This year’s DOXA Documentary Film Festival will screen 39 features and 30 short and mid-length films at four locations. In addition, Western Canada’s leading documentary festival will host industry events at SFU’s World Arts Centre and The Post at 750.
Three B.C. filmmakers will have world premieres at DOXA.
Baljit Sangra (Because We Are Girls) directed Have You Heard Judi Singh?. It’s about an Edmonton jazz musician with a Sikh father and Black mother. Singh recorded A Time for Love with Tommy Banks and sang and wrote songs on Woody Shaw’s Grammy-nominated Rosewood album.
The festival will present this film at 5 p.m. on May 4 at the VIFF Centre
Lyana Patrick, an assistant professor in the faculty of health sciences at Simon Fraser University, will also have a world premiere at DOXA. Patrick, a member of the Stellat’en First Nation and Acadian/Scottish, helmed Nechako – It Will Be a Big River Again. It addresses Indigenous communities’ efforts to force Rio Tinto Alcan to increase water flows to preserve fish habitat.
The DOXA fest will screen Nechako – It Will Be a Big River Again at 5 p.m. on May 3 at the VIFF Centre. It’s part of the Justice Forum series of films.
DOXA premieres another John Bolton film
John Bolton is the third B.C. director with a world premiere at the festival. His King Arthur’s Night is inspired by a musical play created by Neworld Theatre for the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. Niall McNeil—who lives with Down syndrome—co-wrote the theatrical work with former Neworld artistic director Marcus Youssef. McNeill played King Arthur and Youssel was Merlin in the stage production, which included several other Vancouver theatre artists. In the film, they reprise these roles while also speaking on-camera as themselves.
Veda Hille created original music for King Arthur’s Night. It will be screened at 7:30 p.m. on May 7 at the VIFF Centre and at 10 a.m. on May 8 at SFU Cinema. This film is part of the Rated Y for Youth series.
Bolton, founder and chief creative officer of Opus 59 Films, previously created a musical documentary about an opera performance. His emotional tale of reconciliation, The Lake / nx̌aʔx̌aʔitkʷ, premiered at the 2022 DOXA fest. It documented how Canadian soprano Heather Pawsey and Syilx educator, elder, and singer Delphine Derickson Armstrong formed a deep friendship as they collaborated in decolonizing a Canadian opera.
Closing Gala features Saints & Warriors
The festival will open with Elizabeth Vibert and Chen Wang’s Aisha’s Story at the Vancouver Playhouse on May 1. It focuses on a Palestinian matriarch who preserves her people’s history from her family’s grain mill in Jordan.
“Aisha’s Story showcases how food is not only an expression of cultural heritage; food can be a vehicle for resistance<” the festival says in a news release.
Moreover, there will be second screening of Aisha’s Story at 4 p.m. on May 7 at SFU Cinema.
The DOXA fest will present the B.C. premiere of Patrick Shannon’s Saints & Warriors at its 2025 Closing Gala. This 2024 documentary revolves around the Skidegate Saints basketball team competing in the All Native Basketball Tournament. Festivalgoers can see it at 6:30 p.m. on May 10 at SFU Cinema and a second time at 3 p.m. on May 11 at the Cinematheque.
Watch the trailer for the DOXA Documentary Film Festival.
The DOXA Documentary Film Festival runs from May 1 to 11 at various venues. For tickets to DOXA documentaries, visit the website. Follow Pancouver on X @PancouverMedia and Bluesky @pancouver.bsky.social. Find Pancouver on Instagram @PancouverMedia.
