DOXA Documentary Film Festival 2023

DOXA Documentary Film Festival, Western Canada’s largest documentary film festival, returns to present the 22nd edition, screening in theatres May 4- May 14, 2023. DOXA will screen its roster of crucial and thought-provoking documentaries in theatrical venues across the city, bringing filmmakers and audiences together for a communal cinema experience.

DOXA Documentary Film Festival 2023

• When: May 4-14, 2023
• Where: In theatres (SFU Goldcorp Centre, VIFF Centre, The Cinematheque)
  • Online May 15-24, 2023
• Tickets: Available online now
  • General Admission in-person ticket: $15; Student/Seniors/Low-income in-person ticket: $13; Special Presentations: $18; In-theatre 5 Ticket Pack: $65; In-theatre festival pass: $195; $8-10 per individual online ticket

Folks who prefer to view from the comfort of their own homes, a selection of festival films will be available to stream online after festival dates, between May 15 and 24, 2023.

The 22nd annual DOXA Documentary Film Festival program will showcase a total of 39 features and mid-lengths, 25 short films, as well as Industry events and multiple opportunities for filmmakers, audiences and industry professionals to connect.

DOXA is proud to present Karen Cho’s Big Fight in Little Chinatown as this year’s Opening presentation, screening on May 4th at SFU’s Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema. All across the globe, Chinatowns are under threat of disappearing—and along with them, the rich history of communities who fought from the margins for a place to belong. Big Fight in Little Chinatown follows the communities that are fighting to end perpetual gentrification and displacement across North America.

Win Tickets to Opening Night

I’m giving away tickets to the opening screening featuring Big Fight in Little Chinatown, here’s how you can enter to win:

Other Special Presentations include: Kokomo City, directed by D. Smith, which documents the stories of four Black transgender sex workers in New York and Georgia as they share reflections on tangled desires, far-reaching taboos and gender’s many meanings (Justice Forum); King Coal, directed by Elaine McMillion Sheldon, witnessing the daily rituals of life in Appalachia as the cultural roots of the coal industry continue to permeate, even as its economic power wanes (Rated Y for Youth); and Kaveh Nabatian’s Kite Zo A (Leave the Bones), which weaves together ancestral veneration, choreographed dance and interviews to tell a story of fighting back against colonial oppression in Haiti (Closing Gala).

DOXA is very proud to feature three guest-curated programs. Vancouver-based curator, writer and current Director of Artspeak Gallery, Nya Lewis has selected the film Beba (Rebeca Huntt, 2021) for their program, A Radical Pluriverse: Reflections on Black Womanhood on Both Sides of the Lens.

Farah Clémentine Dramani-Issifou, whose research and curatorial work focuses on Afro-diasporic cinema and visual arts, has curated a program of short films called I AM A (WO)MAN: Transatlantic Perspectives on Political Struggles in the 1960s–1970s in Guinea-Bissau, Morocco, the USA and France. These short works highlight the cross-cultural and -continental “struggles for the emancipation of colonized peoples,” and display the collaborative work of filmmakers and labour activists in the fight.

Finally, Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis program titled NORITA: The Mother of All Struggles features Jayson McNamara’s work-in-progress doc, Norita, which examines the life and revolutionary work of Nora Cortiñas, the most famous of the Madres of the Plaza de Mayo—Argentina’s movement of women fighting for justice amidst the country’s rampant political oppression.

Beyond the festival’s cornerstone Justice Forum and Rated Y for Youth programs, DOXA 2023 will include two Spotlight programming streams: DANCE, DANCE OTHERWISE WE ARE LOST and THIN PLACES.

View a list of films from local filmmakers here

Several Canadian filmmakers launch their world premiere at DOXA 2023. Amy Miller’s latest film, Manufacturing the Threat, is a festival highlight: After the arrest and imprisonment of a young Surrey couple, their plot to commit acts of terrorism was revealed to be the work of government agent provocateurs aiming to entrap and create their own “threats.”

Ali Grant’s Not Quite That champions an affecting local story; after finding out she is predisposed to breast cancer, Sarah White—a Jewish woman, mother, and butch lesbian—must decide whether to wait and see what happens, or act fast and have a preventative double mastectomy. These Canadian films and more are exciting titles in DOXA’s 2023 festival program.

Committed to cultivating curiosity and critical thought, DOXA 2023 delivers some of the very best in contemporary documentary cinema over 11 days.