Social justice, pioneering filmmakers and jazz giants at this year’s DOXA Documentary Film Fest

April 9, 2019
SC
By Shawn Conner
2 min read

A B.C. film about three sisters from a conservative Indo-Canadian family coming to terms with the sexual abuse opens the 18th annual DOXA Documentary Film Festival.

On May 3, Baljit Sangra’s Because We Are Girls kicks off the festival, which runs May 2 – May 12. Western Canada’s largest documentary film festival, DOXA will present 82 films (shorts and features) from across Canada and around the world. See below for more highlights of this year’s DOXA.

On May 4, DOXA hosts a live documentary presentation, Postings From Home by Toronto-based filmmaker Kelly O’Brien. O’Brien combines the collective sharing of one’s personal life with the 20th-century tradition of a family slideshow.

Baljit Sangra’s Because We Are Girls

The gala screening of nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up on May 8 marks the 10-year anniversary of DOXA’s Justice Forum. Tasha Hubbard’s film goes beyond the headlines behind the 2016 shooting death of First Nations man Colton Boushie to explore systematic First Nations injustice in the Prairies.

Closing the festival on May 11, Hepi Mita’s Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen is a tribute to the filmmaker’s mother Merata Mita. She was the first Māori woman — and one of the first Indigenous women in the world — to write and direct a narrative feature film.

Baljit Sangra’s Because We Are Girls

Meanwhile, jazz fans will get a kick out of Birth of the Cool, a 2019 UK doc about the American jazz pioneer. It includes never-before-seen footage and photographs.

Baljit Sangra’s Because We Are Girls

DOXA Documentary Film Festival

When: May 2–12, 2019

Where: various venues, including Vancouver Playhouse, VIFF’s Vancity Theatre, The Cinematheque, The Post at 750, Museum of Vancouver, and SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts

Tickets: at doxafestival.ca

Info: 604.646.3200

DOXA Documentary Film Festival
Because We Are Girls
Baljit Sangra
social justice films
documentary films
film festival
jazz documentaries
pioneering filmmakers
2019 film festivals
Canadian film festivals