion. -KR In French, Malinke and Fulani with English subtitles

37

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SATURDAY MAY 11

11:00 AM VIFF CENTRE

THURSDAY MAY 9

6:00 PM SFU CINEMA

Diaries from Lebanon

Eternal You

Diaries of Lebanon weaves together the lives of three impassioned citizens as they face the tides of political corruption, national trauma and revolution. Joumana Haddad, a renowned writer, journalist and human rights activist, confronts the unscrupulous political elite with her own parliamentary campaign for the people. Georges Moufarej looks back on his time as a soldier during the Lebanese Civil War, clinging to visions of past glory and lamenting the supposed impotence of contemporary revolutionaries. Perla Joe Maalouli, an artist and leader during the 2019 uprising in Beirut, finds purpose through protest and vows to remain steadfast. When the Port of Beirut suffers a devastating explosion in the summer of 2020 that leaves hundreds dead, thousands injured and countless others homeless, all three must face their convictions and decide what it will take to keep fighting. -SB

If you had the chance to talk to a loved one after their death, would you take it?

Eternal You delves into the morally questionable world of AI afterlife technology, and the startups generating avatars of the deceased in a bid to sell “digital immortality”. These uncanny facsimiles are created to commune with their living loved ones—people from around the globe who wish to speak with those they’ve lost, towards whom they may feel the need for closure or resolution. Joshua chats with a digital clone of his deceased first love, and begins to include her in his day-today existence; Christi seeks confirmation of her late best friend’s well-being in the next realm, but has a troubling encounter with his AI likeness; Jang Ji-Sung meets the virtual clone of her deceased 7-year-old daughter in a particularly unsettling encounter. Competitors seek to market this innovation to grieving survivors, while the inventors absolve themselves of any responsibility for the profound psychological consequences of such experiments. A fascinating and controversial look into our sci-fi present.

Myriam El Hajj, Lebanon/France/Qatar/Saudi Arabia, 2024, 110 mins

In Arabic with English subtitles

Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck, Germany/USA, 2024, 87 mins

In English and Korean with English subtitles

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D T H U R S D AY M AY 2

3:00 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

6:00 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE LAST THINGS - 50 MINS (p. 49)

- 141 MINS (p. 72)

7:15 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

4:15 PM | VIFF CENTRE TEA CREEK - 73 MINS (p. 64)

KINGS OF THE WIND & ELECTRIC QUEENS - 56 MINS (p. 45) WITH JOURNAL AFGHAN - 24 MINS (p. 76)

9:20 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

SHORTS PROGRAM: AN ANIMAL GAZE

- 58 MINS (p. 70)

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SHORTS PROGRAM: LAND CONTINUING / ARCHIVES OF LAND

6:30 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE ANNA - 225 MINS (p. 33) 6:35 PM | VIFF CENTRE

WHERE ZEBUS SPEAK FRENCH - 104 MINS

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6:45 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE THE ZOLA EXPERIENCE - 101 MINS (p. 69) 9:30 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

SHORTS PROGRAM: CHILDREN OF THE SUN - 54 MINS (p. 73)

9:35 PM | VIFF CENTRE

THE STIMMING POOL - 67 MINS (p. 63)

(p. 67)

M O N D AY M AY 6

5:15 PM | VIFF CENTRE

8:45 PM | VIFF CENTRE

5:00 PM | VIFF CENTRE UNION - 102 MINS (p. 65)

7:00 PM | VIFF CENTRE THE ORIGINALS - 45 MINS (p. 59) 8:30 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

THE CEMETERY OF CINEMA - 96 MINS (p. 37)

8:45 PM | VIFF CENTRE

DIARIES FROM LEBANON - 110 MINS (p. 39)

THE WORLD IS FAMILY - 96 MINS (p. 68)

6:30 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

S U N D AY M AY 5 11:45 AM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

LE SENTIER DES ASPHODÈLES - 87 MINS

(p. 51)

11:45 AM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

WHILE THE GREEN GRASS GROWS

- 166 MINS (p. 67)

11:45 AM | VIFF CENTRE

THE ZOLA EXPERIENCE - 101 MINS (p. 69)

2:05 PM | VIFF CENTRE

WE DON’T CARE ABOUT MUSIC ANYWAY

- 80 MINS (p. 66)

LA LAGUNA DEL SOLDADO - 75 MINS (p. 49)

8:00 PM | VIFF CENTRE

BLACK BOX DIARIES - 103 MINS (p. 35)

8:45 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE LA CANCHA - 54 MINS (p. 47)

11:45 AM | VIFF CENTRE

PRENDS, SEIGNEUR, PRENDS - 92 MINS

(p. 61)

1:45 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

S AT U R D AY M AY 4

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BLACK BOX DIARIES - 103 MINS (p. 35)

7:00 PM | VANCOUVER PLAYHOUSE ADRIANNE & THE CASTLE - 87 MINS (p. 25)

6:00PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE THE REAL SUPERSTAR - 69 MINS (p. 61)

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6:45 PM | VIFF CENTRE

F R I D AY M AY 3 THE ANARCHIST LUNCH - 46 MINS (p. 31)

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SHORTS PROGRAM: STORYTELLING REIMAGINED - 100 MINS (p. 71)

2:05 PM | VIFF CENTRE

T U E S D AY M AY 7 5:00 PM | VIFF CENTRE SUGARCANE - 107 MINS (p. 64)

THE WASP AND THE ORCHID - 66 MINS (p. 66) IN PRAISE OF SLOWNESS - 17 MINS (p. 76)

6:30 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE THE MOVIE MAN - 89 MINS (p. 55)

4:15 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

8:00 PM | VIFF CENTRE YINTAH - 121 MINS (p. 69)

WITH

BETWEEN PICTURES: THE LENS OF TAMIO WAKAYAMA - 71 MINS (p. 35) WITH HERE AND THERE - 19 MINS (p. 76)

4:30 PM | VIFF CENTRE

LA LAGUNA DEL SOLDADO - 75 MINS (p. 49)

8:40 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

ANNÉES EN PARENTHÈSES 2020-2022 (YEARS IN BRACKETS 2020-2022) - 95 MINS (p. 33)

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8:45 PM | SFU CINEMA TEA CREEK - 73 MINS (p. 64)

5:00 PM | VIFF CENTRE

SINGING BACK THE BUFFALO - 98 MINS

(p. 63)

6:30 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE A MAN IMAGINED - 62 MINS (p. 53) 7:45 PM | VIFF CENTRE NANEKÂWSIS - 80 MINS (p. 27) 8:45 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

I’M NOT EVERYTHING I WANT TO BE

- 90 MINS (p. 43)

T H U R S D AY M AY 9

F R I D AY M AY 10 10:00 AM | SFU CINEMA RED FEVER - 104 MINS (p. 62) 12:30 PM | SFU CINEMA

SHORTS PROGRAM: LOVE WAS HERE… LOVE STILL IS - 105 MINS (p. 74)

2:45 PM | SFU CINEMA SUGARCANE - 107 MINS (p. 64) 5:30 PM | SFU CINEMA PLASTIC PEOPLE - 96 MINS (p. 59)

1:45 PM | VIFF CENTRE

ADRIANNE & THE CASTLE - 87 MINS (p. 25)

1:45 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE KAMAY - 106 MINS (p. 45) 3 PM | SFU CINEMA

TBA

4:00 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE MY WORST ENEMY - 81 MINS (p. 57) 6:00 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL - 93 MINS (p. 51) 7:00 PM | SFU CINEMA

ANY OTHER WAY: THE JACKIE SHANE STORY - 99 MINS (p. 29)

8:00 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE 10:00 AM | SFU CINEMA

SINGING BACK THE BUFFALO - 98 MINS

(p. 63)

12:30 PM | SFU CINEMA

BETWEEN PICTURES: THE LENS OF TAMIO WAKAYAMA - 71 MINS (p. 35) WITH HERE AND THERE - 19 MINS (p. 76)

3:00 PM | SFU CINEMA YINTAH - 121 MINS (p. 69)

6:30 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE TWIG - 39 MINS (p. 75) WITH OTTU - 20 MINS (p. 76)

TONGO SAA (RISING UP AT NIGHT) - 96 MINS (p. 65)

8:20 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE LA GUARDIA BLANCA - 109 MINS (p. 47)

S U N D AY M AY 12

8:30 PM | SFU CINEMA NANEKAWÂSIS - 80 MINS (p. 27)

11:45 AM | THE CINEMATHEQUE AMOR - 102 MINS (p. 31) WITH EL NECESER ROJO - 19 MINS (p. 76) 2:15 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

5:00 PM | VIFF CENTRE

BYE BYE TIBERIAS - 82 MINS (p. 37)

S AT U R D AY M AY 11

6:00 PM | SFU CINEMA ETERNAL YOU - 87 MINS (p. 39)

11:00 AM | VIFF CENTRE INTERCEPTED - 90 MINS (p. 43)

6:30 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE MEEZAN - 72 MINS (p. 55)

11:45 AM | THE CINEMATHEQUE MAMBAR PIERETTE - 93 MINS (p. 53)

7:45 PM | VIFF CENTRE WILFRED BUCK - 97 MINS (p. 68)

11:45 AM | SFU CINEMA THE ORIGINALS - 45 MINS (p. 59)

8:15 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

1:15 PM | SFU CINEMA TWIG - 39 MINS (p. 75) WITH OTTU - 20 MINS (p. 76)

TBA

4:30 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

TBA

6:15 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

TBA

8:15 PM | THE CINEMATHEQUE

THE NIGHTS STILL SMELL OF GUNPOWDER - 93 MINS (p. 57)

SEEKING MAVIS BEACON - 102 MINS (p. 62)

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WEDNESDAY MAY 8

8:45 PM THE CINEMATHEQUE

FRIDAY MAY 3

8:45 PM VIFF CENTRE

I’m Not Everything I Want to Be

Intercepted

“Life passes too quickly for me to understand anything. The only way for me to survive is to take photos.”

The camera pans slowly over a quiet Ukrainian country road, burnt-out tanks littering the roadside. Russian soldiers call home from the frontlines, their private conversations intercepted and recorded by Ukrainian intelligence. So begins Oksana Karpovych’s journey through war-ravaged Ukrainian villages, narrated by the intercepted phone calls of Russian soldiers. Over casual discussions of brutality are Karpovych’s calm, elegantly framed shots—filmed from inside bombed-out apartments after the Russian withdrawal. At times it is hard to know what’s more shocking: the soldiers’ nonchalant accounts of ruthless violence against civilians, or the sympathetic and encouraging murmurings of their wives and mothers back home. Yet Karpovych’s thoughtful approach evokes hope and renewal, as life returns and communities rebuild. Sunlight fills a classroom, curtains flutter in the breeze, and cats recline on sidewalks as neighbors gather in the street. Both a document of war crimes and a cinematic portrait of a country’s resilience, Intercepted combines image and sound to haunting and poetic effect. -BA

Klára Tasovská, Czechia/Slovakia/Austria, 2024, 90 mins

Amidst the tightening grip of Soviet oppression in Czechoslovakia, Libuše Jarcovjáková faced formidable barriers in her quest for a life of her own. One of the major European photographers of the 20th century, Jarcovjáková traversed the underground venues of Prague, the bustling streets of Tokyo and the nightclubs of West Berlin, searching for emancipation from state violence, gender norms, and sexual conventions. Her photos document five decades in her search for somewhere to live as her authentic self.

With a camera her constant companion, Jarcovjáková captured personal experiences as well as the lives of fellow outsiders. In I’m Not Everything I Want to Be, filmmaker Klára Tasovská masterfully weaves Jarcovjáková’s evocative images together with diary entries read in Jarcovjáková’s own voice, resulting in a mesmerizing portrait of personal and artistic discovery. Each image is a window into Jarcovjáková’s trek towards acceptance, as she navigates the complexities of identity and belonging. -TA

Oksana Karpovych, Canada, 2024, 93 mins

In Ukrainian and Russian with English subtitles

In an unfree regime, [Libuše Jarcovjáková] sought islands of freedom: gay clubs, night shifts in factories, pubs, Vietnamese hostels. Places where people, from her point of view, lived without inhibitions. She wanted to belong to them and to feel alive. -KLÁRA TASOVSKÁ IN VARIETY

In Czech with English subtitles 43

SATURDAY MAY 11

1:45 PM THE CINEMATHEQUE

THURSDAY MAY 2

7:15 PM THE CINEMATHEQUE

Kamay

Kings of the Wind & Electric Queens

“No one has ever been able to understand the origin of you Hazaris, let alone your grass.”

The Sonepur Cattle Fair in India, with its whirlwinds of dust rising from the ground, is a gigantic carnival held over multiple weeks each year during the months of November and December. Regarded as one of Asia’s largest and oldest cattle markets, the fair draws ecstatic spectators from across India in search of thrills and good fortune. Like a Western epic, men with gleaming black mustaches lead their nervous horses, adorned for the demonstration, while some drive wild motorcycles and others organize parades. Exotic dancers, exorcists and elephant tamers are a sight to see, and each participant has their rituals and prayers—methods for accumulating and mastering the party’s energy, be it mechanical, magical, organic, or electric.

Ilyas Yourish and Shahrokh Bikaran, Afghanistan/Belgium/Germany/France, 2024, 106 mins

When Kabul University student Zahra dies under mysterious circumstances, her family turns to the judicial system for answers, taking up a lengthy case against their daughter’s supervising professor. But justice remains as elusive as the Khar-Kamay, a plant indigenous to the Hazara region of Afghanistan and once central to Zahra’s veterinary studies.

Traversing the physical and sociopolitical geography of Afghanistan, Kamay is a deeply poetic portrait of a grieving family in search of answers. Filmed with immense care, this debut feature from Afghan co-directors Ilyas Yourish and Shahrokh Bikaran is both an elegy for a life lost and an ode to what remains of a family, a people, and their land. -DB

Cédric Dupire and Gaspard Kuentz, France/India, 2014, 56 mins

In Hindi with English subtitles Preceded by the short film Journal Afghan (p. 76)

In Farsi with English subtitles

45

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MONDAY MAY 6

8:45 PM THE CINEMATHEQUE

FRIDAY MAY 10

8:20 PM THE CINEMATHEQUE

La Cancha

La Guardia Blanca

Set in a tree-lined neighborhood in Montreal, La Cancha (The Court) is a snapshot of a popular community basketball court and the locals who gather there. Using a constantly shifting POV and different experimental techniques, filmmaker Mustafa Uzuner brings us into the centre of the action—both the activities on the court itself and life on the sidelines. Shot over a period of four years, Uzuner’s film captures the many activities at La Cancha, from friendly pick-up games and intense tournaments to the playful antics of two boys running through puddles during a summer storm. Uzuner is not shy with his camera, making no attempt to be surreptitious; but even as his subjects know they’re being recorded, they don’t self-censor. The camaraderie and conversations we witness are unaffected and real. -lh

The Mexican landscape fades away into ashes and dust—fragmented, defaced and scorched. Behind barbed wire fences, the landscape’s forests, rivers and mountains fall into the hands of private companies. Once transformed, nature becomes a separate universe: an incongruous and dangerous area where the new masters and their mercenaries terrorize people into silence. Like other farmers from across the country, Roberto de la Rosa now walks on pathways riddled with booby traps.

These are the necropolitics of Mexico, where land defenders are assassinated at unprecedented rates.

Mustafa Uzuner, Canada, 2023, 54 mins

In English, French and Spanish with English subtitles

Julien Elie, Canada, 2023, 109 mins

La Guardia Blanca gives voice to the courageous land defenders and their families who dare to speak out about this new form of colonialism that has decimated Mexican villages and the landscapes with impunity… [it] also happens to be a stunningly beautiful film; a vivid panorama of natural beauty that is under threat. POV In Spanish with English subtitles

47

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SUNDAY MAY 5 MONDAY MAY 6

4:30 PM VIFF CENTRE 6:30 PM THE CINEMATHEQUE

THURSDAY MAY 2

6:00 PM THE CINEMATHEQUE

La Laguna del Soldado

Last Things

Immersing us in ethereal realms of mist and the fevered verses of Simón Bolívar’s 1822 poem “Mi delirio sobre el Chimborazo,” director Pablo Alvarez-Mesa crafts a cinematic tapestry of sound and light that ascends the mountains, delves into the depths, burbles along streams, and ventures into the enigmatic darknesses of the páramo, “a space of transition, a space to disappear.” La Laguna del Soldado, the second installment in a trilogy tracing Bolívar’s odyssey through Colombia, employs this voyage of “liberation” as a catalyst to probe two centuries of turbulent history. Giving voice to the space between memory and constructed reality, the film intricately weaves the narratives of environmentalists, farmers, Indigenous guardians, biologists, miners, and soldiers into the sounds and visuals of a unique and vital natural habitat. The outcome challenges conventional narratives, urging us to contemplate not only a harrowing legacy but also a shared future. -TA

“To human eyes, Earth was dead. Yet another life was evolving for whom this was the time of genesis.” In Deborah Stratman’s Last Things, geological history is told by the primeval beings that know it most intimately—rocks, crystals, microbes and solar materials. In this retelling of Earth’s origin story, the mineral kingdom reigns. What would a stone remember, if asked about the shape of the world millions of years ago? Weaving together poetry, scientific research and photography both beautiful and bizarre, Stratman examines the complex micro worlds that combine to create our larger, more precarious one. -SB

Pablo Alvarez-Mesa, Canada, 2024, 75 mins

In Spanish with English subtitles

Deborah Stratman, USA, 2023, 50 mins

By turns speculative fiction, documentary, and cosmic horror… Last Things approaches a geological sublime, forcing us to confront the unsettling foreignness of our planet’s deep history. PETER GOLDBERG FOR SCREENSLATE In English and French with English subtitles

49

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SUNDAY MAY 5

11:45 AM THE CINEMATHEQUE

Le Sentier des Asphodèles (The Trail of the Asphodels) Maxime Martinot, France, 2023, 87 mins

A contemplative stroll through rural Brittany captures a succession of small and charming sights: cows grazing, the companionship of a dog named Leon, a quick nap by the side of the road. Jean, our guide, walks us through both time and space, musing poetically about the natural world and its degradation at the hands of humans.

Following the trail of the Asphodels, we witness history layered upon the landscape as Jean travels by foot, bike, car and wheelbarrow, occasionally joined by friends, strangers and even his future self.

Jean’s ramblings are accompanied by archival footage and interviews with a diverse group of locals: mill operators, psychogenealogy practitioners, folk singers, and chroniclers of the French Resistance. The atmosphere shifts between rain and sun, light and darkness, and the sounds of bees, birds and wind. An ode to beauty and an indictment of capitalist and colonial corruption of nature, Le Sentier des Asphodèles affirms our right to be in relationship with our environment. -KR

SATURDAY MAY 11

6:00 PM THE CINEMATHEQUE

Life is Beautiful

Mohamed Jabaly, Norway/Palestine/Qatar, 2023, 93 mins

In 2014, Palestinian filmmaker Mohamed Jabaly (known to DOXA audiences for his 2016 film Ambulance) left his native Gaza City and traveled to Norway to share his work and showcase the vibrancy of his hometown. While on tour, the borders of Gaza were closed indefinitely, leaving Jabaly stranded. With nowhere to go, he applied for residency and, in the process, found himself stripped of his legal identity. The Norwegian government would not accept his Palestinian passport, rendering him stateless.

While awaiting a decision from the court and following the dismal paths of political and bureaucratic logic, Jabaly begins to film his host family, his colleagues, and his new Norwegian friends with the snow-covered landscape of the Arctic as backdrop—so very different from his home in Gaza. Refusing to be put in a box, he turns his camera on himself in order to define his identity, find his future, and reclaim his own story.

In English, Arabic and Norwegian with English subtitles

In English, French and Breton with English subtitles

51

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SATURDAY MAY 11

11:45 AM THE CINEMATHEQUE

WEDNESDAY MAY 8

6:30 PM THE CINEMATHEQUE

Mambar Pierrette

A Man Imagined

Dressmaker Mambar Pierrette is preparing her children for the new school year when she is beset by a series of misfortunes. Floods, a deadbeat husband, and a sewing machine that needs repair are the unspectacular but no-less urgent burdens of life in Douala, Cameroon. Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Rosine Mbakam follows Mambar around her hometown as she goes about her daily life, trying to rebuild her business and keep her clients happy. Along the way, Mbakam paints a subtle portrait of a woman and a place so rarely seen on screen.

Lloyd is a man in his late sixties who has spent many decades unhoused. In A Man Imagined, Lloyd’s strength and resourcefulness are revealed, along with an acknowledgement of personal tragedy and loneliness. Lloyd can be seen panhandling on a busy road, collecting discarded items to sell and navigating the physical brutality of winter, sleeping on a patch of scrubby nature. We are invited to see Lloyd as he is, but also to witness his own gaze as he stares down the camera with intense blue eyes—his internal world saturated with dreams and visions that are juxtaposed against the bleak urban landscape.

Rosine Mbakam , Belgium/Cameroon, 2023, 93 mins

Filmed with the clarity and simplicity of the most intimate observational documentaries, and featuring a cast of mostly non-professional actors playing themselves, Mbakam’s film demonstrates how the documentary form can elevate a narrative to reveal the truths of everyday life. -JC In French, Bamileke and Cameroon Pidgin with English subtitles

Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky, Canada, 2024, 62 mins

Filmmakers Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky (Patron Saints, DOXA 2012) found Lloyd so compelling that they abandoned plans to feature multiple subjects in their film and chose to focus solely on Lloyd, who was ultimately included in the filmmaking process. There is no judgement here, only respect and compassion for a remarkable individual. -KR In English

53

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THURSDAY MAY 9

6:30 PM THE CINEMATHEQUE

TUESDAY MAY 7

6:30 PM THE CINEMATHEQUE

Meezan ‫میزان‬

The Movie Man

Set in southwestern Iran, in the province of Khuzestan, Meezan (Scale) is an observational and immersive experience: a journey from the sea to the land exploring labour at the margins of petro-capitalism.

In the backwoods of Ontario lies a town called Kinmount. This little hamlet of only a few hundred residents no longer has a gas station or a school; however, thanks to the singular vision of local septuagenarian Keith Stata, what it does boast is a fivescreen cinema palace and memorabilia museum—one that welcomes upwards of 50,000 visitors every summer.

Shahab Mihandoust, Canada/Iran, 2023, 72 mins

Departing from the shore of Abadan (the first oil company-town in the Middle East), we follow a group of Arab fishermen who exemplify the intergenerational ways of living and working at sea. The men lead us to Bahrakan harbour, where they barter for their share of the catch. This meeting place for fishmongers was once a last outpost for refugees fleeing the devastation of the Iran–Iraq War. Despite extensive industrialization in the region, the waterways of Khuzestan remain a significant source of income for native communities who are still intimately connected to these embattled landscapes. Meezan reflects on the relationships between bodies and scales, acknowledging the weight of the past and its consequences in the present.

Matt Finlin, Canada, 2024, 89 min

The Movie Man takes us on an intimate and sometimes heartbreaking tour of Highland Cinemas, a unique movie mecca that not only screens first-run films from May to October each year, but showcases thousands of pop culture artifacts, houses Canada’s largest projector collection, and provides a habitat for dozens of cats. Ever since his first visit as a 12-year-old, filmmaker Matt Finlin has recognized this place as special, and his affection inhabits every frame of this portrait. -TA In English

In Farsi and Arabic with English subtitles

55

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édition 27

CALL FOR ENTRIES:

FROM MARCH 1ST TO JUNE 15TH 2024

SATURDAY MAY 11

4:00 PM THE CINEMATHEQUE

THURSDAY MAY 9

8:15 PM THE CINEMATHEQUE

My Worst Enemy

The Nights Still Smell of Gunpowder

Filmmaker Mehran Tamadon is searching for the right collaborator. He needs to find a fellow exiled Iranian citizen willing to reenact their interrogation at the hands of the Islamic Republic, except this time in the role of the torturer, with Tamadon “detained” and interrogated in their place. Tamadon is determined to hold a mirror up to authorities of the state, and in doing so create a dialogue, but finding a taker for his plan is not an easy task, considering the pervasive trauma and moral complications it poses.

Director Inadelso Cossa is attempting to understand the legacy of Mozambique’s devastating civil war. Passing through gardens at night, crawling through undergrowth and inspecting barnhouse interiors—where will the answers to his questions lie? With reluctance and stoicism, Cossa’s grandmother and other wartime survivors share snippets from more than a decade of terror: days and nights spent in hiding, villages massacred, lingering trauma. The village landscape remains marred by emptiness and destruction. It’s here where the filmmaker’s grandfather was killed by a mine.

Mehran Tamadon, France/Switzerland, 2023, 82 mins

When acclaimed actor Zar Amir Ebrahimi (Holy Spider) agrees to participate, the project gathers steam. We watch as she relentlessly interrogates and humiliates Tamadon in the abandoned rooms of a Paris apartment, attempting to inflict even a modicum of what she herself went through years ago. But as she begins to question the limits of the process and Tamadon’s integrity in proposing it, the rising stakes approach a breaking point. -SB In Farsi with English subtitles

Inadelso Cossa, Mozambique/Germany/France/Portugal/the Netherlands/Norway, 2024, 93 mins

“Will they pass on the traumas and fears of the past to the new generation?” asks the film. In Cossa’s view, a nation is doomed to stagnation if it remains in denial; when conversation is withheld, he creates space for looking, listening and quiet contemplation. The film’s boom operator is often visible, as if his efforts to capture sound might reveal something more profound. An inventive and disconcerting film about the danger of forgetting. -KR In Tsonga and Portuguese with English subtitles

57

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FRIDAY MAY 3 SATURDAY MAY 11

7:00 PM VIFF CENTRE 11:45 AM SFU CINEMA

The Originals

Niall Patrick McNeil and Mike McKinlay, Secwépemc Nation/Syilx Okanagan Nation, 2024, 45 mins

Mention “Caravan” to almost any theatre performer in British Columbia and you’ll be met with a smile as memories of a magical place of creativity and community come rushing in. Award-winning artist and director Niall Patrick McNeil ventures back to where he grew up—the 80 acres outside of Armstrong, BC on unceded Secwépemc and Syilx territory that is home to Caravan Farm Theatre, a legendary outdoor theatre company established in 1978. Here, he reconnects with many of the artists who have played a role in past productions. -lh In English

FRIDAY MAY 10

5:30 PM SFU CINEMA

Plastic People

Ben Addelman and Ziya Tong, Canada/France/the Netherlands/Philippines/USA, 2024, 96 mins

Are we becoming plastic people? Filmmakers Ben Addelman and Ziya Tong investigate the growing threat of microplastics on human health. Almost every bit of plastic is ground down into “microplastics”—microscopic particles that drift in the air, float in the water and sit in the soil. And now, leading scientists are finding them in our bodies: our organs, our blood, and even the placentas of new mothers.

What is the impact of these invisible invaders on our health?

Tong, who is also an author and science journalist, is determined to find out. She makes it personal by visiting leading scientists and, for the first time on camera, undergoing experiments in her home, on her food, and on her body. Plastic People ventures far beyond the typical issues of plastic and explores the human drama of the future of our health.

In multiple languages with English subtitles

59

Voices of the Street 2024 Literary Anthology Launch Event Voices of the Street is a literary anthology created by Megaphone magazine, written by people who are homeless and low-income in the Vancouver community. Featuring special guest, celebrated poet, Isabella Wang. Canapés and refreshments provided.

6:00 PM - 8:00 PM SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, Vancouver, BC Tickets:

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/news-events.html

17 MAY 2024

SUNDAY MAY 5

11:45 AM VIFF CENTRE

FRIDAY MAY 3

6:00PM THE CINEMATHEQUE

Prends, Seigneur, Prends

The Real Superstar

Alone in the middle of the desert, the austere temple of Panchwa looks like a raft adrift in the open sea. Once a year, the temple is overtaken by crowds from the Kalbeliya tribe of Rajasthan. They come to celebrate their hero buried there: the King of Panchwa. An emblematic figure in their way of life, he will inhabit their bodies for nine days and heal them, reward them, punish them or chase away ghosts. Prends, Seigneur, Prends drops viewers into the heart of this celebration full of blood, flesh and flames.

Amitabh Bachchan, affectionately known as “The Big B,” stands unrivaled in the annals of cinema. Bachchan transcends mere celebrity, and boasts accolades that range from France’s prestigious Knight of the Legion of Honour to his own comic book character, Supremo. Director Cédric Dupire’s film eschews the conventional biographic formula, allowing the legendary actor’s performances to tell his tale.

Through a showcase of Bachchan’s iconic roles—without commentary—Dupire crafts a captivating quasi-narrative that celebrates the magnetic allure of this cinematic luminary. The Real Superstar not only showcases the unparalleled creativity of Bachchan’s illustrious 55-year career, but also serves as a vibrant homage to the rich tapestry of Indian cinema. -TA

Cédric Dupire and Gaspard Kuentz, France/India, 2017, 92 mins

In French with English subtitles

Cédric Dupire, France, 2023, 69 mins

In Hindi with English subtitles

61

FRIDAY MAY 10

10:00 AM SFU CINEMA

8:15 PM THE CINEMATHEQUE

Red Fever

Seeking Mavis Beacon

Why is the world so infatuated with Indigeneity—and why do non-Indigenous people so often get it wrong? From the visionary filmmakers behind DOXA favourites Reel Injun (2009) and RUMBLE: The Indians Who Rocked the World (2017), Red Fever offers a funny, intriguing, and provocative look into the enduring fascination with all things “native.” Cree photographer and filmmaker Neil Diamond leads the way as our guide, challenging stereotypes and myths across fashion, sports, politics, and the environment. As Diamond traverses the continent and beyond, Red Fever deftly shatters misconceptions about the origins of some of North America’s most cherished traditions, revealing the profound impact and vital resonance of Indigenous cultures. Through its engaging narrative, the film celebrates the ongoing contributions of Indigenous peoples, from the runways of the fashion industry to the arenas of American football, and even to the very foundation of modern democracy. -TA

Do you remember a popular computer game called Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing?

Launched in 1987, it was a prominent piece of educational software that featured a poised, confident Black woman on its cover. The bombshell, though, is that Mavis Beacon wasn’t a real person—she was only an avatar dreamed up by the three white male developers. Their model was Renée L’Espérance, an immigrant from Haiti, who was paid $500 to pose as the confident typing whiz. Jazmin Renée Jones and Olivia McKayla Ross embark on a wild journey to find the real Mavis Beacon and understand what her legacy means for Black women in technology.

Neil Diamond and Catherine Bainbridge, Canada, 2024, 104 mins

In English and Cree with English subtitles

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SUNDAY MAY 12

Jazmin Jones, USA, 2024, 102 mins

The visual style of the film embraces the flashiness of cyberculture, depicting the internet as a space alive with spirits and desires. Seeking Mavis Beacon balances the power of a reclaimed history with the equally powerful desire to suppress that story. L’Espérance has no digital footprint—what will the filmmakers glean from her absence? -KR In English

WEDNESDAY MAY 8 THURSDAY MAY 9

5:00 PM VIFF CENTRE 10:00 AM SFU THEATRE

Singing Back the Buffalo Tasha Hubbard, Canada, 2024, 98 mins

In a time of immense environmental degradation and global uncertainty, the buffalo can lead us to a better tomorrow. After a dark recent history, the buffalo herds of North America are awaiting their return, aided by dedicated Indigenous activists, leaders and communities, including award-winning Cree filmmaker Tasha Hubbard (nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up). Together with Blackfoot Elder Leroy Little Bear, Hubbard weaves an intimate story of humanity’s connections to buffalo and eloquently reveals how their return to the Great Plains can indeed usher in a new era of sustainability and balance. On her journey, Hubbard explores the challenges faced by buffalo allies and shares the positive steps already taken towards the ultimate—but uncertain—goal of buffalo rematriation. Richly visualised and deeply uplifting, Singing Back the Buffalo is an epic reimagining of North America through the lens of buffalo consciousness and a potent dream of what is within our grasp.

In English

SUNDAY MAY 5

9:35 PM VIFF CENTRE

The Stimming Pool

The Neurocultures Collective (Sam Chown Ahern, Georgia Bradburn, Benjamin Brown, Robin Elliott-Knowles and Lucy Walker) and Steven Eastwood, UK, 2024, 67 mins

Neurodivergence is centred in this remarkable film that invites neurotypical viewers to immerse themselves in unfamiliar perspectives. A collaboration between The Neurocultures Collective—a group of five neurodiverse artists—and artist-filmmaker ​Steven Eastwood, The Stimming Pool experiments with a free and completely unique form of cinema built around the concept of an “autistic camera.” These five filmmakers pass as neurotypical in the “normal” world, to varying degrees: one displays his passion for gory B movies; another disguises their autism behind their daily office routine; a third shares her personal physical experiences only in private. Taking the narrative a step further is Chess—a dog manifested from fiction whose neurodiverse abilities are a literal superpower.

At points along the way we engage with researchers who track the attention of neurodiverse minds and eyes, determining where they draw connections between what others do not perceive. The Stimming Pool is a revelatory and empathetic film that explores neurodiversity in an innovative way, culminating in an ecstatic and cathartic conclusion. -KR In English

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TUESDAY MAY 7 FRIDAY MAY 10

5:00 PM VIFF CENTRE 2:45 PM SFU CINEMA

4:15 PM VIFF CENTRE 8:45 PM SFU CINEMA

Sugarcane

Tea Creek

“You’re going to goddamn well be accountable and you’re going to start now.” The words of residential school survivor Charlene Belleau echo across this powerful film, winner of the Grand Jury award for Directing (US Documentary) at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. With unflinching courage and heart-felt empathy, Sugarcane delves into the harrowing realities of residential schools in North America, demanding answers, acknowledgment, and decisive action. St. Joseph’s Mission school near Williams Lake becomes the focal point of a riveting and layered narrative that blends a relentless pursuit for justice with uplifting moments of levity and cultural heritage. Most importantly, the film is a conduit for healing, inviting survivors to share long-held experiences that shed light on their painful histories and giving them a chance to embark on a journey of collective catharsis. -TA

Confronted with the stark reality of Indigenous food sovereignty, Jacob Beaton was spurred to action. Three short years later, he has transformed his family farm into Tea Creek—a food sovereignty training center guided by his mission to restore the abundance that once defined Turtle Island. Tea Creek has blossomed into a center for learning, nourishment and healing, but for Jacob and his team, getting to this point has been hard-fought. Faced with funding issues, effects of the climate crisis, and the ongoing impacts of intergenerational trauma, Jacob is constantly battling to keep Tea Creek afloat. Ryan Dickie’s film follows Jacob through the growing season and explores the rich history of Indigenous agriculture, while not shying away from the ongoing impacts of colonization. This is an intimate portrayal of a passionate leader, whose vision for change is creating space for Indigenous-led healing and abundance.

Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, USA/Canada, 2024, 107 min

Demonstrating unparalleled humanity, compassion, and grace for the affected Indigenous communities in North America, [Sugarcane] operates from a place of pure and total empathy. SUNDANCE In English

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SATURDAY MAY 4 THURSDAY MAY 9

Ryan Dickie, Gitxsan/Tshimshan/Saik’uz/Nisga’a, 2024, 73 mins

In English and Gitsenimx̱ with English subtitles

SATURDAY MAY 11

8:00 PM THE CINEMATHEQUE

Tongo Saa (Rising Up at Night)

Nelson Makengo, Democratic Republic of the Congo/Belgium/Germany/Burkina Faso/Qatar, 2024, 96 mins

In this poignant journey through flooded and unlit neighborhoods in the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, filmmaker Nelson Makengo captures the essence of resilience in the face of adversity. Against a backdrop of radio announcements promoting ambitious dam projects—quickly followed by disappointing reversals—we witness the daily struggles of a beleaguered populace in the city of Kinshasa, whose access to electric light has been restricted. Yet, amidst the darkness, there are flickers of hope and solidarity. As the festive season approaches, the night transforms into a tapestry of celebration and apprehension. Here, commerce intertwines with communal bonds, and the echoes of songful prayers provide a shining beacon of endurance as the greater battle for light wages on. -TA In Lingala with English subtitles

MONDAY MAY 6

5:00 PM VIFF CENTRE

Union

Stephen Maing and Brett Story, USA, 2024, 102 mins

The Amazon Labor Union (ALU)—a group of current and former Amazon workers in New York City’s Staten Island—are taking on one of the world’s largest and most powerful companies in the fight to unionize. Led by the charismatic and determined Chris Smalls, the ALU appears at first to be nothing more than a ragtag team of misfits holding court outside the Amazon factory parking lot. But thanks to co-directors Brett Story (The Hottest August, The Prison in Twelve Landscapes) and Stephen Maing (Crime + Punishment), whose camaraderie with the organizers keeps them enmeshed in the action, it quickly becomes clear that the ALU is entirely serious and willing to risk almost anything for their fellow workers. Union does not shy away from the nitty-gritty of labour activism, and members of the budding ALU contend with exhaustion, pessimism and interpersonal conflict—but the fire remains lit. As Jeff Bezos rockets up to space in a cosmically grotesque feat of unchecked capitalism, Smalls and his crew keep their boots firmly on the ground. -SB It would be easy to build a halo-lit documentary portrait around [one central figure], but Brett Story and Stephen Maing’s excellent Union is something more finely shaded and community-minded than that. As a long-view anatomy of a unionization campaign, the film may be galvanized by Smalls’ presence at its center, but it’s rather less idealistic about the human politics involved in fighting corporations. VARIETY In English

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SUNDAY MAY 5

2:05 PM VIFF CENTRE

2:05 PM VIFF CENTRE

The Wasp and the Orchid

We Don’t Care About Music Anyway…

Television is the link between life in the dusty mountains of Tunisia and the busy streets of France in Saber Zammouri’s atmospheric film. In the hazy and arid regions of rural Tunisia, communities gather at the local cafe to watch television—a medium only introduced to the area in 1989. With a stream of media beamed from France, filmmaker Zammouri ponders the long-term effects of these images on subsequent generations. How do they shape the worldview of a community so remote? Are their penetrating powers a new kind of colonialism?

A captivating exploration of Tokyo’s avant-garde music scene, We Don’t Care About Music Anyway… delves into the noise music, digital innovation, and incomprehensible instrumentation of musicians creating art at the fringes of sound.

Originally released in 2009, directors Cédric Dupire and Gaspard Kuentz showcase singular figures in Tokyo’s underground scene to create a synesthetic interpretation of the city that conflates music with environment and imagery with pure dissonance. Through a deeper contemplation of these artists and the world they inhabit—filled with junkyards, warehouses, and coiling freeways—the film deconstructs their performances and provokes fascinating questions about contemporary art, urbanity and cultural evolution. -PG

Saber Zammouri, Tunisia/France, 2023, 66 mins

The hypnotic routines of traditional desert life give way to scenes set in frenetic— but often lonely—contemporary Paris, where new immigrants feel torn between two lives. They are disillusioned with jobs preparing and delivering food, but unable to imagine returning home to their mother country. An immigrant himself, Zammouri acknowledges: “France was quite a thing, as we imagined it, because of the TV.” -KR In Arabic and French with English subtitles Preceded by the short film In Praise of Slowness (p. 76)

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SATURDAY MAY 4

Cédric Dupire and Gaspard Kuentz, France, 2009, 80 mins

In Japanese with English subtitles

SATURDAY MAY 4

6:35 PM VIFF CENTRE

SATURDAY MAY 4

11:45 AM THE CINEMATHEQUE

Where Zebus Speak French

While the Green Grass Grows

The indigenous Malagasy people of Sitabaomba are rice farmers, whose fertile lands are now coveted by elite forces, including a general with plans for a shopping centre, investors from China promising a road to the airport in return for mining rights, and the new president, who wants to build apartments. Director Nantenaina Lova’s charming film accompanies the villagers as they confront neocolonial forces in a country where the legacy of colonialism is so strong that even the local draught animals—zebus—have learned to take their orders in French.

In perhaps his most intimate work, Peter Mettler follows the course of rivers and life: the Appenzell countryside and its streams overflowing with melting snow; the ongoing global pandemic; the death of his mother; the knowledge that his 90-year-old father will soon pass as well. While the Green Grass Grows is made up of parts one and six of a seven-part cinematic diary that revolves around the consequences of Mettler’s parents’ death and the question of how to continue—on a personal and global level. With his unique cinematic style, Mettler invites us on a meditative journey, from mountainous landscapes to lockdown in Toronto.

Nantenaina Lova, France/La Réunion/Madagascar/Germany/Burkina Faso, 2023, 104 mins

What could have been an all too familiar story of land dispossession is transformed by the inventiveness of the villagers and a group of artists, who work with local children to draw attention to their cause through art and performance. Lova incorporates these creations, switching playfully between puppetry, animation, exaggerated speeches and reenactments to mimic the Malagasy tradition of “kabary”—a form of satirical discourse that incorporates baroque metaphors and intentional diversions to arrive at its point. A bewildering delight that makes perfect sense in the end. -JC

Peter Mettler, Switzerland/Canada, 2023, 166 mins

Mettler’s meditative approach and sensitive camera searches, remembers, and creates a generous space to expose the fragility and profound nature of relationships, where reflections about the human condition and our environment follow one another in a stream of consciousness. CINEMA PUBLIC In English

In Malagasy and French with English subtitles

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THURSDAY MAY 9

7:45 PM VIFF CENTRE

Wilfred Buck

Lisa Jackson, Opaskwayak Cree Nation/Onigaming First Nation/Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation, 2024, 97 mins

Lisa Jackson’s portrait of Wilfred Buck—the “Star Guy”—is much more than a biography: It is a vivid visualization of First Nations astronomy and cosmology.

Adapting Buck’s memoir I Have Lived Four Lives, Jackson seamlessly fuses present day footage with dramatizations of an early life affected by trauma and the havoc it can wreak. The poignancy of these sequences is remarkable, combining cinematography, staging, performance and first-person narration into a powerful blend of multimodal storytelling.

Jackson’s film showcases Buck’s devotion to passing on traditional Opaskwayak Cree values and knowledge to younger generations, and especially his passion for Indigenous teachings about the night sky and stars. Buck touts a portable planetarium through which he projects imagery of the cosmos, and the effect of seeing a sturgeon float across a starry galaxy is magical. When Buck advises a gathering of Harvard scientists not to worry about what they do not know, it is because we are all a part of something essentially unknowable. To find a way forward, we must dream and let go. -MB In English

68

SATURDAY MAY 4

8:45 PM VIFF CENTRE

The World is Family Anand Patwardhan, India, 2023, 96 mins

In his most personal work, acclaimed Indian documentarian Anand Patwardhan navigates the intersection of public and personal realms, delivering an epic narrative that spans generations. Drawing on footage collected over decades, Patwardhan offers a poignant perspective on India’s struggle for independence from British colonial rule, filled with intimate recollections from a network of family and friends who vividly recall the trials and triumphs of this period. At the film’s heart lies the captivating love story of Nimala, Patwardhan’s spirited and unconventional mother (who is also a talented ceramicist), and Balu, his jovial and warm-hearted father. Through these two intertwined narratives, Patwardhan harnesses the power of oral history to illuminate not just the past but also an alternative path to a prosperous future. -TA The title [is] from the Sanskrit language phrase, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (“the world is one family”) that underscores the spirit of collectivism. The film is a call to hold on to this fast-disappearing spirit of solidarity, harmony and humanism. SCREEN DAILY In English, Hindi and Marathi with English subtitles

TUESDAY MAY 7 THURSDAY MAY 9

8:00 PM VIFF CENTRE 3:00 PM SFU CINEMA

SATURDAY MAY 4 SUNDAY MAY 5

11:45 AM VIFF CENTRE 6:45 PM THE CINEMATHEQUE

Yintah

The Zola Experience

Filmed over 10 years, Yintah documents both an important historical framework and a stirring portrait of resistance by the Witsuwit’en peoples following Coastal GasLink’s (CGL) determination to build a pipeline through their territory. Tsakë ze’ Howilhkat Freda Huson of Witsuwit’en C’ilhts’ëkhyu clan and Tsakë ze’ Sleydo Molly Wickam of Gidimt’en clan lead the fight with honour, and it is inspiring to witness their tenacious commitment despite an ever-increasing battery of strong-arm tactics from CGL and the RCMP. The film demonstrates how corporations and governmental agencies collude to wield power with impunity when their interests are at stake—but the fight isn’t over yet. The film shows audiences that this is a land—a yintah—of not just resistance but resilience. Youngsters skilfully skin a carcass, teachings are shared, and families swim joyfully in the sacred river that connects the five clans. -MB

The distinction between fiction and reality begins to blur in this story of a recently divorced artistic director (Anne Barbot), her neighbour (Benoît Dallongeville), and the characters they inhabit in a theatrical adaptation of Émile Zola’s L’Assommoir. Pivoting between rehearsal sequences and intimate scenes of the players’ domestic relationship, the film leans into our uncertainty as we start to question what’s real and what’s an act. Are we witnessing the actors’ private lives, or the play in which they’re performing? Can one perform oneself? Complicating matters is the very real play that Barbot directed based on Zola’s novel, which did indeed star Dallongeville and herself. Director Gianluca Matarrese’s experimental documentary flows seamlessly from one scenario to the next, creating multiple narrative spaces and asking us to question the roles we ourselves inhabit. -MB

Jennifer Wickham, Brenda Michell and Michael Toledano, Witsuwit’en, 2024, 125 mins

In English and Witsuwit’en with English subtitles

Gianluca Matarrese, Italy/France, 2023, 101 mins

In French with English subtitles

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S H O R T S

P R O G R A M

AN ANIMAL GAZE

THURSDAY MAY 2 • 9:20 PM THE CINEMATHEQUE

As Grey Falls

Minutes

Testudo Hermanni

While quietly awaiting the arrival of migratory birdlife in the Fraser River delta, Pavsek’s cine poem contemplates our relationship to the inhabitants of this unprotected area. With a careful eye and thoughtful timing, the film lives up to its own advice: “Patience is not the right word for what is required, so sit in anticipation.” -JC

Wolkow’s film delightfully juxtaposes a busy family of blue jays with the frenzied typing of notes—a meeting’s minutes, or maybe a screenplay? The contrast between nature’s vibrancy and our incidental processes is both witty and sublime. -MB

In 2009, director G. Anthony Svatek entrusted the care of his pet tortoise, Tony, to his mother. The erratic winters of the Austrian Alps prove challenging for Tony’s Mediterranean lifestyle, but Svatek’s mother provides steady care in the face of an uncertain future. -JM

Christopher Pavsek, Canada, 2024, 22 mins

In English

Matthew Wolkow, Canada, 2023, 6 mins

In English and French with English subtitles

Los dos lados de la tortuga

Some Thoughts on the Common Toad

An observational journal of past and present that follows the arrival of an explorer in the Galapagos Islands and their encounter with giant tortoises. As the explorer logs textures and terrain beyond the island’s surface—and into its history—the film conducts an experiment in the nature documentary genre. -JM

On the toad’s phase of intense sexiness; on political cynicism; and on environmental alienation. A collage of found footage based on George Orwell’s 1946 essay, read by Tilda Swinton.

Oscar X. Illingworth, Ecuador, 2023, 11 mins

In Spanish with English subtitles

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G. Anthony Svatek, Austria/USA, 2023, 7 mins

G. Anthony Svatek, USA/UK, 2023, 11 mins

In English

S H O R T S

P R O G R A M

STORYTELLING REIMAGINED SUNDAY MAY 5 • 1:45 PM THE CINEMATHEQUE

DAYDAY MAY XX DAYDAY MAY XX

00:00 PM VENUE 12:00 PM VENUE

Quebrante

Janaina Wagner, Brazil, 2024, 23 mins

Like a spell breaking, Quebrante traverses the caves, ruins and phantasmagorias of the Transamazon BR230 Highway, the third longest highway in Brazil,

wood may soon become their only source of heat. -SB In Slovak with English subtitles

Persian Pride

Bita Joudaki, Canada, 2024, 15 mins

Taking its name from the Iranian youth gang active in North Vancouver during the early ‘90s, Persian Pride recalls the hybrid fiction/documentary cinema of Iranian directors like Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi and Mohsen Makhmalbaf. With a focus on adapting memory and story for the screen, Joudaki touches on

portraying its stones and its ghosts.

of dance and song bring the ancestors to the fore. -SB

In Portuguese with English subtitles

Let The Red Moon Burn

Ralitsa Doncheva, Bulgaria/Canada, 2023, 7 mins

The ancient Bulgarian ritual of fire dancing is preserved on hand-processed 16 mm film, and images of movement, fire and landscape burn like imprints of light left behind when we close our eyes. Ghostly impressions

Cold and Dark

Peter Hostak, Canada/Slovakia, 2023, 29 mins

A group of loggers from a Slovakian mountain village venture into the forest with their draft horse, Kubo. The Russian invasion of nearby Ukraine has created an energy crisis, and traditional methods of harvesting fire-

threads of community, stereotypes, history and systemic violence. -KR In English and Farsi with English subtitles

Quiet As It’s Kept

Ja’Tovia Gary, USA, 2023, 26 mins

A cinematic response to Toni Morrison’s first novel The Bluest Eye, Ja’Tovia Gary combines animation, old Hollywood film clips and Super 8 and 16 mm footage in an instinctual collage. A meditation on the gaze and Black women’s embodied realities.

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S H O R T S

P R O G R A M

LAND CONTINUING / ARCHIVES OF LAND SATURDAY MAY 4 • 3:00 PM THE CINEMATHEQUE

Dinosauria, We

Holiday Native Land

Dau:añcut (Moving Along Image)

Dinosauria, We explores the consequences of humankind’s corruption. Ultra-capitalism, war and the exploitation of natural resources amass into a dystopian vision of the end of the world, as imagined by poet Charles Bukowski.

Utilizing archival footage and a split-screen presentation, Holiday Native Land contrasts promotional tourism films of the mid-20th century with a more accurate look at the violence inflicted on the environment and Indigenous peoples. -lh

In English

In English and French with English Subtitles

In 2014, Adam Piron learned of an unknown man in Ukraine with a tattoo of his cousin’s grandfather dressed in his traditional Native American regalia. In the process of searching for this mystery man, Piron unearths much larger questions about the ironies of history. What happens when you lose control of an image?

Cake and Death

City of Poets

Songs of Love and Hate

Movie scenes featuring cake are arranged into a collage that comments on consumption, capitalism and slavery. What begins as a visually splendid tour-de -force of editing swerves into chaos, corruption and excess. A brilliant juxtaposition of the whimsical and the political. -KR

In a small, semi-utopian city, all the streets are named after poets. When war begins, new neighborhoods emerge to accommodate the refugees. Soon, the citizens find themselves lost amid the memories of the forgotten writers.

Devastated by heartbreak, Prem, the charismatic radio jockey of a renowned call-in love advice program, seeks solace in the mountains. Amidst his personal quest for answers, the desperate calls of an audience seeking resolution echo through the wilderness.

In English and Farsi with English subtitles

In Nepalese with English subtitles

Maxime-Claude L’Écuyer, Canada, 2023, 5 mins

William Brown, Canada, 2023, 29 mins

In multiple languages with English subtitles

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Nicolas Renaud and Brian Virostek, Canada, 2023, 37 mins

Sara Rajaei, the Netherlands, 2024, 22 mins

Adam Piron, USA, 2023, 16 mins

In English

Saurav Ghimire, Nepal/Belgium, 2024, 17 mins

S P O T L I G H T

S H O R T S

CHILDREN OF THE SUN SUNDAY MAY 5 • 9:30 PM THE CINEMATHEQUE

Just A Soul Responding

Elefsina Notre Amour

Sarcophagus of Drunken Loves

Just a Soul Responding is a travelogue of sorts, following two friends whose lives intersect and diverge across landscapes both contemporary and historical. An attempt to reconcile the present, the desired future, and what is lost along the way.

Filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel muses over abandoned shipwrecks as “majestic memorial sculptures” and “the neglected refugees of Elefsina” in this essay film.

Originally produced as part of the flagship contemporary art exhibition for Eleusis European Capital of Culture 2023.

In present-day Lebanon, power cuts are constant. Even the National Museum is regularly deprived of electricity—but visitors continue to arrive all the same. Armed with their phones, they come to behold traces of past civilizations, even as their own world is threatened.

Sky Hopinka, USA, 2023, 16 mins

In English

Mahdi Fleifel, Greece, 2023, 9 mins

Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Lebanon/France, 2024, 8 mins

A Short Film About a Chair

The Secret Garden ‫الحديقة السرّيّة‬

Amidst pandemic and apartment living, a lonely chair on a balcony is watched by an observant photographer living next door. The photographer muses day and night until the chair’s life is changed forever. -JM

A tale in eight chapters: Following the sudden appearance of new trees and plants throughout an unnamed city, strange and mysterious events start taking place. Two women investigate the origins of this enigmatic vegetation.

Ibrahim Handal, Palestine, 2024, 10 mins

In English, Arabic and French with English subtitles

Nour Ouayda, Canada/Lebanon, 2023, 27 mins

In Arabic with English subtitles

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S H O R T S

P R O G R A M

“LOVE WAS HERE… LOVE STILL IS” FRIDAY MAY 10 • 12:30 PM SFU CINEMA

Families’ Albums

This Line Connects the Void

Using her signature technique of animated photography, multidisciplinary artist Moïa Jobin-Paré depicts how we formulate an understanding of the world—through layers of memory that shift like tectonic plates. Piecing history together with images of everyday life, a landscape forms from familiarity and connection. -JM

Using a non-linear approach to storytelling, director Tram Nghiem explores the complexities and impact of their sister’s death on their family. Alternating between speculative fiction and documentary forms, Nghiem unpacks the unspoken grief that accompanies the death of a loved one. -al

Moïa Jobin-Paré, Canada, 2023, 8 mins

Tram Nghiem, Canada, 2023, 16 mins

In English

Am I the skinniest person you’ve ever seen?

Eisha Marjara, Canada, 2024, 23 mins

In a vulnerable retelling of her youth, director Eisha Marjara examines her adolescent years, during which she dealt with anorexia. Archival footage accompanies narration as Eisha explores the anxieties of growing up and the complexities of mental health and family dynamics. -al In English

Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying

Wouldn’t Make It Any Other Way

I Used to Live There

Edith Almadi, an 88-year-old Hungarian-Canadian woman, creates pieces of art that help her to process grief as she reflects on her life. As Edith’s artwork comes to life through animation, she details the heartbreak of her son’s passing. -al

Having built a dynamic and proudly queer life in an American prairie town, an aspiring costume designer returns home to Guam to make costumes for a children’s theatre and reconnect with their roots. Wouldn’t Make It Any Other Way examines the conflict between loyalty to family and pursuing personal dreams.

Photographer Dan Gerson is losing his vision due to a degenerative eye disorder; Monika Schneider recently left a long-term relationship, and has decided to get back into acting. Their lives briefly intertwine when Monika asks Dan to take her photograph, and they share a connection as each faces the unknown. -SB

In English

In English

Natalie Baird and Toby Gillies, Canada, 2024, 7 mins

In English

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Hao Zhou, USA/Guam, 2024, 21 mins

Ryan McKenna, Canada, 2023, 14 mins

R E T R O S P E C T I V E

CÉDRIC DUPIRE A N D GASPARD KUENTZ Cédric Dupire and Garpard Kuentz make documentaries that are singular journeys: to spirit lands, otherworldly festivals and rituals; exorcisms, possessions and celebrations. These films are intense, disconcerting and vertiginous.

The Archive: Queer Nigerians Simisolaoluwa Akande, UK, 2023, 25 mins

With queer history erased from the national narrative of Nigeria, queer Nigerians in the UK gather to tell their stories and document their experiences, resisting erasure and reclaiming self expression.

In English

Kings of the Wind & Electric Queens (2014), which will screen with Dupire’s short Journal Afghan (2015), chronicles one of the largest and oldest cattle markets in Asia. The Sonepur Cattle Fair draws ecstatic spectators from across India in search of thrills and good fortune. “An event like no other, it’s a carnival of magical realism inhabited by exotic dancers, exorcists, stuntmen and elephant tamers… full of sensual extravagance.” (EthnoCineca) Prends, Seigneur, Prends (2017) drops viewers into the heart of celebration at the temple of Panchwa, filled with blood, flesh and flames. We Don’t Care About Music Anyway… (2009) is a vivid representation of the underground Japanese experimental music scene, delving into the noise music, digital innovation, and incomprehensible instrumentation of musicians creating art at the fringes of sound.

Finally, Dupire’s most recent work, The Real Superstar (2023), rounds out this duel retro-

spective. A quasi-narrative about the unrivaled celebrity of movie star Amitabh Bachchan, The Real Superstar is a unique portrait of one widely lauded icon and in turn a vibrant homage to the rich tapestry of Indian cinema.

We are excited to dive deep into the sensorial universe of Cédric Dupire and Gaspard Kuentz’s filmography, which contains a multitude of inspiration, feeling, and form. As a duo they are known to push the limits of documentary (and in turn their audience)—these five films are proof.

We Don’t Care About Music Anyway… (p. 66) Kings of the Wind & Electric Queens (p. 45) Journal Afghan (p. 76) Prends, Seigneur, Prends (p. 61) The Real Superstar (p. 61)

F E AT U R E D FRI MAY 10 SAT MAY 11

6:30 PM THE CINEMATHEQUE 1:15 PM SFU CINEMA

S H O R T

Twig

Claire Sanford, Canada, 2024, 39 mins

Byong Hyon Kwon, a former South Korean ambassador to China, has a vision for the desert of Inner Mongolia: fighting the encroaching sand by planting millions of trees. The task seems insurmountable, but as he and his son struggle up and down the dunes, his commitment never wavers. -KR In English, Korean and Mandarin with English subtitles Screening with Ottu (p. 76) 75

S H O R T S

WITH FEATURES

Journal Afghan

In Praise of Slowness

Ottu

It’s 1965: Dimitri and Christine are crossing the Near and Middle East by car, documenting their journey with an 8 mm camera and a tape recorder. From these small scraps of footage, director Cédric Dupire pieces together a rumination on the mechanisms of memory and the experience of travel.

Set in modern-day Tangier—a hybrid city undergoing accelerated urbanization as well as an unprecedented social revolution—In Praise of Slowness examines the politics of bleach vending, a profession on the brink of disappearing forever.

A filmmaker searches for the eight winds of the Mediterranean on the island of Corsica. Found footage and 16 mm hand-processing experiments expose this ethereal subject; we travel to abandoned churches, cemeteries, and ravaged beaches in a quest to find that which has neither source nor end.

In French with English subtitles

Screening with The Wasp and the Orchid (p. 66)

In English

Here and There

El Neceser Rojo

As the school year ends, friends Adam, Ana and Dahlia seek a deeper connection with the cultural heritage of their immigrant families. Making baklava, perusing old photographs and spending time with elders help to bridge their many worlds, each trying to find their place in the puzzle. -SB

Director Serge Garcia’s mother recalls her upbringing in the 1960s, moving constantly back and forth between Mexico and California. Her own mother, a single woman with an independent lifestyle, is reflected in her red vanity case, a symbol of her tenacity as well as her inaccessibility. -JM

In French and Arabic with English subtitles

In Spanish with English subtitles

Screening with Between Pictures (p. 35)

Screening with Amor (p. 31)

Cédric Dupire, France, 2015, 24 mins

Screening with Kings of the Wind & Electric Queens,

Hicham Gardaf, UK/Italy, 2023, 17 mins

In English and Moroccan Arabic with English subtitles

(p. 45)

Chadi Bennani, Canada, 2023, 19 mins

SUPPORT US 76

Sandra Ignagni, Canada/France/Italy, 2023, 20 mins

Screening with Twig (p. 75)

Serge Garcia, Mexico, 2023, 19 mins

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

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$19

$70 (5 tickets) Valid for one ticket per in-person screening

• #110– 750 Hamilton St April 27-28 (12pm to 5pm) Buy tickets in person at the DOXA Office.

$120 (10 tickets) Valid for one ticket per in-person screening

VENUE BOX OFFICE

NOTE: Ticket Packs are NOT valid for special

presentations and do not include the $2 membership.

FESTIVAL PASS

$195

• Includes memberships • Valid for all film screenings except Opening Gala FESTIVAL + INDUSTRY PASS

$245

• Includes memberships and Industry events • Valid for all film screenings except Opening Gala DOXA INDUSTRY SLIDING SCALE

Starting at $13

• The Playhouse (May 4) Tickets available for festival Opening.

Box office opens 30 minutes prior to the first screening of the day at the venue.

• The Cinematheque (May 2-12) Tickets available for all festival screenings.

Box office opens 30 minutes prior to the first screening of the day at the venue.

• VIFF Centre (May 3-11) 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 9-11) Tickets available for all festival screenings.

Box office opens 30 minutes prior to the first ticketed event at the venue.

See venue addresses on page 42.

Opening Gala, Mid-Week Gala and Closing Gala screenings Admission to DOXA screenings and events is FREE for all self-identifying Indigenous peoples. You can book your complimentary tickets by getting in touch with our Box Office team at boxoffice@doxafestival.ca, or by inquiring with box office staff at festival venues during opening hours.

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TICKETS AND GENERAL FESTIVAL INFORMATION

REFUND POLICY

ACCESSIBILITY

DOXA OFFICE

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

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

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

RUSH TICKETS

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

THEATRE PROCEDURES FOR FESTIVAL PASSHOLDERS

Tickets must be booked in advance. Tickets may be available at the door, 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. All passes are strictly non-transferable and passholders are required to show ID. FEES

Third-party processing fees are applied to all orders.

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ASL interpretation will be available at all in-person Industry events, unless otherwise specified.

To learn whether Closed Captions are available for a particular film, please check screening information available online.

Films in languages other than English will have subtitles, unless deliberately left untranslated by the filmmaker.

WEBSITE

FOLLOW US

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

Supporting independent producers in B.C. and Alberta since 2014 Watch compelling local documentaries and docuseries on TELUS Optik TV channel 8 or scan to watch online!

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