DOXA Documentary Film Festival 2021
byDOXA Documentary Film Festival, Western Canada’s largest documentary film festival, returns to present a very special 20th Anniversary Festival, streaming online May 6 through May 16, 2021. Today they have announced their Special Presentations and a full lineup will be available April 14th.
DOXA Documentary Film Festival
When: May 6-16, 2021
Where: Online
Tickets: $7-10 sliding scale per individual virtual ticket; Early Bird Festival Passes: $60; Regular Festival Passes: $75; Anniversary Festival Pass + Package: $200
DOXA Special Presentations
First on the list of Special Presentations is Shannon Walsh’s The Gig is Up, which takes a close look at gig labour, a growing phenomenon and employment path that promises flexible hours, independence and open recruitment to workers around the world. From delivering food, to transporting passengers, to tagging images online, millions of people—including those who might otherwise be unable to find work in more conventional environments—are being drawn to gig employment, task by task, for the chance to do any job that pays. But despite its utopian potential, the reality of the gig economy is something far less auspicious.
After a brief hiatus in 2020, DOXA is excited to relaunch their cornerstone Justice Forum programming stream, now in its 11th year. Our Justice Forum Special Presentation Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy, directed by Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers (The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open), puts humanity and compassion first in its engagement with the substance-use crisis and drug-poisoning epidemic on the Kainai First Nation in southern Alberta. A must-see for all (but policy makers and health professionals may want to take special note), Kímmapiiyipitssini charts a road map towards healing. Against the backdrop of the ongoing drug-poisoning epidemic happening in our own backyard, Tailfeathers compassionately crafts one of the most urgent and critical films of this year.
Directed by local filmmakers Sean Horlor and Steve J. Adams, Someone Like Me, follows a group of strangers from Vancouver’s queer community who unite under the banner of Rainbow Refugee, a non-profit that connects LGBTQ+ asylum claimants with sponsors. This special presentation will mark the eighth edition of DOXA’s Rated Y for Youth program.
Closing out the festival, Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché chronicles the life and story of Poly Styrene, frontwoman of legendary 1970s British punk band X-Ray Spex. The Anglo-Somali musician was also a key inspiration for the riot grrrl and Afropunk movements, introducing the world to a new sound of rebellion.
All Special Presentation films will include a live streaming Q+A during festival dates. Follow DOXA on Facebook for the latest news and announcements.
