#doxa 2023

[rickchung]

Má Sài Gòn (Mother Saigon, dir. Khoa Lê) x DOXA 2023.

This is an intimate look into Vietnam’s quietly thriving queer and trans communities. Through a series of portraits, Lê explores different individuals from various marginalized groups across Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) who are all trying to live their lives authentically. It’s a revealing documentary spotlighting the strength and diversity of non-conforming Vietnamese people coping under a restrictive culture and conservative climate of communist rule.

Screening at the 2023 DOXA Documentary Film Festival as part of the Thin Places program at The Cinematheque on May 6.

[rickchung]

Satan Wants You (dirs. Sean Horlor & Steve J. Adams) x DOXA 2023.

Satanic Panic was everywhere in the 1980s as a result of the preposterously unsubstantiated but widely believed child enslavement claims chronicled in Michelle Smith and her long since discredited psychiatrist/husband Lawrence Pazder’s bestselling book Michelle Remembers.

Starting out in Victoria, the general lack of skepticism that snowballed into a fever of overreactions to the perceived Satanist ritual sacrifice of children is a trip to recount. Horlor and Adams ably recall and document what led to Western society’s obsession with this imagined movement of devil worship conspiracies despite a startling lack of evidence.

Screening as part of the 2023 DOXA Documentary Film Festival at the VIFF Centre on May 6 and The Cinematheque on May 12 & 14.

[rickchung]

Big Fight in Little Chinatown (dir. Karen Cho) x DOXA 2023.

There’s much to [the] careful exploration of Chinatowns across the continent. Its reverence for the stewardship of these neighbourhoods is admirable while the documentary delves into the ever-growing gentrification faced. Cho ably sums up the history of Chinese people as compelling stories of struggle and survival.

Screened at the 2023 Hot Docs Festival in Toronto.

Screening at the Rio Theatre on June 10 and VIFF Centre from June 16–20.

[rickchung]

2023 DOXA Documentary Film Festival x The Post at 750.

DOXA Board Chair Ken Tsui announcing the DOXA 2023 program.

Screening virtually online until May 24.

[rickchung]

Confessions of a Good Samaritan (dir. Penny Lane) x DOXA 2023.

Lane turns the camera on herself as she altruistically decides to donate one of her kidneys to a total stranger who needs it in order to live. It’s an unabashed do-gooder documentary about trying to live unselfishly and think of others without the desire to be a “good person” per se.

It’s an entirely intiguing hook for a film anchored by Lane’s overal genial demeanour. Her dispassionate exploration of doing something for others without any immediate personal benefit lays out the case for being a better human being in general. There’s an aggressively feelgood sense of documentary fun to everything that also sheds a light the need for greater organ donation.

Screening as part of the 2023 DOXA Documentary Film Festival at the VIFF Centre on May 8 & 13.

[rickchung]

Manufacturing the Threat (dir. Amy Miller) x DOXA 2022.

Miller’s dissection of the terrorism charges against Surrey residents John Nuttall and Amanda Korody as a disturbing story of entrapment by Canada’s national security agencies is a scathing endictment of legal manipulation by law enforcement. Its exploration of the agent provocateur operation led by CSIS and the RCMP is a disturbing case of police infiltration and incitement targeting a young Muslim couple. Hearing from the subjects themselves as they recount their experience of what happened to them provides needed humanization to the troubling issues around ensuring public safety or national security.

Premiering at the 2023 DOXA Documentary Film Festival at the VIFF Centre on May 5.

[rickchung]

2023 DOXA Documentary Film Festival x The Cinematheque. (via Isaac Li)

Western Canada’s largest documentary film festival returns with films screening in theatres [...]. DOXA 2023 features a roster of crucial and thought-provoking documentaries in theatrical venues across the city, bringing filmmakers and audiences together for a communal cinema experience.

Screenings from May 4–14 (online from May 15–24).

[13thgenfilm]

We’re excited to announce the * North American Premiere * of Sandra Itäinen’s COMING AROUND, screening as part of the “Rated Y For Youth” program on Tuesday, May 9th at 12:15pm at DOXA Documentary Film Festival in Vancouver, Canada. ❤️🏳️‍🌈🎬

Produced by Chelsi Bullard, and executive produced by Marc Smolowitz, Fawz Mirza, and Andria Wilson, the film follows 28-year-old Eman as she weighs the decision to come out to her devout Muslim mother.

Watch the trailer: 👉 https://vimeo.com/804515658

Screening details: 👉 https://bit.ly/ComingAroundAtDoxa