DOXA 2026 Program Book

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CONTENTS The Documentary Media Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Justice Forum Special Presentation . . . . . . . . . . 21

Justice Forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Thank You to Our Donors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Closing Gala Film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Film & Industry Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Welcome from DOXA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

DOXA Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Spotlight: On Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Greetings from Our Funders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

DOXA + VPL: Free Workshops & Screenings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Spotlight: From One Basin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Nationwide Documentaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Awards and Juries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Guest Curator Essay: No Barriers, No Nations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Opening Gala Live Cinematic Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Guest Curated Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Rated Y for Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Mid Week Gala . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

paraDOXA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Thank You to Our Partners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Tickets and Festival Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Local Documentaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 International Documentaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Shorts Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Map of Venues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

SCREENINGS Intersecting Memory ‫ ذاكرة متقاطعة‬. . . . . . . . . . 69

Remake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

IS GANG STALKING REAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Replica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Amílcar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Kindergarten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

an open field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Last Evenings on Earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Saigon Story: Two Shootings in the Forest Kingdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

AND THE FISH FLY ABOVE OUR HEADS ‫ و األسماك تطير فوق رؤوسنا‬. . . . . . . 52

Last May in Theaters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Alea Jacarandas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 AMERICAN DOCTOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

The Sandbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

The Latest News from ‘Deseret’ . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Shelly’s Leg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Au Hasard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Le Meilleur Spectateur de la pièce historique qui se joue sur terre . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

BAEA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Life After Siham . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Soul of the Foot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Bella Sutra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

The Life that Will Come (La vida que Vendrá) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

As Far As We Imagine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Beyond Now, Nyein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Bouchra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Bubba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Buckskin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Ça reste entre nous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Concrete Turned to Sand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Enough is Enough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 FELT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Filme-Copacabana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 The Flower and the Flood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63 Frío Metal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Living Containers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Mirrorpond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69 Momentum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Morning Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Namesake təm kʷaθ nan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Ndjimu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Niña Chilapa - Chilapa Girl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Numakage Public Pool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Okay Keskidee! Let Me See Inside . . . . . . . . . . 69 The Oldest Person in the World . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

The Silent Bearers 조용한 선박들 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Steal This Story, Please! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Stories of a Lie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Their Eyes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69 There Are No Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 TIGERS CAN BE SEEN IN THE RAIN . . . . . 66

Time and Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 To Alexandra 致亞歷珊卓 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Touching Rocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Traces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Tuktuit : Caribou . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Under the Red Roof 野塚の太陽 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Untold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Green Valley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Partition ‫ تقسیم‬. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

What Comes from Sitting in Silence? . . . . . . . 60

Illustrated Legacies: Graveyard of the Pacific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

The Phalanx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Who is Still Alive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Powwow People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

WINDWARD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

In Tyee Country . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Puntos de fuga (Vanishing Points) . . . . . . . . . . 47

Words Fly Back to the Black Earth . . . . . . . . . 67 C E L E B R AT I N G D O X A’ S 2 5T H E D I T I O N

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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.

Sarah Ouazzani

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 documentaries to be an important tool in this process.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Martin Alldred

PROGRAMMING + INDUSTRY MANAGER

Marianne Thodas

DEVELOPMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER

Charlie Cooper Chira Tochia Syed Mustafa Mónica Perea Alina Quarin Fabian Uribe Graham Wong PROGRAMMING CONSULTANT

Warren Chan

Jesse Cumming

PROGRAMMING COORDINATOR

FESTIVAL ADVISORS

Sophia English

VOLUNTEER SERVICES + OPERATIONS MANAGER

Piper MacDonald

COMMUNICATIONS ASSISTANT

Rea Saxena

PROGRAM BOOK COORDINATOR

Carina Xu

HOSPITALITY + GUEST SERVICES COORDINATOR

Maura McDowell TECHNICAL COORDINATOR

Eirinn McHattie VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR

Larissa Lau

BOX OFFICE COORDINATOR

Nicola Davies BOOKKEEPER

Wendy Jackman

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VENUE MANAGERS AND CASHIERS

Sarah Bakke Gina Garenkooper Atenas Contreras Prue Baker Sharon Bradley Selina Crammond Nate ​​Johnson PROGRAM BOOK + WEBSITE COPY EDITOR

Ciara Gordon

MEDIA RELATIONS

Nicola Pender / Pender PR

MEDIA RELATIONS CONSULTANT

Marnie Wilson / Artsbiz Public Relations GRAPHIC DESIGN

Steve Chow / chowdesign.ca

WEB DEVELOPMENT

Shane Birley / leftrightminds.com

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Lyana Patrick CO-CHAIR

Jessica Hallenback CO-CHAIR

Brit Bachmann TREASURER

Julia Aoki SECRETARY

Michael Scoular VICE-CHAIR

PROGRAMMING COMMITTEE

Kristina Rothstein Anant Prabhakar Robin Dalla-Vicenza Brit Bachmann Barney Sprague Sarah Ouazzani Marianne Thodas Viktor Koren Warren Chan Selina Crammond Tazeen Ahmed Prue Baker Özgün Gündüz Jesse Cumming Bouchra Assou SCREENING COMMITTEE

Gerald Joe Michael Ioannou Austeja Usaviciute Derrick Daniels Yasmin Ebrahimi Gabriele Gaurilcikaite Tani Gordon Sasha Bondartchouk Ashley Yeung Selina Repole

Georgia Haire Jurgen Beerwald Maziar Maleki Marco Fratarcangeli Brie Koniczek Christina Larabie Jessica Dymond Kai Irani Joel Destefano Mélanie Lemaire Jana Rankov Colin Williscroft GUEST CURATOR

Byungwon Jang WRITERS

Brit Bachmann Kristina Rothstein Michelle Bjornson Shruthi Budnar Sally Rudolf Alexander B. Kim Siddhartha Thota Kamila Sediego Marianne Thodas Sophia English Ciara Gordon Sarah Ouazzani Cyn Williams

THANK YOU TO OUR DONORS

This year, DOXA celebrates 25 festivals of documentary storytelling— a milestone we could not have reached without the generosity of our donors. Your support makes it possible for us to present daring, vital films and foster a thriving documentary community.

We extend our deepest gratitude to all our Advocates, Supporters and Friends— you are the heart of DOXA. We sincerely appreciate the generous support of our individual donors. Your contributions help us continue presenting the best in documentary media, and we are grateful for your commitment. Thank you for being a vital part of our community–we couldn’t do it without you!

ADVOCATE

Tony Fogarassy In Memory of John Ostrum

Laura Moore

OUR GOAL: RAISE $25,000 IN CE LE B R ATIO N O F 25 EDITIONS OF DOX A .

SUPPORTER

Colin Browne Claudia Bulaievsky Patrick Carroll Janice Chutter Simon Cowell Zoë Druick Martin Gerson Layne Hellrung Jixaw Technologies Neil Jones-Rodway Stacy LeBlanc Jamala MacRae

HELP US LAUNCH THE NEXT 25 YEARS!

To contribute, scan the QR code or visit: Kenji Maeda Caterina Papadakos Carol Park Debra Pentecost Joseph Planta Michèle Rechtman-Smolkin Moira Simpson Veronica Singer Teri Snelgrove Carla Sumarlidson David Wong

D O X A F E S T I VA L .C A /D O N AT E

FRIEND

Michelle Bjornson Peter Cameron Andrea Gin Randy Iwata Carol Jerde Gerald Joe Özüm Kafaee Kathleen MacKinnon

Sachi Matsuta Betty Lou Phillip Ana Policzer Grant Savich Eleonore Shaffer Leslie Thompson Harriet Williams Ashleigh Withall ...and all of our anonymous donors C E L E B R AT I N G D O X A’ S 2 5T H E D I T I O N

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WELCOME FROM DOXA

WELCOME FROM THE BOARD CO-CHAIRS

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Documentary Media Society, we are pleased to welcome you to the 2026 DOXA Documentary Film Festival. As incoming co-chairs, we are excited to support a festival with an enduring legacy as a vibrant and community-engaged space for thoughtful, experimental and innovative cinema.

FESTIVAL S ARE NOT ONLY EXHIBITION PL ATFORMS; THE Y ARE SPACES OF COMMUNIT Y

This festival takes place on the ancestral, unceded lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. The DOXA Festival encourages curiosity and connection, qualities that can help us engage in meaningful ways with the lands, waters and peoples who have been here since time immemorial. As you engage with the festival, we invite you in the spirit of curiosity and connection to consider how you can deepen your knowledge and relationships to the lands and waters, and honour and respect the places we are privileged to share.

In a time marked by the global resurgence of authoritarianism and fascist ideologies, a renewed extraction paradigm amidst environmental collapse, the act of witnessing becomes a collective responsibility. As a documentary film festival, we stand with filmmakers, journalists, artists and communities who insist on seeing clearly, listening deeply, speaking truthfully and responding with action.

Documentary cinema has always been more than a record. It is an encounter. It is testimony. It is a refusal to look away. In moments when power attempts to distort reality, erase histories and isolate individuals from one another, the documentary form creates a shared space of connection and radical imagining. It reminds us that facts matter, that lived experiences matter and that we collectively matter.

Festivals are not only exhibition platforms; they are spaces of community. They are rooms where strangers sit together in the dark and emerge changed. They are places where difficult conversations can happen in the presence of care, where art opens a commons for dialogue and material change.

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This work is sustained by labour that is often invisible. We want to express our deepest gratitude to the programmers who watch tirelessly and thoughtfully; the technicians who ensure that every frame and every word is honoured; the coordinators, translators, hospitality teams, volunteers, administrators, fundraisers and caretakers who hold the festival together. Their labour is not logistical alone—it is ethical. It is an act of stewardship for culture, for artists, for audiences. Without their commitment, patience and belief in this work, no gathering would be possible. We are grateful to the filmmakers and audiences who will join us and bring this work to life.

At a moment when automated systems and artificial intelligence increasingly generate images and narratives at speed and scale, we reaffirm documentary as cinema and as art grounded in relationship. Documentary arises from time spent in trust, from shared risk, from presence. It is shaped by relational accountability—between filmmaker and subject, artist and audience, community and history, power and reparations. This radical reciprocity is built slowly, with care.

We remain committed to documentary as a living art form—rigorous, embodied and relational. We remain committed to creating spaces where stories are not consumed but critically encountered. And we remain committed to gathering, in solidarity and curiosity, to witness the world as it is—and to imagine it otherwise.

Lyana Patrick and Jessica Hallenbeck BOARD CO-CHAIRS

WELCOME FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

On behalf of the The Documentary Media Society team, we are thrilled to welcome you to the 25th DOXA Documentary Film Festival.

Since its founding, DOXA has been a vibrant platform showcasing documentary cinema that sheds light on diverse stories and perspectives. Over the years, the festival has grown alongside the rise of documentary as a powerful and influential genre. We understand that countless filmmakers are passionately drawn to this art form—often putting themselves at great personal risk to immerse deeply in their craft. Their motivations are rarely driven by fame or wealth; instead, they seek to live and tell the truth through their work. Over the years, this festival has been a platform to highlight these remarkable individuals, offering us a space to experience their creations and honor their dedication and achievements.

At its core, DOXA is about exploring the unique language of documentary cinema: telling stories from distinctive perspectives. It’s a form that invites us to question, engage and dialogue with the filmmaker, fostering a deeper understanding of the world and ourselves. This year’s program reflects a rich diversity of stories.

These narratives remind us that, even amidst chaos and noise, we must resist retreating into isolation.

This year, our Country of Honour is South Korea. We are proud to invite Byungwon Jang as DOXA’s 2026 guest curator. Jang has contributed an insightful essay titled No Barriers, No Nations: Transnational Expansion in Contemporary Korean Documentary, exploring Korean films that transcend borders and challenge conventional narratives.

E VEN A MIDST CHAOS AND NOISE , WE MUST RESIST RETRE ATING INTO ISOL ATION

Among the festival’s highlights are our core programs: paraDOXA, our experimental program highlighting films that push boundaries of documentary form; the acclaimed Rated Y for Youth, a curated selection of films designed to foster media literacy among young audiences; and the Justice Forum, a collection of films that showcase resistance, environmental justice and human rights.

The Opening Night Gala will feature a dynamic documentary performance that sets an inspiring tone for the festival. Furthermore, we are excited to honour local filmmakers at the Mid-Week Gala for their visual meditation on a landscape in flux, illustrating the gradual erosion of the intertidal zone as ocean warming and

acidification threaten to transform memories and livelihoods into history. The Closing Night Gala will present a piece that acts as a time capsule, capturing that which is gradually slipping away: family, memory, time and water. Finally, our Short Film Programs embrace a multitude of narratives and innovative forms.

It is the presence of these diverse films and filmmakers that makes DOXA worthwhile. These unique visions are further championed through the Kris Anderson Connexions Mentorship Program, which provides year long individual mentorship and workshops to emerging filmmakers. Festivals like DOXA serve an essential role beyond just screening films. They cultivate community, spark dialogue and inspire change.

Throughout the festival, we offer opportunities for networking through mixers, panels and conversations with local, Canadian and International filmmakers through DOXA Industry. We are pleased to continue our partnership with the Vancouver Public Library (Central Library) to host free workshops and screenings with the goal of fostering knowledge, dialogue and community engagement.

A heartfelt thank you to our audience, filmmakers, volunteers, partners, sponsors, donors, board members and committees. Your dedication makes this festival possible. I would like to extend my infinite gratitude to the DOXA staff; this festival would not be possible without their hard work, countless hours and care. Special appreciation goes to the past teams who have contributed to DOXA’s growth, some of whom I have had the pleasure to work with: Sarah Bakke, Gina Garenkooper, Selina Crammond, Milena Salazar, Dharra Budicha, Özgün Gündüz, Sharon Bradley, Atenas Contreras, Dorothy Woodend and many more.

Thank you to Kris Anderson, who founded DOXA in 1998 alongside a small group of women—Sook C. Kong, Rachel Rocco, and Elleni Centime Zeleke—with a vision to celebrate documentary as an inclusive and vital art form.

In these times of fascism and austerity, documentary cinema is more vital than ever. Our ongoing work against injustice must involve coming together through collective reflection and action.

Thank you for being part of this journey. Enjoy the festival and see you at the movies!

Sarah Ouazzani

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

C E L E B R AT I N G D O X A’ S 2 5T H E D I T I O N

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Canadian films have it all.

Celebrate the richness of Canadian storytelling.

Weekly updates deliver fresh releases to inspire, entertain, and immerse you in the vibrant world of Canadian cinema!

seeitall.telefilm.ca

GREETINGS FROM OUR FUNDERS

On behalf of Premier David Eby and the Government of British Columbia, welcome to the 25th edition of the DOXA Documentary Film Festival.

For a quarter century, DOXA has enriched Vancouver’s cultural landscape with films that spark dialogue and celebrate bold, creative voices. DOXA plays a key role in strengthening our province’s documentary community. The documentaries you will see here have the ability to broaden perspectives, challenge limits and bring people together.

Events like DOXA highlight the power of art to inspire, uplift, and encourage important conversations. We are proud to support DOXA through Creative BC and the BC Arts Council, and we extend our thanks to the organizers, volunteers, filmmakers and audiences who make this festival such a vital platform for ideas.

Best wishes for an inspiring festival!

Sincerely,

Honourable Anne Kang MINISTER OF TOURISM, ARTS, CULTURE AND SPORT

Art connects us—to ideas, to each other and to our shared humanity.

Its impact reaches into every community, deepening our sense of belonging, supporting local economies and enriching daily life across Canada and beyond. This is the power of a vibrant and resilient arts sector. It shapes us, the world around us and our future.

The DOXA Documentary Film Festival brings this promise to life by connecting people with the arts and those who create them. The Canada Council for the Arts is proud to support their 25th edition and congratulates all who made it possible.

Michelle Chawla DIRECTOR AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER CANADA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS

Festivals like DOXA Documentary Film Festival play a vital role in connecting Canadian cinema with audiences at home and abroad. They showcase our stories, our artists and our creativity, while strengthening the bond between filmmakers and audiences around the world. Canadian cinema plays a key role in shaping and promoting our cultural identity. As audiences seek out stories that resonate with them, festivals bring us together.

At Telefilm Canada, our core mission is to invest in and highlight the importance of film. We support productions every step of the way, from development to distribution, so that Canadian stories are seen and celebrated.

By working with our industry partners, we contribute to a strong and vibrant film ecosystem.

Beyond their screenings, festivals are places of dialogue, collaboration and exchange. They bring together professionals, emerging and established talent, as well as film lovers and audiences of all kinds. In pursuing our mission to support Canadian cinema, we recognize that festivals are essential to the vitality of our industry.

We’re proud to partner with DOXA Documentary Film Festival to celebrate the unifying power of cinema. Enjoy the festival!

Julie Roy

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER TELEFILM CANADA

Congratulations to DOXA Documentary Film Festival on your 25th edition!

Documentary and factual storytelling are woven into the fabric of B.C.’s motion picture industry. They have shaped careers, kept independent voices alive and given our province a reputation for filmmaking that carries genuine weight. They are how our storytellers tell the truth.

For a quarter century, DOXA has understood this deeply, bringing filmmakers and audiences together and ensuring that independent voices remain part of our cultural conversation.

Creative BC is proud to support a festival that has made documentary impossible to overlook.

Prem Gill

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER CREATIVE BC

Congratulations to DOXA on marking its 25th edition.

On behalf of the BC Arts Council, I am pleased to express our support for the DOXA Documentary Film Festival as it celebrates this milestone. For twenty-five years, DOXA has advanced documentary practice in British Columbia—championing courageous storytelling, fostering critical dialogue and creating essential opportunities for public engagement.

We recognize the important contributions of the Documentary Media Society and the DOXA team, whose commitment to artistic integrity and community connection strengthens the province’s cultural ecosystem.

Your work elevates filmmakers and expands space for reflection across our communities. The BC Arts Council is proud to support a festival that champions diverse voices and enriches cultural life in British Columbia.

Sincerely,

Marnie Hamagami CHAIR BC ARTS COUNCIL

C E L E B R AT I N G D O X A’ S 2 5T H E D I T I O N

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THANK YOU TO OUR PARTNERS

FUNDERS

MAJOR PARTNER

PREMIER MEDIA PARTNER

CULTURAL PARTNERS AND CONSULATES

Canada

AWARD PARTNERS

INDUSTRY PROGRAM PREMIER PARTNERS

INDUSTRY PROGRAM PARTNERS

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MAJOR MEDIA PARTNER

MEDIA PARTNERS

HOSPITALITY PARTNERS

VENUE PARTNERS

TRANSPORTATION PARTNER

AUDIENCE PARTNERS

PRINT PARTNER

TECHNICAL PARTNER

DISTRIBUTION PARTNER

SCREENING PARTNERS

FUNDRAISING PARTNERS

ACFC WEST, LOCAL 2020 UNIFOR

C E L E B R AT I N G D O X A’ S 2 5T H E D I T I O N

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TICKETS AND FESTIVAL INFO

MEMBERSHIP

DOXA presents films that have not been classified

by Consumer Protection BC. Under BC law, anyone wishing to see unclassified films in theatres must be a member of the Documentary Media Society and at least 18 years of age, unless otherwise stated. Your Society membership is included in the cost of your ticket, pass or ticket pack. Your ticket is your proof of membership while at any DOXA 2026 screening.

This entitles you to attend all DOXA screenings.

To browse our classified films rated for youth under 18-years of age, or to learn more about our Rated Y for Youth program, please see page 33 or visit: doxafestival.ca/ratedyforyouth TICKETS OPENING GAL A

General Admission: $25 Generous: $30 • Pay a little more to support DOXA! VIP: $40 • Includes a ticket to the Opening Night Party REGUL AR SCREENINGS

General Admission: $18

Generous: $25 • Pay a little more to support DOXA! Seniors (65+): $15 Students (with valid student ID): $15 Accessible: $12 • Free admission for companions MIDWEEK AND CLOSING GAL AS

Same pricing tiers as Regular Screenings DOXA INDUSTRY

Sliding scale, starting at $13 • VPL Workshops are FREE to attend

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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.

If you have any concerns about accessing any DOXA 2026 screenings or events (e.g., financial barriers or accessibility concerns) please contact the Box Office and we’ll work with you to make arrangements.

FESTIVAL TICKET PACKS

THEATRE PROCEDURES FOR FESTIVAL PASSHOLDERS

Tickets must be booked in advance using the pass attached to your Eventive account. Passes do not guarantee seating. All passholders are asked to arrive 15 minutes prior to showtime. If a screening is not sold out, tickets will be available at the venue box office up until showtime. All passes are strictly non-transferable and passholders are required to show ID. If you require any assistance with booking advance tickets, please reach out to boxoffice@doxafestival.ca.

HOW TO BUY

Ticket packs are available for sale online only. Please note: Ticket packs are NOT valid for Gala screenings.

Purchase tickets and passes online at: doxafestival.ca

5-Ticket Pack: $79 10-Ticket Pack: $139

(236) 992 8607 (Monday-Friday, 12-5PM)

ONLINE

PHONE

VENUE BOX OFFICES

FESTIVAL PASSES

Festival Pass: $199 • Valid for all film AND Gala screenings Industry Pass: $70 • Includes access to all Industry events • Not valid for any film or Gala screenings Festival + Industry Pass: $249 • Valid for all film AND Gala screenings • Includes access to all Industry events

The Cinematheque (April 30 - May 11) • 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 1–3 & 5–7) • 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 (April 30 & May 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10) • Tickets available for all festival screenings.

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

See a map with venue addresses on page 70.

REFUND POLICY

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

FEES

Supporting events and outreach on the Asia Pacific diaspora since 1989

Third-party processing fees are applied to all orders.

STANDBY

If a screening has sold out of advance tickets, there may be some tickets that become available at the door just before the screening starts (e.g., returned tickets, unused complimentary tickets, unclaimed passholder seats). These tickets will be made available to the standby line for purchase on a first-come, first-serve basis.

ACCESSIBILITY

All theatres are wheelchair accessible. Patrons requiring wheelchair accessible seating are encouraged to call the DOXA Box Office at (236) 992-8607 to reserve their seat. Companions accompanying people with disabilities will be admitted at no cost.

All venues offer hearing assistance.

Upon arrival, please check in with venue staff to receive a headset.

To learn if Closed Captions are available for a film or industry event, see doxafestival.ca.

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

Where applicable, content warnings for films are available at doxafestival.ca.

DOXA OFFICE

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AWARDS AND JURIES

The DOXA Awards are selected based on 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.

COLIN LOW AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN DIRECTOR PRESENTED BY

VANCOUVER FILM STUDIOS AWARD FOR BEST BC DIRECTOR PRESENTED BY

DOXA is pleased to welcome an outstanding group of filmmakers, film critics and industry professionals to the Award Juries. Jury members meet during the festival to discuss the films and competition, and select the award winners and honourable mentions. See doxafestival.ca for more information about this year’s juries.

IN COMPETITION

DOXA FEATURE DOCUMENTARY AWARD PRESENTED BY

DOCUMENTARY PROGRAM SCHOOL OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS

IN COMPETITION

Alea Jacarandas (p.50)

Powwow People (p.56)

DIRECTED BY HASSEN FERHANI

DIRECTED BY SKY HOPINKA

AND THE FISH FLY ABOVE OUR HEADS

Replica (p.58)

‫( و األسماك تطير فوق رؤوسنا‬p.52) DIRECTED BY DIMA EL-HORR

Bouchra (p.52) DIRECTED BY ORIAN BARKI AND MERIEM BENNANI

Ça reste entre nous (p.53) DIRECTED BY MARYAM SHAPOORIAN

​​Frìo Metal (p.54) DIRECTED BY CLEMENTE CASTOR

Life After Siham (p.54) DIRECTED BY NAMIR ABDEL MESSEEH

14

Jessica Johnson, Ryan Ermacora Concrete Turned to Sand (p.19) Mustafa Uzuner Soul of the Foot (p.47) Yi Cui To Alexandra 致亞歷珊卓 (p.44)

IN COMPETITION

Tanner Zurkoski Illustrated Legacies: Graveyard of the Pacific (p.41) Evan Adams and Eileen Francis Namesake təm kʷaθ nan (p.43)

DIRECTED BY CHOUWA LIANG

Min Sook Lee There Are No Words (p.49)

Morgan Tams Green Valley (p.41)

The Life that Will Come (La vida que Vendrá) (p.59)

Lina Rodriguez Puntos de fuga (Vanishing Points) (p.47)

Jessica Johnson and Ryan Ermacora Concrete Turned to Sand (p.19)

Christopher Pavsek The Latest News from ‘Deseret’ (p.43)

Christopher Pavsek The Latest News from ‘Deseret’ (p.43)

Diana Allan Partition ‫( تقسیم‬p.45)

Jevan Crittenden and Nate Slaco In Tyee Country (p.44)

DIRECTED BY KARIN CUYUL

What Comes from Sitting in Silence? (p.60) DIRECTED BY SOPHIE SCHRAGO

Who is Still Alive (p.61) DIRECTED BY NICOLAS WADIMOFF

WINDWARD (p.61) DIRECTED BY SHARON LOCKHART

Jean-François Caissy Kindergarten (p.45)

DOXA SHORT DOCUMENTARY AWARD PRESENTED BY

NIGEL MOORE AWARD FOR YOUTH PROGRAMMING

DOCUMENTARY PROGRAM SCHOOL OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS

DOXA is proud to present the Nigel Moore Award for Youth Programming, first launched in 2013. The award is 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.

IN COMPETITION

Intersecting Memory ‫( ذاكرة متقاطعة‬p.69) DIRECTED BY SHAYMA’ AWAWDEH

IS GANG STALKING REAL (p.63)

Momentum (p.66) DIRECTED BY NADA EL-OMARI

TIGERS CAN BE SEEN IN THE RAIN (p.66)

DIRECTED BY THEODORE COLLATOS

DIRECTED BY OSCAR RUIZ NAVIA

Words Fly Back to the Black Earth (p.67)

Au Hasard (p.69)

DIRECTED BY XIAO ZHANG

DIRECTED BY DARREN DOMINIQUE HEROUX

an open field (p.63)

Tuktuit : Caribou (p.67)

DIRECTED BY TEBOHO EDKINS

DIRECTED BY LINDSAY MCINTYRE

Buckskin (p.66)

The Flower and the Flood (p.63)

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 beliefs. 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.

DIRECTED BY MARS VERRONE

DIRECTED BY ELISA GONZÁLEZ

IN COMPETITION

FELT (p.65)

Living Containers (p.65)

Illustrated Legacies: Graveyard of the Pacific (p.41)

DIRECTED BY BLAKE WILLIAMS

DIRECTED BY KARA HANSEN

DIRECTED BY TANNER ZURKOSKI

Last Evenings on Earth (p.66)

Bubba (p.66)

Under the Red Roof 野塚の太陽 (p.60)

DIRECTED BY RALITSA DONCHEVA

DIRECTED BY KAYLI KOONAR

Morning Circle (p.67)

BAEA (p.63)

DIRECTED BY BASMA AL-SHARIF

DIRECTED BY TERRA LONG

DIRECTED BY YUSHI NAGAMATSU

Replica (p.58) DIRECTED BY CHOUWA LIANG

Powwow People (p.56) DIRECTED BY SKY HOPINKA

NIGEL MOORE AWARD JURORS

OLIVIA MOORE • EMILY ASH CUTA JAR • MACK RIDDELL

C E L E B R AT I N G D O X A’ S 2 5T H E D I T I O N

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Made in Canada

You tell Canadian stories. We provide the support. Since 1980, we've been helping Canada’s independent television and lm industry become a commercial and creative success story. In 2024, our funds invested $8.75 million in more than 78 productions.

We’re in this together.

For more information contact Robin Mirsky, Executive Director, at (416) 935-2526.

Application deadlines for the Rogers Documentary Fund are Wednesday, April 22 and Wednesday, August 19, 2026.

Application deadlines for the Rogers Series Fund are Wednesday, June 24 and Wednesday, October 28, 2026.

www.rogersgroupoffunds.com

OPENING GALA

LIVE CINEMATIC PRESENTATION

Bella Sutra OK Pedersen, Canada, 2025, 60 mins

THURSDAY APRIL 30, 7:00PM SFU FEI & MILTON WONG EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE

A live cinematic performance, Bella Sutra explores the complex relationships between humans and the non-human world. Filmed on hand-processed 16mm in Bella Coola, the work combines humour, live narration and a musical ensemble to reflect on life in a remote mountain village.

Pedersen’s essayistic approach meditates on community and the tension between rural and urban perspectives, offering a deeply personal yet resonant portrait of human connection. This screening features a live score, immersing audiences in the rhythms of Pedersen’s cinematic world.

English with subtitles in English LIVE PERFORMANCE BY

OK Pedersen (narration) Eden Glasman (violin) Jakob Tokarczyk (piano)

C E L E B R AT I N G D O X A’ S 2 5T H E D I T I O N

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Introducing e Walrus challenge.

Read an issue cover to cover and see how you feel compared to endless scrolling, hot takes, rage bait and online AI slop.

Less scrolling. More understanding.

OFFE

R

Read with intention.

Subscribe today. thewalrus.ca/doxa

MID-WEEK GAL A

Concrete Turned to Sand

Jessica Johnson and Ryan Ermacora, Canada, 2026, 73 mins WEDNESDAY MAY 6, 7:00PM • VIFF CENTRE SATURDAY MAY 9, 8:15PM • CINEMATHEQUE

Following a collective of oyster farmers on Cortes Island, B.C., Concrete Turned to Sand observes the shifting intertidal zone under the pressures of ocean warming and acidification. Moving between the rhythms of labour and the fragile ecosystems that sustain it, Johnson and Ermacora reflect on how environmental change reshapes both landscape and livelihood. Translating anthropocenic concepts into visual and auditory representations, the film traces transformations unfolding along the shoreline while considering the delicate balance between human industry and the coastal world it depends on.

English

C E L E B R AT I N G D O X A’ S 2 5T H E D I T I O N

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Hotel of Choice

2026 DOXA Film Festival A PROUD HOSPITALITY PARTNER Sandman Suites Vancouver - Davie Street is an all-suite hotel situated in Vancouver’s West End, minutes from English Bay Beach, Robson Street, and Yaletown.

SO MANY REASONS TO STAY 198 comfortable suites with full kitchens | City, ocean & mountain views | In-suite washer/dryer units | Complimentary high speed Internet | Gated, underground parking | Outdoor pool | Meeting & banquet facilities | Fitness facilities

­

JUSTICE FORUM

SPECIAL PRESENTATION

Saigon Story: Two Shootings in the Forest Kingdom Kim Nguyen, Canada, 2026, 92 mins

FRIDAY MAY 1, 5:15PM • VIFF CENTRE THURSDAY MAY 7, 5:30PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA

A woman in Washington state conceals the scars of a brutal family secret. A veteran journalist in Saigon helps two siblings solve a painful wartime mystery. A photo becomes so iconic that it takes on a life of its own. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Kim Nguyen reveals the intimate connection between two families and Eddie Adams’ photograph Saigon Execution. Part history and part mystery, Saigon Story confronts the family secrets left in the wake of the Vietnam War, exposing the resilience of survivors and the blurred legacy of wartime memory.

English, French and Vietnamese with subtitles in English

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Vancouver's freshest online arts magazine.

createastir.ca

Proud Major Media Partner DOXA 2026

CLOSING GALA FILM

Time and Water Sara Dosa, USA/Iceland, 2026, 93 mins

SATURDAY MAY 9, 6:30PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA SUNDAY MAY 10, 6:00PM • CINEMATHEQUE

Oscar-nominated director Sara Dosa (Fire of Love) crafts a lyrical meditation on climate grief, memory and belonging. Centered on writer Andri Snær Magnason, the film weaves personal and planetary histories into a polytemporal elegy for a vanishing world. While composing a eulogy for Okjökull—the first glacier declared dead due to climate change—Magnason draws on his grandparents’ photographs, home movies, myths and songs. These fragments become vessels of intergenerational memory, as frozen ice itself emerges as an archive of time. Both intimate and expansive, Time and Water invites audiences into a cinematic journey through memory and loss, asking what we will choose to remember and what we will leave behind.

English and Icelandic with subtitles in English

C E L E B R AT I N G D O X A’ S 2 5T H E D I T I O N

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INDUSTRY M AY 2 S AT U R DAY

SFU WORLD ART CENTRE

149 WEST HASTINGS ST.

11:00AM

1:00PM

3:00PM

Join filmmaker and artist-researcher Mustafa Uzuner (Soul of the Foot, La Cancha) for a conversation on editing as a way of shaping memory and time. Working within the essay film tradition, Uzuner edits together personal and collective histories through carefully structured images and sound. In this session, he will reflect on how editing guides his process—from assembling long-form recordings of everyday life to constructing layered reflections on place and politics.

Focusing on rhythm, duration and accumulation, Uzuner will explore how the edit becomes a space where image, sound and history come together to form new cinematic meaning.

For many filmmakers, the world of festival programming can feel opaque. What are programmers actually looking for? How are decisions made? And how do hundreds, sometimes thousands, of submissions become a curated festival lineup?

Vancouver-based filmmakers Jessica Johnson and Ryan Ermacora have developed a distinctive body of work examining the traces of industry and labour embedded within British Columbia’s remote landscapes. Through films such as Anyox, Ocean Falls and Labour/Leisure, their practice combines archival research, analogue cinematography and long durational takes to create striking portraits of places shaped by extraction and abandonment. Join them for a conversation about their collaborative and solo practices, as well as their newest film Concrete Turned to Sand, and their interest in the histories and afterlives of industrial landscapes.

Spotlight on Editing: Mustafa Uzuner

PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

INDUSTRY PROGRAM PREMIER PARTNERS

24

Inside Festival Programming

In this roundtable, Sarah Ouazzani of DOXA Documentary Film Festival and Hubert Sabino of Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) pull back the curtain on the programming process.

Learn how programmers evaluate films, how festival programs take shape and what filmmakers should understand about the ecosystem their work enters.

Expect a candid discussion about taste, context and the many considerations shaping a festival lineup.

In Conversation with Jessica Johnson and Ryan Ermacora

PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

M AY 3 S U N DAY

SFU WORLD ART CENTRE

149 WEST HASTINGS ST.

M AY 3 S U N DAY

LOCATION TBA

SEE DOXAFESTIVAL.CA

2:00PM

4:00PM

5:30-8:30PM

Film director and artist Sharon Lockhart (Goshogaoka, Teatro Amazonas, Lunch Break, WINDWARD) works across film, photography and installation to reveal the subtle choreography and labour of everyday life. Collaborating closely with communities and performers, her work examines how gestures, routines and spaces shape experience. In her latest film WINDWARD, Lockhart follows children moving across Fogo Island in a meditation on place, rhythm and form. Join us for a conversation about her collaborative process, the ethical and research-driven foundations of her work and how she moves between cinema and installation to shape the poetics of her films.

Experimental documentaries often challenge conventional distribution pathways, but where do these films live once they are finished? How do formally adventurous works find audiences, and what role do distributors play in supporting experimentation? Join representatives from Montréal-based distributor Vidéographe for a conversation about how experimental documentaries circulate today. Together, we will explore how hybrid forms, unconventional narratives and research-driven filmmaking move between festivals, galleries and digital platforms and what possibilities exist for filmmakers working at the edges of documentary form.

DOC Northwest invites you to this year’s DOXA Industry mixer! Come on out, mingle and relax with fellow filmmakers, colleagues and new friends. Whether you’re looking to make new connections or catch up with old ones, we look forward to seeing you there!

In Conversation with Sharon Lockhart

Inside Experimental Distribution

DOXA Industry Mixer with DOC Northwest and Knowledge Network

See doxafestival.ca for announcement of location.

PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

PRESENTED IN COLLABORATION WITH

INDUSTRY PROGRAM PARTNERS

C E L E B R AT I N G D O X A’ S 2 5T H E D I T I O N

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INDUSTRY M AY 4 M O N DAY

THE POST AT 750

#110-750 HAMILTON ST.

2:00PM

4:00PM

Navigating Canada’s documentary funding landscape can be complex. This roundtable brings together leading representatives from Knowledge Network, Telefilm Canada and the National Film Board of Canada for a practical conversation on how projects move from idea to financing. Panelists will discuss what they look for when supporting new work, how filmmakers can position their projects within the current funding ecosystem and the evolving priorities shaping documentary production today. This session is designed for emerging and established filmmakers alike, offering a rare opportunity to hear directly from funders.

Experience the multidimensional practice of Sky Hopinka (wawa, maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore, and Powwow People), and join us for a discussion on the mediums of experimental film and installation. Hopinka’s work explores relationships between land, language and Indigenous experience, using sound and subtitling to deepen the possibilities of cinematic storytelling. In this conversation, Hopinka will explore not only his approach to filmmaking, but the ideas that shape his work and the creative strategies he uses to honour Indigenous histories.

Funding Documentary: A Roundtable with Canada’s Key Funders

PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

26

In Conversation with Sky Hopinka

DOXA + VPL: FREE WORKSHOPS & SCREENINGS M AY 4–27 O N S E L EC T DAY S

DOXA Documentary Film Festival is proud to partner with the Vancouver Public Library (Central Library) to bring free, community-driven film events to audiences across the city, during and after the festival. As part of this partnership, the library will host a suprise documentary screening and free workshops where attendees can learn new skills, experiment with media and connect with fellow artists. These events are designed to be accessible and welcoming to everyone, providing open, supportive spaces for learning and discovery.

PRESENTED IN COLLABORATION WITH

PART OF DOXA’S 25TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION.

VPL CENTRAL LIBRARY

350 WEST GEORGIA ST.

Let’s Talk Planning a Video Project

Filmmaking Community Social

Want to make a video but don’t know where to start?

Looking for new ways to map out your ideas? In this session, we’ll go over the key things you’ll want to consider before you hit record.

Calling all filmmakers! Want to chat about your projects, meet others working in video and get inspired in a relaxed setting? Drop by our Filmmaking Community Social to connect with fellow storytellers and discover the free Inspiration Lab resources available to support video creation.

T U E S D AY M AY 5 , 2 : 0 0 - 3 : 3 0 P M

Let’s Talk Recording a Video Project T H U R S D AY M AY 7 , 2 : 0 0 - 3 : 3 0 P M

Curious about what it’s really like to record a video project? Join us for a discussion where we’ll explore the recording process, from setting up your equipment to capturing sound and visuals. Hear tips, share experience and learn different approaches to bringing ideas to life on screen.

Video Recording Orientation

VPL Surprise Screening Film To Be Announced M AY 4 , 1 2 : 0 0 P M

CENTRAL LIBRARY — M O N T A L B A N O F A M I LY T H E A T R E

The Vancouver Public Library is hosting a free surprise screening as part of DOXA’s 25th edition! The film will be announced closer to the screening date. The screening is open to everyone and will be a great way to discover something new.

This screening is relaxed and open to all, with comfortable sound and lighting levels. Guests can move around if they wish. No registration required.

S A T U R D AY M AY 9 , 2 : 0 0 - 3 : 0 0 P M

Come explore the Central Library’s Terry McBride Recording Studio and discover everything it has to offer. In this orientation, you’ll learn how to set up and use the studio, discover tips for recording and capturing great visuals, and gain confidence in bringing your creative ideas to life. This session is a great starting point whether you’re new to video or looking to expand your skills.

Storyboarding Basics

T U E S D AY M AY 1 2 , 2 : 0 0 - 3 : 3 0 P M

What are storyboards, and how do you use them? Join the Inspiration Lab staff for a presentation on how to use storyboards when planning out your creative projects.

Screenwriting Basics with Scrivener

F R I D AY M AY 1 5 , 3 : 0 0 - 4 : 3 0 P M

Sound Recording Orientation

S A T U R D AY M AY 1 6 , 2 : 0 0 - 3 : 0 0 P M

Are you interested in recording audio in the Inspiration Lab? Come by for an orientation to familiarise yourself with the library’s audio recording equipment and studios. After attending this session, you’ll be prepared to record anything from music to voiceovers.

Video Editing with Premiere Pro

W E D N E S D AY M AY 2 0 , 2 : 0 0 - 3 : 3 0 P M

Learn the basics of editing video with Adobe Premiere Pro! In this hands-on class, we cover software layout and navigation, importing media, basic editing, workflow options and rendering a project into a final video file.

Video Editing 102: Colour Grading and Effects

W E D N E S D AY M AY 2 7 , 2 : 0 0 - 3 : 3 0 P M

Build on your video editing skills with this hands-on class focused on colour grading and visual effects in Adobe Premiere Pro. Learn how to enhance the look and feel of your footage, explore tools for adjusting colour and tone, and experiment with a variety of creative effects to elevate your projects.

T H U R S D AY M AY 1 4 , 2 : 0 0 - 3 : 3 0 P M

Get started on writing the screenplay of your dreams using Scrivener! This hands-on workshop will introduce you to the writing software called Scrivener, now available through the Inspiration Lab. You’ll learn about common screenplay elements and formatting, and the session will include time for hands-on screenwriting practice.

Please check vpl.ca/programs-events for updates.

C E L E B R AT I N G D O X A’ S 2 5T H E D I T I O N

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GUEST CURATOR ESSAY

BEYOND NOW, NYEIN

COUNTRY OF HONOUR – SOUTH KOREA

N O B A R R I E R S, NO NATIONS TRANSNATIONAL EXPANSION IN CONTEMPORARY KOREAN DOCUMENTARY

by Byungwon JANG CHOI JIN-BAE, A KOREAN MAN, AND NYEIN THAZIN, A MYANMAR WOMAN,

are an international couple and the protagonists of Beyond Now, Nyein (2025), directed by Lim Dae-Chung. The film follows the inner journey of Nyein Thazin as she settles in South Korea after fleeing the political turmoil following the military coup in Myanmar. Lim Dae-Chung accompanies the couple through their turbulent times following the 2021 coup. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Choi Jin-Bae manages the Facebook page ‘Myanmar Today’ in support of Myanmar’s democratization movement, communicating with activists in the region through photos and videos sent by Nyein’s acquaintances. These images bear witness to the violence perpetrated since the coup, the threats faced by the resistors and the deaths that continued to mount. While Choi works as a delivery platform rider and Nyein as a restaurant worker in Korea, the couple also organizes activities in solidarity with Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement. Their lives unfold across national borders, linking the political crisis in Myanmar with everyday life in South Korea.

The transnational imagination of contemporary Korean documentaries spearheaded by Beyond Now, Nyein demands a new perspective that transcends nationalism grounded in ethnic homogeneity and the binary between victim and perpetrator.

These films adopt a posture of resistance against nationalistic thinking—a mechanism that translates identity into the formula of “state-nation-citizen” to construct and guarantee national borders. Two films that deconstruct the elements of the “state” and foreground geopolitical reversals are Bora Lee-Kil’s Untold (2020) and Jeong Yeoreum’s The Silent Bearers (2023). Rather than translating the shared memory of a location into the temporal experience of a homogeneous national space, these films depict how a sense of place within a territory becomes articulated as ethnic identity from distinct perspectives.

In these two films, both of which take the Vietnam War and South Korea’s participation in it as a motif, the state occupies a dual status—oscillating between dominance and subordination, center and periphery—in relation to imperialist wars. Untold, which unearths dark memories of civilian massacres by South Korean troops during the Vietnam War, focuses not on Korea’s victimhood as a country involved as a U.S. ally, but rather on its perpetratorhood as a central theme. To present a perspective that transcends nationalism based on belonging and kinship, Lee-Kil Bora chooses an approach of “historical mirroring.” Through the memories of her grandfather, a Vietnam War veteran, she questions how we, as citizens of a perpetrator nation, CONTINUED 

C E L E B R AT I N G D O X A’ S 2 5T H E D I T I O N

29



C U R ATO R E S S AY, CO N T I N U E D

should re-examine and remember war and massacres. The film inherently views the war as more than just a fight between Vietnam and the U.S., noting that Korea achieved economic growth and geopolitical goals through the dispatch of combat troops, supply of military goods and economic development programs.

Bora Lee-Kil raises questions about the ambivalent attitude of Koreans who, while persistently demanding accountability for Japan’s war crimes, remain silent about—or deny—the massacres committed during the Vietnam War. The intimidation and violence displayed by Korean Vietnam veterans in response to Nguyễn Thị Thanh’s demand for an apology and compensation from the Korean government mirrored the stance of the Japanese right wing, which similarly distorts and denies the history of occupation.

Korea’s experience of imperialist aggression under Japanese rule and its later role as a perpetrator in the Vietnam War confront each other like two shots filmed from reversed camera positions, each reflecting the other from an opposing historical vantage point. By juxtaposing these histories, Lee-Kil Bora suggests that they can be understood more critically only by detaching from national interests, dismantling the boundaries of the nation-state, and adopting the perspective of an East Asian, an Asian and ultimately a global citizen. In this way, Korean consciousness of the Vietnam War moves beyond the binary framework of dominance and resistance between metropole and colony, revealing instead a pattern of “mimicry.”

THE SILENT BEARERS

Visual artist and experimental documentary filmmaker Jeong Yeoreum presents another mirror image in The Silent Bearers. Hailing from Dongducheon-si, home to U.S. military bases, Jeong has explored regional issues influenced by foreign soldiers. In The Silent Bearers, she retraces violence inflicted on the outside world through the eyes of an insider. The film follows a journey tracing the remnants of the Vietnam War and its aftermath, continuing Jeong’s interest in assigning meaning to the nature of place by exploring thick sedimentary layers of history and memory. Jeong explores the process of departure from original meaning through the reality where the shocks and ruins of war are consumed as tourism products today. She uncovers images of places like Da Nang, Khe Sanh and Nha Trang—symbols of the tourism business—and the tragic remnants of the past hidden behind them. The narrative clue is the guidance of ‘Min,’ a former South Vietnamese soldier met on the third day of the trip, and the essence of the form is the relationship between audiovisual elements played across two channels. Two systems, two nations, two votes and two channels create exchange, contrast and conflict. By approaching the state as a place excavated by history, ideology and the act of remembering itself, Jeong collapses all attempts to define a city’s identity as a single monolith comprising fragments of national records, mythical narratives and personal memories.

30

A RECURRING GEOPOLITICAL FEATURE OF KOREAN TRANSNATIONAL

documentaries is the “erasing of barriers” through narratives centered on peripheral subjects. The protagonists or narrators of these films are those who have left their original places of residence: political migrants or exiles. Situated

between their home country and a foreign land, they experience a form of boundary confusion in which subjectivity becomes detached from place-based identity, forcing them to adapt and assimilate. At the same time, these peripheral figures occupy ambiguous positions within the nation-state, forming spaces that are difficult for the state to fully incorporate, and thereby destabilizing both ethnic identity and the authority of the state itself. Beyond Now, Nyein is a film of an exile that vividly portrays this experience of separation. While Nyein Thazin appears as a complete outsider in Korean society, she also functions as a subject of substitution, reading the Korean landscape through the political memory of her homeland, Myanmar. As she observes landscapes that evoke both strangeness and familiarity, Nyein’s sense of loss, anxiety and longing for her home country repeatedly surfaces through a series of shots reflecting her inner consciousness. Images of the situation in Myanmar, broadcast from a television monitor installed along the roadside, externalize her inner landscape. This ‘theater of consciousness’ does not function as a space representing the nation-state through a single signifier; instead, it reappears as a site where soldiers in uniform persecute and massacre resisting citizens.

Another symbolic object recalling Myanmar in Beyond Now, Nyein is the bicycle. The bicycle is a medium connecting the relationship between Nyein Thazin and Choi Jin-Bae, and a mirroring object linking the political situations of Myanmar and Korea. The scene of Choi moving his bicycle after receiving a delivery call is depicted with calculated compositions and camera work. The camera follows the movement of the bicycle gliding along the road; in this slow sense of motion, there is no urgency to arrive before the delivery deadline.

The vertical movement of Choi’s bicycle overlaps with a bicycle movement scene in the middle of the film that corresponds to Nyein’s fantasy (or dream). Nyein’s bicycle, imagining the atrocities suffered by family and friends in Myanmar, moves windingly through the dark night streets, staging her desolate inner landscape. At every corner she passes, Nyein hears voices announcing persecution, torture, massacre and threats. Nyein’s bicycle can be seen as a counter-shot to Choi’s—their gentle bicycle movement transcends geographical coordinates to connect the two countries.

The rhetorical strategies representing documentaries with transnational expansion tendencies are “ juxtaposition” and “substitution.” Arief Budiman’s short film Last May in Theaters (2025) offers a particularly eloquent example. Drawing on the medium-specific properties of cinema, this experimental documentary uses immersive images generated by A.I. to place Gwangju in 1980 and Jakarta in 1998 side by side. Two historical moments marked by state violence are connected through the

shared spatial memory of the movie theater. Gwangju Cinema, a historic theater in the southern Korean city, stood at the center of the May 18 Democratic Uprising, while the Buaran Theater in Indonesia bears witness to the protests and riots that erupted in Jakarta in May 1998. The similarity between the two spaces lies in their function as sites of collective spectatorship. Building on this parallel, Budiman—whose work has frequently explored how Indonesia remembers its history of violence—constructs a transnational connection between the two events, using this historical similarity as a point of contact.

Testimonies of people who protected the theaters during unrest, together with archival footage, are reprocessed to restore another side of history. What ultimately connects these two events across temporal and geographical distance is the shared experience of state violence across Asia, as well as the political potential embedded in cinema itself. The film thus emerges as a critical reflection on the democratic possibilities of cinematic practice: recording, reflecting on and collectively witnessing reality across national and historical boundaries.

In the midst of military coups in Korea and Myanmar (occurring with a time lag), alongside the resurgence of right-wing nationalism fueled by political and economic crises—such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, China’s quest for hegemony, and the rise of new Asian nationalisms in increasingly authoritarian states like India—what does transnational cinema mean?

Within this rapidly shifting geopolitical context, transnational documentaries demonstrate their capacity to create modes of exchange and solidarity through the intertwined histories of movement, aesthetics, politics and ideology. From Nyein Thazin’s experience of displacement in Beyond Now, Nyein to the historical mirroring in Untold and The Silent Bearers, and the spatial juxtaposition in Last May in Theaters, these films show how cinema can traverse borders, connect distant struggles and reimagine political, ethical and aesthetic relationships across Asia. The radical imagination of such documentaries—claiming to discard the consciousness of state and nation that has long governed the Asian psyche—provides powerful evidence of the transnational potential of film as a medium of mediation, reflection and solidarity.

Byungwon JANG is the Head Programmer of the DMZ International Documentary Film Festival (DMZ Docs). He previously served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Korean film weekly FILM2.0 and worked as a programmer for the Jeonju International Film Festival (Jeonju IFF). Currently, he is an active film critic and teaches film theory at Chung-Ang University in Seoul.

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GUEST CURATED PROGRAM

Beyond Now, Nyein

Untold

THURSDAY APRIL 30, 5:45PM • CINEMATHEQUE

THURSDAY APRIL 30, 8:30PM • CINEMATHEQUE

Lim’s vérité camera observes Choi Jinbae and Nyein Thazin after news arrives that a village in Myanmar has been destroyed by the military coup. Isolated in Seoul during COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, they turn to filmmaking to confront the ethical responsibility of witnessing political violence from within the diaspora.

In central Vietnam, memories of the 1968 massacre remain through ritual. Each February, survivors light incense to mourn villagers killed by Korean troops during the Vietnam War. Though South Korea fought alongside the United States, the war is often remembered at home primarily as a catalyst for economic growth. Moving between Vietnam and Korea, Untold traces memories of state violence that remain outside official history. When Vietnamese survivors visit Korea, they embrace former comfort women and grieve with families of the Sewol ferry disaster, revealing how memories of violence continue to echo across borders and generations.

Lim Daecheong, South Korea, 2025, 109 minutes

Burmese, Korean and English with subtitles in English PRECEDED BY

Last May in Theaters

Arief Budiman, Indonesia/South Korea, 2025, 23 mins

In this transfixing diptych of Jakarta in 1998 and Gwang ju in 1990, two rioting cities birthing their respective national democracies are separated by time and space. Cinema workers recount the protests that erupted around them, bearing witness to people uniting in the face of state violence.

Indonesian and Korean with subtitles in English

Bora Lee-Kil, South Korea, 2020, 80 mins

Korean and Vietnamese with subtitles in English PRECEDED BY

The Silent Bearers 조용한 선박들 Yeoreum Jeong, South Korea, 2023, 27 minutes

Jeong opens a contemplative space between lived experience, state-sanctioned histories and the material remains through which landscapes continue to carry the past.

Layering fleeting roadside observations with meditations on the afterlife of history itself, The Silent Bearers asks: what remains unspoken within the stories we are told?

English with subtitles in English and Korean

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RATED Y FOR YOUTH

Rated Y for Youth is back for its 17th edition! Curated with the goal of facilitating media literacy through thought-provoking documentaries, this program provides an opportunity for youth and high school students to foster an appreciation for cinema while engaging with a broad range of social issues. Each Rated Y film will include a complementary Study Guide to support and enrich classroom conversations. In addition, the screenings will feature live discussions with filmmakers and community members.

POWWOW PEOPLE

Illustrated Legacies: Graveyard of the Pacific (p.41)

Replica (p.58)

Under the Red Roof

Sky Hopinka, USA, 2025, 88 mins

Tanner Zurkoski, Canada, 2026, 70 mins

野塚の太陽 (p.60)

Chouwa Liang, Australia/France, 2026, 91 mins

Powwow People (p.56)

Yushi Nagamatsu, Japan, 2025, 68 mins

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PARAD O X A

Back by popular demand, paraDOXA returns for its second year, celebrating experimental documentary that pushes the boundaries of its form. Each screening is followed by an in-depth conversation with the director, facilitated by a local arts organization, offering audiences a window into the creative, political and historical dimensions of the work. This year’s program turns to questions of memory amid displacement, tracing how personal histories surface through archives, landscapes and everyday life.

E X P LO R I N G M E M O R Y, D I S P L A C E M E N T A N D H I S TO R Y, T H I S Y E A R’S P R O G R A M U N COV E R S H OW E X P E R I E N C E S R E S O N AT E THROUGH SELF MADE ARCHIVES.

34

To Alexandra 致亞歷珊卓 (p.44) Yi Cui, Canada/USA/China, 2025, 72 mins

Soul of the Foot (p.47)

Mustafa Uzuner, Turkey/Canada, 2025, 65 mins

Bouchra (p.52)

Orian Barki and Meriem Bennani, Italy/ Morocco/United States, 2025, 83 mins

The Latest News from ‘Deseret’ (p.43)

Christopher Pavsek, Canada, 2025, 77 mins

Partition ‫( تقسیم‬p.45)

Diana Allan, Canada/Lebanon/Palestine, 2025, 61 mins

Frío Metal (p.54)

Clemente Castor, México, 2025, 103 minutes

WINDWARD (p.61)

Sharon Lockhart, USA/Canada, 2025, 70 mins

Puntos de fuga (Vanishing Points) (p.47)

Lina Rodriguez, Canada/Colombia, 2025, 72 mins

THE LATEST NEWS FROM DESERET

JUSTICE FORUM

Back for its 16th year, Justice Forum remains one of DOXA’s cornerstone programs, showcasing films that spark critical dialogue around pressing social issues and point toward possibilities for change. Each screening is paired with a live or pre-recorded conversation with filmmakers, experts, academics or community activists. This year’s selection highlights communities confronting war, colonial legacies, border violence and systemic injustice.

The Sandbox (p.49)

TOGETHER, THESE FILMS TRACE HOW INDIVIDUALS AND COLLECTIVES RESIST, REBUILD AND RECL AIM THEIR STORIES WHILE FIGHTING FOR A MORE S U S TA I N A B L E F U T U R E.

Evan Adams and Eileen Francis, Canada, 2026, 76 mins

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Kenya-Jade Pinto, Canada, 2026, 90 mins

Enough is Enough (p.53)

Elisé Sawasawa, France/Democratic Republic of Congo, 2026, 65 mins

Namesake təm kʷaθ nan (p.43)

What Comes from Sitting in Silence? (p.60)

Sophie Schrago, France/South Korea/Switzerland/ USA, 2026, 76 mins

Saigon Story: Two Shootings in the Forest Kingdom (p.21)

Kim Nguyen, Canada, 2026, 92 mins

Who is Still Alive (p.61)

Nicolas Wadimoff, Switzerland/Palestine/France, 2025, 114 mins

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D O X A T H U R S D AY A P R I L 30

BEYOND NOW, NYEIN + LAST MAY IN THEATRES (p.32)

5:45PM • CINEMATHEQUE

BELLA SUTRA (p.17)

7:00PM • SFU FEI & MILTON WONG EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE

UNTOLD + THE SILENT BEARERS (p.32)

8:30PM • CINEMATHEQUE

F R I D AY M AY 1

SAIGON STORY: TWO SHOOTINGS IN THE FOREST KINGDOM (p.21)

5:15PM • VIFF CENTRE

SHORTS PROGRAM 2 (p.65)

6:00PM • CINEMATHEQUE

SHORTS PROGRAM 3 (p.66)

8:10PM • VIFF CENTRE

TO ALEXANDRA (p.44)

8:40PM • CINEMATHEQUE

2 0 2 6

INDUSTRY

IN CONVERSATION WITH JESSICA JOHNSON AND RYAN ERMACORA (p.24)

3:00PM • SFU WORLD ART CENTRE

SHORTS PROGRAM 4 (p.67)

F I L M

&

SOUL OF THE FOOT (p.47)

4:15PM • VIFF CENTRE

STEAL THIS STORY, PLEASE! (p.50)

5:00PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA

4:20PM • CINEMATHEQUE

INDUSTRY

NUMAKAGE PUBLIC POOL (p.55)

5:30PM • LOCATION TBA

ILLUSTRATED LEGACIES: GRAVEYARD OF THE PACIFIC (p.41)

6:00PM • CINEMATHEQUE

WINDWARD (p.61)

6:15PM • VIFF CENTRE

KINDERGARTEN (p.45)

7:40PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA

AMERICAN DOCTOR (p.51)

8:00PM • CINEMATHEQUE

5:00PM • VIFF CENTRE

5:15PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA 6:30PM • CINEMATHEQUE 7:05PM • VIFF CENTRE

7:30PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA

SOUL OF THE FOOT (p.47)

8:45PM • CINEMATHEQUE

DOXA INDUSTRY MIXER (p.25) PARTITION (p.45)

THE SANDBOX (p.49) GREEN VALLEY (p.41)

SHORTS PROGRAM 5 (p.69) NAMESAKE (p.43)

8:50PM • VIFF CENTRE

LIFE AFTER SIHAM (p.54)

9:15PM • VIFF CENTRE

M O N D AY M AY 4 S AT U R D AY M AY 2

S U N D AY M AY 3

INDUSTRY

INDUSTRY

11:00AM • SFU WORLD ART CENTRE

2:00PM • SFU WORLD ART CENTRE

INDUSTRY

THERE ARE NO WORDS (p.49)

SPOTLIGHT ON EDITING: MUSTAFA UZUNER (p.24)

INSIDE FESTIVAL PROGRAMMING (p.24)

1:00PM • SFU WORLD ART CENTRE

PARTITION (p.45)

2:00PM • CINEMATHEQUE

NAMESAKE (p.43)

2:45PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA

IN CONVERSATION WITH SHARON LOCKHART (p.25)

2:45PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA

SHORTS PROGRAM 1 (p.63)

3:15 PM • CINEMATHEQUE

INDUSTRY

FUNDING DOCUMENTARY: A ROUNDTABLE WITH CANADIAN KEY FUNDERS (p.26)

2:00PM • THE POST AT 750 INDUSTRY

IN CONVERSATION WITH SKY HOPINKA (p.26)

4:00PM • THE POST AT 750

THE SANDBOX (p.49)

INDUSTRY

6:00PM • CINEMATHEQUE

4:00PM • SFU WORLD ART CENTRE

8:20PM • CINEMATHEQUE

INSIDE EXPERIMENTAL DISTRIBUTION (p.25)

POWWOW PEOPLE (p.56)

I

N D U S T R Y

S C H E D U L E

T U E S D AY M AY 5

REPLICA (p.58)

S AT U R D AY M AY 9

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH (p.53)

2:00PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA

WHO IS STILL ALIVE (p.61)

12:15PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA

ALEA JACARANDAS (p.50)

5:00PM • VIFF CENTRE

REMAKE (p.57)

SAIGON STORY: TWO SHOOTINGS IN THE FOREST KINGDOM (p.21)

5:45PM • VIFF CENTRE

6:00PM • CINEMATHEQUE 7:50PM • CINEMATHEQUE

THE LIFE THAT WILL COME (p.59)

9:00PM • VIFF CENTRE

W E D N E S D AY M AY 6

5:30PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA

UNDER THE RED ROOF (p.60)

IN TYEE COUNTRY (p.44)

S U N D AY M AY 10

BOUCHRA (p.52)

3:00PM • CINEMATHEQUE

TBA

6:00PM • CINEMATHEQUE

8:30PM • CINEMATHEQUE

WHAT COMES FROM SITTING IN SILENCE? (p.60)

8:40PM • VIFF CENTRE

CONCRETE TURNED TO SAND (p.19)

F R I D AY M AY 8

REPLICA (p.58)

10:00AM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA

6:30PM • CINEMATHEQUE 7:00PM • VIFF CENTRE

7:30PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA

AMÍLCAR (p.51)

8:50PM • CINEMATHEQUE

STORIES OF A LIE (p.58)

9:15PM • VIFF CENTRE

T H U R S D AY M AY 7

ILLUSTRATED LEGACIES: GRAVEYARD OF THE PACIFIC (p.41)

10:00AM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA

TIME AND WATER (p.23)

8:15PM • CINEMATHEQUE

7:30PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA

ÇA RESTE ENTRE NOUS (p.53)

GREEN VALLEY (p.41)

5:50PM • CINEMATHEQUE

AND THE FISH FLY ABOVE OUR HEADS (p.52)

TRACES (p.59)

5:30PM • VIFF CENTRE

4:00PM • CINEMATHEQUE

6:30PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA

7:00PM • VIFF CENTRE

5:10PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA

THE OLDEST PERSON IN THE WORLD (p.56)

6:30PM • CINEMATHEQUE

UNDER THE RED ROOF (p.60)

10:00AM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA

TBA

POWWOW PEOPLE (p.56) IN TYEE COUNTRY (p.44)

5:45PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA

PUNTOS DE FUGA (p.47)

6:00PM • CINEMATHEQUE

THE OLDEST PERSON IN THE WORLD (p.56)

8:00PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA

FRÍO METAL (p.54)

8:05PM • CINEMATHEQUE

CONCRETE TURNED TO SAND (p.19)

TBA

TIME AND WATER (p.23)

THE LATEST NEWS FROM ‘DESERET’ (p.43) 8:30PM • CINEMATHEQUE

See p.27 for schedule of DOXA + VPL events

ENTERTAINMENT

LAW

Film | Television | Video Games | Digital Media Doran Chandler David Jol

Kyle Fogden

Nathaniel Lyman

Jon Festinger, K.C., Of Counsel

402 ‐ 1008 Homer Street, Vancouver BC V6B 2X1 604 684 6377 www.cfllaw.ca

Where stories come alive theatrefilm.ubc.ca

SPOTLIGHT: ON FAMILY

Why do the most intimate family stories resonate beyond the private sphere, and what responsibilities come with telling the stories of those closest to us? Across documentary, animation and hybrid forms, these films return to the people closest to us, exploring how our stories are remembered and the dedicated work we all undergo to understand those we love.

ALEA JACARANDAS

Life After Siham transforms personal memories and cinematic influences into a luminous meditation on love and transmission, reflecting on how stories hold families together across time. In There Are No Words, the director traces her mother’s hidden life after suicide, moving between Toronto and South Korea in a search shaped by mourning. Blending documentary and fiction in beautiful animation, Bouchra examines what it means to be queer and how you can heal that process amidst the complexities of a tense mother-daughter relationship. Puntos de fuga offers a poetic reflection on migration and the feeling of belonging, examining the ties between memory and political history.

Remake revisits decades of footage to consider the evolving bond between filmmaker and son. And Alea Jacarandas follows the legacy of an Algerian journalist, whose passing inspired his son, filmmaker Hassen Ferhani, to walk in search of his father’s beloved jacaranda trees.

T O G E T H E R , T H E S E F I L M S C O N S I D E R H O W FA M I LY L E G A C I E S A R E C A R R I E D, R E S H A P E D A N D PA S S E D O N WI T H T I M E. T H R O U G H S H I F T I N G M E M O R I E S, I M AG E S A N D T H E AC T O F G E N E R AT I O N A L STORY TELLING, THE MOST PERSONAL STORIES OPEN OUTWARD, C O N N E C T I N G P R I VAT E L I V E S T O S O M E T H I N G W I D E LY F E LT.

Alea Jacarandas (p.50)

There Are No Words (p.49)

Remake (p.57)

Life After Siham (p.54)

Puntos de fuga (Vanishing Points) (p.47)

Bouchra (p.52)

Hassen Ferhani, Algeria/France, 2026, 79 mins

Ross McElwee, USA, 2025, 116 mins

Lina Rodriguez, Canada/Colombia, 2025, 72 mins

Min Sook Lee, Canada, 2025, 99 mins

Namir Abdel Messeeh, France/Egypt, 2025, 80 mins

Orian Barki and Meriem Bennani, Italy/ Morocco/United States, 2025, 83 mins

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SPOTLIGHT: FROM ONE BASIN

How do we learn to inhabit a shared world?

This Spotlight examines the forms and rituals through which collective life develops. In Kindergarten, children negotiate their first experiences of “we,” moving from individual impulses to collective rhythms under constant observation. Powwow People turns the camera toward a participatory architecture of community, culminating in a 30-minute unbroken dance that maps kinship and presence. Numakage Public Pool mourns a decades-old civic space in Tokyo, where athletics and leisure once shaped daily rhythms across generations. Replica follows young women turning to A.I. companionship, probing the uneasy future of connection. Across these moments of gathering—be they playful, ceremonial or quotidian—belonging emerges as something practiced and sometimes lost.

40

TOGETHER, THESE FILMS CONSIDER COLLECTIVE LIFE, T H E I M P O R TA N C E O F B E LO N G I N G A N D WH AT H A P P E N S W H E N I T S S T R U C T U R E S D I S S O LV E .

Kindergarten (p.45)

Numakage Public Pool (p.55)

Powwow People (p.56)

Replica (p.58)

Jean-François Caissy, Canada, 2025, 84 mins

Sky Hopinka, USA, 2025, 88 mins

Shingo Ota, Japan, 2025, 80 mins

Chouwa Liang, Australia/France, 2026, 91 mins

NUMAKAGE PUBLIC POOL

LOCAL DOCUMENTARIES

LOCAL PREMIERE

Green Valley Morgan Tams, Canada, 2025, 84 mins SUNDAY MAY 3, 7:40PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA SATURDAY MAY 9, 5:50PM • CINEMATHEQUE

Canadian artist Morgan Tams records a pensive glimpse of a community living off-grid on a remote farm in B.C. Seasons pass and the cycle of life and death expresses itself across livestock, machines, crops, rainforest and humans alike.

Community members reflect on the weight of life detached from the industrial infrastructure of urban life. Tam’s gentle, deliberate documentation is a love letter to the rainforest, farm life and our unwavering efforts to withstand the changes we face as humanity and technology march forwards.

English

Illustrated Legacies: Graveyard of the Pacific Tanner Zurkoski, Canada, 2026, 70 mins SATURDAY MAY 2, 5:15PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA THURSDAY MAY 7, 10:00AM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA

“We didn’t need to wait until non-natives arrived in this corner of the Pacific for history to begin… history has always been unfolding in this place.” In his first feature-length documentary, Zurkoski gathers stories from knowledge-keepers, Indigenous researchers and historians to document early encounters between explorers and the Nuu-chah-nulth nations. He anchors the 1864 Kingfisher incident through oral history, offering a version truer than the one found in textbooks. Interviews and coastal footage are interwoven with original animations by Gord Hill, depicting everyday life and traditions from centuries ago and their inevitable clash with colonial authority. Recommended viewing for anyone who calls the Pacific Northwest home.

English

C E L E B R AT I N G D O X A’ S 2 5T H E D I T I O N

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Canada’s Documentary Film Platform

One-month FREE trial to all DOXA festival-goers

In just 6 years, Tënk has brought over 1,500 documentaries to audiences accross the country, including 700 canadian films.

LOCAL DOCUMENTARIES

LOCAL PREMIERE

Namesake təmkʷaθnan

The Latest News from ‘Deseret’

Evan Adams and Eileen Francis, Canada, 2026, 76 mins

Christopher Pavsek, Canada, 2025, 77 mins

SATURDAY MAY 2, 2:45PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA SUNDAY MAY 3, 8:50PM • VIFF CENTRE

SUNDAY MAY 10, 8:30PM • CINEMATHEQUE

Giving new names to waters and lands that were already named is one of many colonial methods of erasure. This violence endures in the present, further exacerbated when the new name memorializes an architect of colonialism. In a moving study of resilience and reconciliation, Namesake təm kʷaθ nan follows the aftermath of the Tla’amin Nation’s request for Powell River—named after superintendent of Indian Affairs, Israel Powell—to be renamed. Through moments of solidarity, backlash and division rises the strength of the Tla’amin people and their commitment to creating a better future for their children.

A sequel to James Benning’s avant-garde 1995 film Deseret, Pavsek’s experimental film traces the history of Utah from 1992 to 2024, a period of sweeping political, social and ecological change. Composed of 50 stories drawn from The New York Times, each condensed to five to seven sentences, the film pairs every spoken sentence with a single image and soundscape. The result is at once a chronicle of contemporary Utah, a meditation on journalistic form and a reflection on avant-garde cinema.

English

English and Ayajuthum with subtitles in English

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LOCAL DOCUMENTARIES

NATIONWIDE DOCUMENTARIES

In Tyee Country

To Alexandra 致亞歷珊卓

Jevan Crittenden and Nate Slaco, Canada, 2026, 70 mins THURSDAY MAY 7, 7:30PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA FRIDAY MAY 8, 5:45PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA

Each summer, anglers return to Campbell River on Vancouver Island hoping to land a Tyee— a Chinook salmon weighing at least 30 pounds—and earn membership in a legendary fishing club. As the club approaches its centennial and salmon populations continue to decline, longtime members recall seasons of abundance while others question the future. Following a community bound by tradition, infatuation and the pull of the sea, In Tyee Country captures a town whose identity has long been tied to the fish now struggling to return.

English

44

Yi Cui, Canada/USA/China, 2025, 72 mins

FRIDAY MAY 1, 8:40PM • CINEMATHEQUE

Two travelogues intertwine across a century.

During her travels in the Himalayas, Alexandra David-Néel’s letters home shape a invites restless intellectuality. Meandering between past and present, viewers to reflect on colonial histories, war and spiritual inquiry; a meditation rooted in everyday correspondence. Filmmaker Yi Cui’s decade-long collaboration with local Tibetan communities presents an elegy led by a central question: what happens when violence eclipses history, yet fails to erase memory?

Tibetan and Chinese with subtitles in English

Kindergarten Jean-François Caissy, Canada, 2025, 84 mins SATURDAY MAY 2, 7:05PM • VIFF CENTRE

In the bustling yet nurturing world of a kindergarten, Caissy’s lens captures a portrait of early childhood. Following a cohort of children aged one to five, Kindergarten provokes reflection on our earliest forays into the world through a collection of everyday scenes, observing a stage when the world revolves around the self and awareness gradually expands from “I” to “we.” In these fleeting moments of play, curiosity and social learning, the film’s exploration of childhood development captures the interiority and socialization of humans in their first years.

French with subtitles in English

Partition ‫تقسیم‬

Diana Allan, Canada/Lebanon/Palestine, 2025, 61 mins SATURDAY MAY 2, 2:00PM • CINEMATHEQUE SUNDAY MAY 3, 6:00 • CINEMATHEQUE

A meditation on what bodies remember and empires forget, Partition fuses archival footage from the British occupation of Palestine with audio recorded from Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, tracing lines of continuity left by seismic displacement. Silent films gathered in imperial collections hold histories that have seldom been told, and ways of colonial seeing that seep into the precarious present; Partition uses dialectical montage and asynchronous sound to both examine and recover Palestinian presence.

Arabic and English with subtitles in Arabic and English

C E L E B R AT I N G D O X A’ S 2 5T H E D I T I O N

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NATIONWIDE DOCUMENTARIES

Puntos de fuga (Vanishing Points)

Soul of the Foot

Lina Rodriguez, Canada/Colombia, 2025, 72 mins

Mustafa Uzuner, Turkey/Canada, 2025, 65 mins

FRIDAY MAY 8, 6:00PM • CINEMATHEQUE

SATURDAY MAY 2, 8:45PM • CINEMATHEQUE SUNDAY MAY 3, 4:15PM • VIFF CENTRE

Spanning more than 70 years, two women recount their experiences growing up in Colombia and immigrating to Canada. Intersecting key moments in Colombian history, Puntos de fuga (Vanishing Points) is an essay film reflecting on the tension between “official” history and personal stories, all framed within the complexities of diasporic identity. Shot on Super 8mm, Hi8 and digital formats, the film composes a polyphonic tapestry of mirrors, labyrinths, dreams and nightmares, destabilizing linear notions of history and perspective.

Spanish and English with subtitles in English

Opening on a solar eclipse—an echo of the crescent on Turkey’s flag—this essay film traces a country suspended between past and present. Structured as a reverse homecoming, Soul of the Foot moves from intimate home video fragments to charged public spaces, where election chants, street musicians and shifting nationalisms shape daily life. Archival images and chance encounters explore rural villages and urban streets, elders and youth, demolition sites and open skies. A long-stalled EU application lingers in the background, emblematic of promises deferred. Attentive to memory and erasure, Uzuner asks what independence feels like when a history “written with blood” continues to press against the present.

Turkish, Kurdish and English with subtitles in English

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NATIONWIDE DOCUMENTARIES

The Sandbox

There Are No Words

Kenya-Jade Pinto, Canada, 2026, 90 mins

Min Sook Lee, Canada, 2025, 99 mins

SUNDAY MAY 3, 6:15PM • VIFF CENTRE MONDAY MAY 4, 6:00PM • CINEMATHEQUE

SUNDAY MAY 3, 2:45PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA

The Sandbox examines the technological infrastructure shaping border enforcement. Using drones, thermal imaging and hidden camera footage, the film traces how advanced monitoring systems track and deter people seeking refuge. Moving between control rooms, journalists and volunteer rescue teams searching deserts and open waters, Pinto reveals the violent patterns embedded within a neocolonial architecture of surveillance. As migrants become data points within a global surveillance network, the film raises urgent questions about a world where innovation increasingly serves the machinery of exclusion and how political forces drive the weaponization of these emergent technologies.

Award-winning filmmaker Min Sook Lee searches for memories of her mother, Song Ji Lee, who died by suicide when Min Sook was 12 years old. A looming figure in this search is Lee’s father, now 90 years old, who met her mother while serving in a national intelligence agency under dictator Park Chung Hee in 1960s South Korea. Through a fabric of real and imagined histories, Lee reveals that some stories must still be told, even when words are forgotten.

English and Korean with subtitles in English

English, Arabic, Greek and Somali with subtitles in English

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INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARIES

Steal This Story, Please!

Alea Jacarandas

Carl Deal and Tia Lessin, USA/East Timor/Nigeria, 2025, 104 minutes

Hassen Ferhani, Algeria/France, 2026, 79 mins

SUNDAY MAY 3, 5:00PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA

TUESDAY MAY 5, 6PM • CINEMATHEQUE

Undeterred by armed soldiers, smooth-talking politicians and corporate pressures, journalist Amy Goodman has reported some of the most consequential stories of our time. In Steal This Story, Please!, Oscar-nominated filmmakers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal follow Goodman across three decades, from the frontlines of global conflicts to the organized chaos of her news show Democracy Now!, capturing both her dauntless reporting and the personal empathy behind her iconic persona. Urgent, provocative and unexpectedly funny, the film celebrates resistance, truth-telling and the enduring power of independent journalism.

Ameziane Ferhani—father of filmmaker Hassen Ferhani—was a writer, journalist, teacher and above all, an admirer of the purple flowered Jacaranda trees of Algiers.

After Ameziane’s passing, Hassen is drawn back to his father’s words, the Jacaranda trees and the unusual portrait of Algiers they form. Literature takes shape again in this beautiful testament to a son’s love for his father and a father’s love for his city.

English

50

French, Algerian and Arabic with subtitles in English

LOCAL PREMIERE

AMERICAN DOCTOR

Amílcar

Poh Si Teng, USA/Palestine/Malaysia/Qatar, 2026, 94 mins

Miguel Eek, Spain/France/Portugal/Cabo Verde/Sweden, 2025, 88 mins

SATURDAY MAY 2, 7:30PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA

WEDNESDAY MAY 6, 8:50PM • CINEMATHEQUE

In this vérité, three U.S.-based doctors—Palestinian, Jewish and Zoroastrian—unite to save children injured by Israeli Defense Forces in Gaza. Filmed from an on-theground perspective, the story follows the three doctors from a Gazan hospital under siege to the halls of the U.S. Congress. Through interviews and meetings with elected officials, they advocate for the lives of Palestinians, medical professionals and journalists under threat. Together, they fight to keep a promise to their Palestinian colleagues and patients.

Agronomist, poet, utopian thinker and revolutionary, Amílcar Cabral led the anti-colonial movement in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde against Portuguese rule until his assassination in 1973. Drawing on archival footage and imagined diary entries inspired by Cabral’s letters to his wives, Miguel Eek crafts an intimate portrait of a leader often compared to Che Guevara. Moving between political struggle and personal reflection, Amílcar explores human rights, ambition, interracial love, war and betrayal while tracing Cabral’s enduring vision of liberation.

Both biographical and poetic, the film’s lyrical imagery and sound design immerse viewers in his thoughts, inviting reflection on justice, memory and the ongoing relevance of his ideas today.

English, Arabic and Hebrew with subtitles in English

Portuguese, French, Spanish, Creole with subtitles in English

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INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARIES

AND THE FISH FLY ABOVE OUR HEADS

‫و األسماك تطير فوق رؤوسنا‬

Dima El-Horr, Lebanon/France/Saudi-Arabia, 2025, 69 mins THURSDAY MAY 7, 7:00PM • VIFF CENTRE

The restless shores of the Mediterranean Sea mirror the lives of Réda, Qassem and Adel. And the Fish Fly Above Our Heads chronicles the aging bodies and rituals of three friends as they routinely swim across the choppy waters, come rain or shine.

Filmmaker Dima El-Horr becomes a tender witness to the wistfulness embodied by her subjects, by threading personal stories with uncertain dreams and breathtaking visuals of life unfolding by the shoreline. What emerges is a collective portrait of Beirut’s crumbling cityscape.

Arabic with subtitles in English

52

Bouchra Orian Barki and Meriem Bennani, Italy/Morocco/United States, 2025, 83 mins THURSDAY MAY 7, 8:30PM • CINEMATHEQUE

A queer Moroccan filmmaker in New York calls home to Casablanca, confronting the tensions her sexuality has stirred with her mother. Documentary, autofiction and 3D animation transform the mother and daughter into coyotes, while real conversations with family and friends reveal emotional truths and the thrill of love.

The film moves between imagined encounters and phone calls, exploring intimacy, distance and family bonds. Wise, tender and inventive, Bouchra captures the quiet courage and awkward beauty of parent-child relationships.

Arabic, English and French with subtitles in English

Ça reste entre nous

Enough is Enough

Maryam Shapoorian, Iran, 2025, 62 mins

Elisé Sawasawa, France/Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2026, 65 minutes

WEDNESDAY MAY 6, 5:30PM • VIFF CENTRE

THURSDAY MAY 7, 5:00PM • VIFF CENTRE

Before the Iranian Revolution, an ancestral home gradually transforms into a house-museum filled with artifacts gathered over decades. As an Iranian archaeologist awaits the return of his French wife, letters exchanged across 30 years trace the contours of their relationship. Outside, political upheaval looms, unsettling both memory and space. Constructed as a silent triptych without dialogue, the film draws on archival correspondence to explore how private and historical memory intertwine. Through objects, light and stillness, Ça reste entre nous reflects on care in times of rupture and how spaces become repositories of both private and collective histories.

Enough Is Enough bears witness to the youth of Goma, capital of North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, and their resilience amid more than 35 years of war.

Born into conflict—“bullets welcomed my birth”—Sawasawa documents young Congolese men and women resisting despair through poetry, dance, music and improvisation. Amid displacement, violence and poverty they fight for peace and a future beyond conflict. Using direct cinema, Sawasawa captures the daily turmoil of Goma while celebrating the enduring courage, creativity and hope of a generation determined to reclaim their story.

French with subtitles in English

Swahili, Kinyarwanda and French with subtitles in English

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INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARIES

Frío Metal

Life After Siham

Clemente Castor, México, 2025, 103 minutes

Namir Abdel Messeeh, France/Egypt, 2025, 80 minutes

FRIDAY MAY 8, 8:05PM • CINEMATHEQUE

SATURDAY MAY 2, 9:15PM • VIFF CENTRE

Castor traces the fragmented lives of two Mexican brothers, Óscar and Mario, torn apart by disappearance and fading memory. Guided by a young woman’s hypnotic voice, the film drifts through rituals, games and mystical gestures, blurring documentary and the supernatural. From mines to volcanoes, bodies and landscapes merge into currents of intensity, offering tender and disorganized visions of youth, memory and the violence of a world that spares neither Earth nor its inhabitants.

When his mother Siham passed away, Namir didn’t realize she was gone forever.

Framed by the death of his parents, Life After Siham is the filmmaker’s journey through grief and time, formed by old home movies, intimate conversations and Egyptian romance films from the 1970s. The film leaves us with the message that life doesn’t give back what it takes, but sometimes it leaves us a precious legacy: a bond of love that keeps on carrying us, long after the ghosts have gone silent.

Spanish with subtitles in English

French and Arabic with subtitles in English

54

Numakage Public Pool Shingo Ota, Japan, 2025, 80 mins SATURDAY MAY 2, 5:00PM • VIFF CENTRE

For over 50 years, Numakage Public Pool—nicknamed the “ocean” in a landlocked suburb of Tokyo—has been a gathering place for elders, families and gay men. When a city redevelopment plan calls for its demolition, residents are forced to reckon with the loss of a space that has shaped daily life for generations. In considering what it means to mourn a public place, Shingo Ota approaches the closure through the five stages of grief: denial, anger, negotiation, depression and acceptance. What does grief look like when loss is spatial?

Japanese with subtitles in English

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INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARIES

The Oldest Person in the World

Powwow People

Sam Green, USA, 2026, 88 mins

Sky Hopinka, USA, 2025, 88 mins

FRIDAY MAY 8, 8:00PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA SATURDAY MAY 9, 4:00PM • CINEMATHEQUE

MONDAY MAY 4, 8:20PM • CINEMATHEQUE FRIDAY MAY 8, 10:00AM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA

The Oldest Person in The World is a decade-long odyssey chronicling the ever-changing record holders of the title of oldest person alive. As the title inevitably passes from one supercentenarian to the next, acclaimed filmmaker Sam Green traverses the globe to meet each new record holder, his personal fascination with what the title means becoming entangled with events and milestones in his own life. What begins as a portrait of longevity becomes a poignant meditation on the passage of time, the randomness of fate and the joy and profound human experience of being alive.

Native dancers from across Turtle Island gather at the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center in Seattle for a Powwow. Guided by the lively commentary of MC Ruben Littlehead (Northern Cheyenne Nation), immersive sound and vivid imagery carry viewers through the rhythms, movements and preparations of the gathering. Rather than observing from a distance, Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk/Pechanga) offers an intimate portrait of organizing and hosting a Powwow, inviting dancers, singers, vendors and community members into the frame. Powwow People avoids didactic explanation, instead allowing small gestures to shape the experience. The film culminates in an extended sequence of the Powwow’s spirited finale, celebrating the vitality and continuity of a contemporary Native gathering while honouring the enduring presence of Indigenous life and community.

English, Italian, Japanese, French, Catalan with subtitles in English

English with subtitles in English

56

Remake Ross McElwee, USA, 2025, 116 mins TUESDAY MAY 5, 7:50PM • CINEMATHEQUE

Long known for turning the camera on his own life, Ross McElwee confronts unimaginable loss in Remake, an autobiographical reflection on the death of his son amid the opioid epidemic. Drawing on decades of family footage, the film unfolds alongside the surreal prospect of a Hollywood remake of McElwee’s own 1985 cult classic, Sherman’s March. Moving between grief and remembrance, Remake reflects on memory, image-making and the compulsion to document life.

English

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INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARIES

Replica

Stories of a Lie

Chouwa Liang, Australia/France, 2026, 91 mins

Olia Verriopoulou, Greece/France, 2025, 76 mins

WEDNESDAY MAY 6, 7:30PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA THURSDAY MAY 7, 12:15PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA

WEDNESDAY MAY 6, 9:15PM • VIFF CENTRE

In contemporary China, three young women turn to A.I. companions to navigate love, desire and loneliness. Qin, a factory worker, brings her virtual boyfriend to life through imagined dates and shared routines; Muna, a married mother, seeks ChatGPT’s counsel and intimacy as her husband grows distant; and Sonya, single and self-assured, tests the limits of attachment with a digital husband. Observing their interactions with technology and each other, Replica probes the delicate boundary between solace and dependence in an age of artificial intimacy.

English and Mandarin with subtitles in English

58

A playful, intimate investigation into why cancer diagnoses are sometimes hidden from patients, asking whether silence protects or harms the people we love. Moving between childhood memory and adult reflection, the film follows conversations with family doctors, including the director’s father and uses family archives in a hybrid visual style. Verriopoulou blends humour and tenderness while examining trust, authority and the personal dimensions of medical secrecy.

Greek and French with subtitles in English

The Life That Will Come (La vida que Vendrá)

Traces Alisa Kovalenko and Marysia Nikitiuk, Ukraine/Poland, 2026, 86 mins

Karin Cuyul, Chile/Colombia, 2025, 92 minutes

WEDNESDAY MAY 6, 5:10PM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA

TUESDAY MAY 5, 9:00PM - VIFF CENTRE

Traces follows Ukrainian women who refuse to remain silent after surviving conflict-related sexual violence and torture during Russia’s war. Through Iryna Dovhan, a former captive turned activist, the film documents testimonies on de-occupied territories, weaving a collective portrait of trauma while carving out space for hope.

Circles of solidarity transform pain into a force for truth, justice and mutual support, revealing resilience and the strength of women standing side by side.

When she notices that some images refuse to disappear—like the photo of Salvador Allende her dad has kept for more than 50 years—filmmaker Karin Cuyul realises that images can never be erased, even if authoritarians say otherwise. Using amateur archival footage, Cuyul reclaims Chile’s aspirational history through the voices and images of citizens fighting for freedom and democracy. Chile’s inherited sadness reverberates throughout the film, especially through the voiceover narration that asks: how do we build a national memory and discourse?

Ukrainian with subtitles in English

Spanish with subtitles in English

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INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARIES

Under the Red Roof 野塚の太陽

What Comes From Sitting in Silence?

Yushi Nagamatsu, Japan, 2025, 68 mins

Sophie Schrago, France/South Korea/Switzerland/USA, 2026, 76 mins

WEDNESDAY MAY 6, 10:00AM • SFU MOWAFAGHIAN CINEMA THURSDAY MAY 7, 6:30PM • CINEMATHEQUE

WEDNESDAY MAY 6, 6:30PM • CINEMATHEQUE

In the coastal town of Shakotan, Hokkaido, Nozuka Elementary School prepares to close after 134 years as the region’s population declines. Taiyo, a quiet second grader, is one of the final four students to pass through its halls before the school shuts its doors. In Under the Red Roof, Yushi Nagamatsu gently observes the school’s final months, capturing the small gestures of care and curiosity that shape a child’s world on the brink of change.

Japanese with subtitles in English

60

In a cramped storefront of Mumbai’s densely populated Naupada neighborhood, Judge Khatoon helms the city’s first women’s Sharia court. As one of India’s first female Islamic law judges, Khatoon counsels couples seeking divorce and women fleeing abuse. In this makeshift courtroom, plaintiffs find the rare opportunity to speak freely, express anger and seek justice. The dynamic of the courtroom becomes visceral as the prospect of revolutionary change for Muslim Indian women beckons.

Hindi and Urdu with subtitles in English

Who is Still Alive

WINDWARD

Nicolas Wadimoff, Switzerland/Palestine/France, 2025, 114 mins

Sharon Lockhart, USA/Canada, 2025, 70 mins

TUESDAY MAY 5, 5:45PM • VIFF CENTRE

SATURDAY MAY 2, 6:30PM • CINEMATHEQUE

A map of Gaza, traced in white on black, frames the stories of nine refugees who escaped the inferno. They recount lives before conflict, the loss of loved ones and enduring oppression—lives not yet reduced to ashes. By sharing their testimonies, the protagonists seek to reconnect with themselves, resist erasure and return from the shadows, asserting presence and life amid devastation.

Filmed on Fogo Island off the northern coast of Newfoundland, WINDWARD continues Sharon Lockhart’s long-standing exploration of place and community. In extended static takes, the film observes the island’s youth amidst tall grasses, volcanic rocks and the restless Atlantic. Sea, sky and shifting weather shape a series of composed tableaux where landscape and figure enter into close dialogue. Inspired in part by the legacy of The Fogo Process, Lockhart spent three summers building relationships within the island’s communities. The result is a patient portrait of a place and the young people who inherit its histories, attuned to the rhythms of land, light and weather.

Arabic with subtitles in English

No spoken dialogue

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SHORTS PROGRAMS

SHORTS PROGRAM 1: FIRST CROPS

SHORTS PROGRAM 3: LINES OF FLIGHT

SHORTS PROGRAM 5: INTERFERENCE

Grief occurs in occupied and abandoned landscapes.

Lost traces echo in deserted spaces, past utopias and intimate encounters, where paranoia, resilience and ecological reflection meet. Time moves on, memory lives on, and the effects of human action and inaction echo throughout bodies, communities and land.

The textures of everyday life bring past and present together: childhood and adolescence; displacement and mourning; archival material and intergenerational reflection. Memories move through trauma, and moments of tenderness and endurance accumulate to remind us that the personal is tied to histories passed down.

Perception fractures and histories are reassembled.

Gaps in memory, lost communities and labouring bodies confront systems of power, while formal experimentation invites playful reflection. Resistance emerges through subtle observation, archival engagement and creative entanglements, foregrounding the tension between what is witnessed, remembered and suppressed in the shaping of our world.

BAEA — Terra Long The Phalanx — Benjamin Balcom IS GANG STALKING REAL — Theodore Collatos an open field — Teboho Edkins The Flower and the Flood — Elisa González SHORTS PROGRAM 2: IN EARTH AND SKY

Bodies, matter and perception are tied to changing landscapes. Mountains are folded, enzymes break plastic, rocks are touched and maps are made. In each encounter, imagination, tools and material worlds shape one another, and the space between observer and environment is transformed.

FELT — Blake Williams Living Containers — Kara Hansen Filme-Copacabana — Sofia Leão Touching Rocks — Laurence Olivier Shelly’s Leg — Wes Hurley As Far As We Imagine — Raouf Moussa 62 62

Bubba — Kayli Koonar Niña Chilapa - Chilapa Girl — Juana Lotero López Buckskin – Mars Verrone Last Evenings on Earth — Ralitsa Doncheva Momentum - Nada El-Omari TIGERS CAN BE SEEN IN THE RAIN — Oscar Ruiz Navia Morning Circle — Basma al-Sharif

Au Hasard — Darren Dominique Heroux Their Eyes — Nicolas Gourault Le Meilleur Spectateur de la pièce historique qui se joue sur terre — Taleb Lachheb Intersecting Memory ‫ — ذاكرة متقاطعة‬Shayma’ Awawdeh Okay Keskidee! Let Me See Inside — Rhea Storr Mirrorpond — Christopher Pavsek

SHORTS PROGRAM 4: AND ABOVE

Existence and labour—human and nonhuman—appear in the depths of shadows. Caribou navigate disturbed lands, miners endure beneath the earth and ritualistic observations take place. Work, survival and ecological rhythms become layers that connect hidden forces, material transformations and the quiet persistence of life in spaces often forgotten.

Words Fly Back to the Black Earth — Xiao Zhang Ndjimu — Petna Ndaliko Katondolo Tuktuit : Caribou — Lindsay Aksarniq McIntyre AU HASARD

S H O R T S

P R O G R A M

1

FIRST CROPS

SUNDAY MAY 3, 3:15PM • CINEMATHEQUE

BAEA

The Phalanx

IS GANG STALKING REAL

At a wildlife rescue centre on the Pacific Coast, a team of rehabilitators care for Bald Eagles suffering from lead poisoning. The film observes a demanding winter, where lies a perennial tension demanding ethical consideration: at what point does the harm of treatment exceed the potential benefits of care?

In rural Wisconsin, traces and memories of an abandoned utopian agrarian commune are layered upon the area’s present-day landscape. History and place echo through fields, streets and quiet hallways, enriched by haunting excerpts from the correspondence of the site’s 19th century residents. A cautionary tale of ecstatic searching and disillusionment.

Troubling phone conversations, alien soundscapes and starry-filtered home video montages become reflections on the paranoid and recovering mind of a man referred to only as James. Examining the emotional toll of drug abuse with candor and compassion, Collatos documents his friendship with James over years of unrelenting addiction to methamphetamines.

English

English

Terra Long, Canada/USA/UK, 2025, 18 mins

English

Benjamin Balcom, USA, 2025, 14 mins

Theodore Collatos, USA, 2026, 17 mins

S TAY CO N N E C T E D Follow us on social media: facebook.com/DOXAfestival youtube.com/DOXAfestival instagram.com/DOXAfestival tiktok.com/DOXAfestival

an open field

Teboho Edkins, South Africa/France/Germany/Ethiopia, 2025, 39 mins

When a Boeing 737 MAX airplane crashes next to a rural community in Ethiopia in 2019, locals welcome the family of deceased passengers—including filmmaker Toboho Edkins and his father—into their mourning rituals.

Poetic, observational and affecting, this documentary tethers grief to place, juxtaposing sincerity with corporate indifference.

English, Amharic and Oromo with subtitles in English

The Flower and the Flood Elisa González, Canada, 2026, 23 mins

S TAY U P DAT E D O N NEWS FROM DOXA:

doxafestival.ca/newsletter

After an atmospheric river devastates a saffron crop, floodwaters return Semá:th Xó:tsa to the valley after a century of destruction. Tracing Sumas Lake’s history alongside saffron’s renewal, González links ecological repair and cultural resurgence through hand-processed, analogue experiments, asking what saffron reveals about our bond with land.

English, Halq’eméylem and Punjabi with subtitles in English and French C E L E B R AT I N G D O X A’ S 2 5T H E D I T I O N

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The Cinematheque

Experience Essential Cinema La région centrale, Michael Snow, 1971

thecinematheque.ca 1131 Howe Street, Vancouver

CREATE FROM YOUR IMAGINATION

VPL’s Inspiration Lab is a free space dedicated to digital creativity, collaboration and storytelling. All you need is a library card!

FEATURES

Sound Recording Video Production Digitization Editing Stations Online Classes

vpl.ca/inspirationlab

S H O R T S

P R O G R A M

2

IN EARTH AND SKY

FRIDAY MAY 1, 6:00PM • CINEMATHEQUE

LOCAL PREMIERE

FELT

Living Containers

Filme-Copacabana

A man encounters mountains and sets out to recreate them, journeying across the Western United States in a hallucinatory 3D journey. Referencing stereoscopes, folded paper and historic images, FELT reimagines familiar landscapes, blurring near and far until the world folds in on itself.

Aided by machine learning, a bioengineer creates a mutant enzyme inspired by larvae capable of digesting plastic. Insects, sapiens, models and machines are consumed by extraction, ingestion, excretion and an unconscious drive to return to a state of matter before life.

English

A woman sets a chair on a sidewalk and watches the neighbourhood unfold like a scene in a movie. Workers, tourists, dogs and passing encounters shape a portrait of Rio through precise montage. Blending documentary and visual essay, Sofia Leão turns quiet observation into social critique.

Touching Rocks

Shelly’s Leg

As Far As We Imagine

Tattooed hands glide over rock faces, three women lift their arms to a boulder in a ritual gesture, and two others stare at their bloodied palms in a cave. Touching Rocks transforms bouldering into a pagan, performance-like practice, blending sport, endurance and mysticism.

Shelly’s Leg chronicles the titular 1970s Seattle discotheque. The legendary gay bar’s history is told through reenacted interviews by actors portraying those in the inner circle of Shelly Baumann, who co-founded the bar using settlement funds from a tragic accident.

No spoken dialogue

English

Hovering between the real and the imagined, Moussa traces a fragmented sense of place. Moving through maps, projections and digital simulations, the film considers how ways of seeing shape one’s sense of belonging.

An open-ended meditation on placelessness, perspective and the politics of orientation.

Blake Williams, USA/Spain/Canada, 2025, 16 mins

This film is presented in 3D

Kara Hansen, Canada/USA, 2025, 15 mins

Sofia Leão, Brazil, 2025, 13 mins

No spoken dialogue, subtitles in English

English

Laurence Olivier, Canada, 2025, 16 mins

Wes Hurley, USA, 2025, 17 mins

Raouf Moussa, Belgium/Netherlands, 2026, 28 mins

English with subtitles in English

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S H O R T S

P R O G R A M

3

LINES OF FLIGHT

Bubba

Niña Chilapa – Chilapa Girl

Buckskin

At 12, Nirmal leaves his village in India for Canada during Partition. On arrival, he meets his father for the first time and is asked to cut his hair and remove his turban.

Narrated by present day Nirmal and shaped through abstract imagery, Bubba reflects on assimilation and identity loss.

Caught in between childhood and womanhood, a young Colombian girl grows up too quickly despite her mother’s warnings. The girl transforms in an inescapable environment, wavering between moments of innocent joy, abundant love, dreams put on pause and bitter reality.

An experimental portrait of the filmmaker’s grandfather, Carroll B. Williams Jr., a groundbreaking African-American forester. Through family conversations in luminous 16mm, the film reflects on memory, environmental stewardship and the contradictions of working for change within colonial institutions.

Kayli Koonar, Canada, 2025, 7 mins

English with subtitles in English

Juana Lotero López, Colombia, 2025, 17 mins

Spanish with subtitles in English

Last Evenings on Earth

Momentum

Drawing on images from Alexander Sokurov’s first feature and on familial recollections of life under the Soviet regime in Bulgaria, Doncheva reflects on how history settles into both image and body. Moving between essay and elegy, the film collapses temporal distance and traces the persistence of political experience across generations.

El-Omari’s experimental video-poem revisits protest footage her father filmed during his return to Palestine on Land Day in 2001, amid the Second Intifada. Overlaying images with personal text, she reflects on what he was seeking and on the fragile yet powerful role personal images hold in bearing witness to truth.

Ralitsa Doncheva, Canada, 2026, 13 mins

English 66

Nada El-Omari, Canada, 2025, 19 minutes

No spoken dialogue, subtitles in English

Mars Verrone, USA, 2026, 18 minutes

English

TIGERS CAN BE SEEN IN THE RAIN

Oscar Ruiz Navia, Colombia/Canada, 2025, 16 mins

Navia blends the desolation of wintertime Montreal with the warmth of decades-old home videos and voice notes from a departed sister. Through collaged images and textures, the film evokes mourning as both a temporal and emotional landscape, where memory, place and loss converge in haunting resonance.

Spanish with subtitles in English

S H O R T S FRIDAY MAY 1, 8:10PM • VIFF CENTRE

Morning Circle

Basma al-Sharif, Canada/United Arab Emirates, 2025, 21 mins

From our earliest experience of separation to the imperceptible violence associated with integrating into a new country when yours is no longer livable, Morning Circle unfolds loss in three parts. The film follows a father and son in their rituals as they prepare to start the day and head to kindergarten.

Arabic, Armenian and German with subtitles in English

P R O G R A M

4

AND ABOVE

Words Fly Back to the Black Earth Xiao Zhang, USA/China, 2025, 20 mins

A silent presence dwells within the empty pages. Traces of writing emerge as fragmented voices take shape, beings made material. Presented as a dialogue with the director’s grandmother, the film examines—by deconstructing language—an alternative form of personal writing by Chinese women in political shifts.

Cantonese with subtitles in English

SATURDAY MAY 2, 4:20PM • CINEMATHEQUE

Ndjimu

Petna Ndaliko Katondolo, USA/Democratic Republic of Congo, 2025, 32 mins

“These are the ones who know how to write names in stone.”

A 360-degree camera descends into the depths of Mutoshi, an open-pit cobalt mine opened in 1903. Passed among miners, the camera observes their labour in suffocating darkness, camaraderie and endurance unfolding below the surface.

French with subtitles in English

D O N ATE TO THE HOLDSTOCK FUND

LOCAL PREMIERE

Tuktuit : Caribou

Lindsay Aksarniq McIntyre, Canada, 2025, 16 mins

Filmed primarily on the land of Nunavut, the film observes caribou navigating burn events, habitat disruption and shifting environmental conditions. Created with a mix of handmade emulsion, lichen-based developers bring images into fruition, while caribou hide is rendered into gelatin for hand-processed film, binding material process to subject.

No spoken dialogue, subtitles in English

The Holdstock Fund helps bridge the connection between filmmakers and audiences. With the generous support of former DOXA Board member Roger Holdstock, this fund helps DOXA bring filmmakers and special guests from across Canada and around the globe to the festival.

To donate, scan the QR code or visit: DOX AFESTIVAL .C A /DONATE C E L E B R AT I N G D O X A’ S 2 5T H E D I T I O N

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S H O R T S

P R O G R A M

5

INTERFERENCE

SUNDAY MAY 3, 8:00PM • CINEMATHEQUE

Au Hasard

Their Eyes

This experimental essay splits the screen into two simultaneous image streams. Through red or blue decoder glasses, audience members encounter different visual information, producing a deliberate imbalance in perception. Blending archival propaganda, poetic narration and formal play, the film explores how missed information is often the root of misinformation.

Workers from Kenya, Venezuela and the Philippines recount their experiences of the micro-task economy. An immersive look into manual data labelling for A.I. training of autonomous vehicles, Their Eyes juxtaposes graphic annotations of training images from the Global North against candid footage of the workers’ surroundings.

Darren Dominique Heroux, Canada, 2026, 10 mins

Nicolas Gourault, France, 2025, 23 mins

English and Spanish with subtitles in English and French

This film uses custom blue or red decoder glasses

Le Meilleur Spectateur de la pièce historique qui se joue sur terre Taleb Lachheb, France, 2024, 18 min

Henri Laborit describes how rats react to electric shocks. Edward Said recites a poem on prisoners’ fleeting freedoms. Mahmoud Darwish’s poetry overlays footage of a film set. A picture emerges: Palestine as a state of confinement, observed by animals, the silent witnesses to the human tragedy unfolding around them.

French, English, Arabic and Hebrew with English and French subtitles

French with subtitles in English

Intersecting Memory ‫ذاكرة متقاطعة‬

Okay Keskidee! Let Me See Inside

Mirrorpond

Shayma’ Awawdeh was displaced from her home in Hebron during the Second Intifada. 20 years later, she discovers a box of video tapes with documented scenes from the streets under military siege, including the brutal aftermath of suicide bombings. Perusing through moments of rebellion and devastation, Awawdeh narrates stories from her childhood and her town that has since morphed drastically under Israeli occupation.

Returning to the former site of London’s Keskidee Centre, where luxury apartments now stand, Storr reflects on Black community spaces in the UK (particularly that of the Caribbean diaspora) and the conditions that once allowed them to thrive. Storr considers gentrification, access and whether digital space can sustain collective memory.

“Once you have seen a picture of a world, that world never appears the same again.” A disturbance is introduced to a pond in Alaska, prompting reflection on the images we make. In a mesmerizing confluence of form and subject, Mirrorpond unlatches our perceptions and expectations of nature.

Shayma’ Awawdeh, Palestine/France, 2025, 21 mins

Arabic with subtitles in English

Rhea Storr, UK, 2025, 20 mins

English with subtitles in English

Christopher Pavsek, Canada, 2025, 7 mins

English with subtitles in English

C E L E B R AT I N G D O X A’ S 2 5T H E D I T I O N

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