Three films reviewed by Pancouver in advance of their DOXA Documentary Film Festival screenings are among this year’s award winners.
French-Tunisian-Moroccan filmmaker Hind Meddeb’s Sudan, Remember Us received the Best Feature Documentary Award for international documentaries. Through the eyes of Khartoum artists and musicians, the film showed how the joy of overthrowing a dictator in 2019 devolved into a humanitarian catastrophe.
“As an authentic portrait that preserves the vitality of a uniquely youth-led resistance, in which we bear witness to a movement that’s equal parts civil disobedience, art, poetry, and music, Sudan, Remember Us impressed the jury with its cultural authenticity, bravery, and commitment to bringing light to one of the largest and most suppressed human rights crises of our generation,” stated jurors Michael Scoular, Jae Woo Kang and Jamila Pomeroy.
Casey Carter’s To Use a Mountain and Elizabeth Lo’s Mistress Dispeller received honourable mentions.
Zhou earns second award in two years
Meanwhile, the DOXA Short Documentary Award went to Hao Zhou’s “Correct Me If I’m Wrong 如你所愿”. The Kenyon College assistant professor willingly undergoes several rituals and treatments in southwestern China to exorcize a female spirit.
“This strikingly contemporary study of filial loyalty offers a complex portrayal of both compliance and resistance to tradition,” declared jurrors Terra Long, Sashja Bondartchouk, and Rami Katz. “As the filmmaker’s family attempt to exorcise their queerness, speaking up for one’s truth proves exceedingly difficult. The jury was moved by the film’s beautiful photography and personal storytelling techniques which, through an intimate and tempered perspective, highlight the painfully volatile tensions between love, care, concern, misunderstanding, and refusal of acceptance.”
It marks the second consecutive year that Zhou has won the DOXA Short Documentary Award. Last year, Zhou captured this honour for “Wouldn’t Make It Any Other Way”.
Honourable mention went to Helen Lee’s “From Paris to Pyongyang”.
Award-winning films on Indigenous themes
Another prize winner was Damien Eagle Bear for #skoden, which told the story of an Indigenous man in Lethbridge who inspired a viral meme.
“For its clarity of directorial vision, its compassionate depiction of a much-seen but seldom-understood community, we are pleased to award Damien Eagle Bear the Vancouver Film Studios Award for Best BC Director for his film #skoden,” said jurors Rame Ibrahim, Faith Sparrow-Crawford, Morgan Sears-Williams, Mimi Dejene, and Brandon Wint.
Eagle Bear also recently won the Hot Docs Earl A. Glick Emerging Canadian Filmmaker Award.
Honourable mention for the Vancouver Film Studios Award for Best BC Director went to Elizabeth Vibert and Chen Wang for Aisha’s Story, which opened the DOXA Documentary Film Festival on May 1. It documented the connections between food and Palestinian culture, as well as a Palestinian family’s desire to return to their homeland after many decades in exile in Jordan. Aisha’s Story won the Hot Docs Audience Award (mid-length).
The Directors Guild of Canada presents the Colin Low Award for Best Canadian Director, which went to Patrick Shannon for Saints and Warriors. This film focused on the Skidegate Saints competing in the annual All Native Basketball Tournament. Jurors Chris Chong, Fabianny Deschamps, and Corey Payette praised Saints and Warriors‘ “beautifully layered narrative, its honest and intimate portrayal of contemporary Indigenous life, and a final act that was deeply moving and offered us an inspiring hope for the future”.
Lyana Patrick, an assistant professor in the faculty of health sciences at Simon Fraser University, received an honourable mention for Nechako. It chronicled the 50-year fight to reclaim Indigenous land and increase water flows in the Nechako Rover to preserve fish habitat.
They Are Sacred reframes neurodiversity
Every year, the DOXA Festival also presents the Nigel Moore Award for Youth Programming. This year’s winner is Kim O’Bomsawin’s They Are Sacred.
“They Are Sacred is a touching and intimate look at the relationship between a father and son that reframes one’s understanding of neurodiversity through an Indigenous lens,” stated jurors Laura Moore, Darius Darabi, Olivia Moore, Emily Ash Cutajar, and Anna Hetherington. “With increasing misinformation and harmful rhetoric centred around neurodiversity, this film powerfully showcases how autism is not a deficit but in fact, a sacred gift, according to Cree traditions.
“The film additionally highlights the systemic barriers and tradeoffs Indigenous families in Canada face in accessing autism support or care that is culturally resonant,” the jurors continued. “They Are Sacred is a beautiful film that resonates with viewers of all ages. For youth especially, it offers an empowering story of reclamation, acceptance, and community that is vital at this moment.”
The DOXA Documentary Film Festival concluded on May 11.
https://youtu.be/6So-KNfu9lE?feature=shared
Watch the trailer (above) for They Are Sacred.
To learn more about the DOXA Documentary Film Festival, visit the website. Follow Pancouver on X @PancouverMedia and Bluesky @pancouver.bsky.social. Find Pancouver on Instagram @PancouverMedia.
