DOXA Documentary Film Festival 2019: Win Tickets

The 18th annual DOXA Documentary Film Festival, Western Canada’s largest documentary Film Festival, returns May 2 to May 12, 2019. Committed to cultivating curiosity and critical thought, DOXA will present 82 films (shorts and features) from across Canada and around the world, representing some of the very best in contemporary documentary cinema.

DOXA Documentary Film Festival

• Venues: The Vancouver Playhouse, VIFF’s Vancity Theatre, The Cinematheque, The Post at 750, Museum of Vancouver, SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts
• Admission: Evenings and Weekends: $15; Weekday Matinee (weekday films starting at 5:00 pm or earlier): $13; Opening gala, closing gala and live presentation: $18; Student/Senior/Low Income tickets for all regular screenings: $2 discount; Membership: $2.
  • Festival Pass: $195 (includes membership; valid for all film screenings including opening and closing night film and party).
• Tickets: Available online or in person at the community box office April 23-30, from 12:00pm to 5:00pm at DOXA office (#110–750 Hamilton St, Vancouver).
  • The Festival Box Office is at VIFF’s Vancity Theatre (May 4-12)  and The Cinematheque (May 2- 13), where you can get tickets for all festival screenings. SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts (May 4-5, 8-12) will have tickets are available for all festival screenings and events at this venue.

Feature Gala Films

On May 3, DOXA kicks off with Baljit Sangra’s courageous new film Because We Are Girls, which celebrates the strength of sisterhood in the face of profound pain and trauma. Because We Are Girls tells the story of three sisters from a conservative Indo-Canadian family coming to terms with the sexual abuse they faced by an older relative beginning in their childhood years. Vancouver-based Sangra explores the impact of sexual abuse on a family, turning her empathetic lens on intimate moments as they process and heal.

On May 4, DOXA hosts a special live documentary presentation Postings From Home by Toronto- based filmmaker Kelly O’Brien. O’Brien has taken the collective sharing of one’s personal life — now habitual on social media — and combined it with the 20th-century tradition of a family slideshow to
create an emotionally affecting live performance.

The gala screening of nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up on May 8 marks the 10-year anniversary of DOXA’s Justice Forum, a series aimed at creating space for open dialogue. Few events in recent Canadian history have sparked as much media attention, outrage, and horror as the death of Colten Boushie, a young Cree man from the Red Pheasant First Nation who died after being shot in the head on Gerald Stanley’s farm. Indigenous filmmaker and scholar Tasha Hubbard goes beyond the headlines to present a detailed examination of race relations on the prairies.

Closing the festival on May 11, Hepi Mita’s Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen is a tender posthumous tribute to his mother Merata Mita, the first Māori woman — and one of the first Indigenous women in the world — to write and direct a narrative feature film. DOXA is exceptionally proud to close the festival with this extraordinary film about a visionary artist, activist and mother.

View the full festival schedule here »

Win Tickets

I have a pair of tickets to give away to the Opening Night Gala Film Because We Are Girls by Baljit Sangra on Friday, May 3, 2019. Here’s how you can enter to win:

• Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)
• Click below to post an entry on Twitter

I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Tuesday, April 30, 2019. Follow DOXA on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for more info.

UPDATE the winner is Mitchell!