DOXA Documentary Film Festival 2024

DOXA Documentary Film Festival present its 23rd edition May 2-12, 2024, screening a lineup of thought-provoking documentaries, bringing filmmakers and audiences together around Vancouver. You can enter to win tickets to the mid-week Gala film!

The festival will have 8 World Premieres, 1 International Premiere, 17 North American Premieres, and 8 Canadian Premieres!

DOXA 2024

• Date: May 2 to 12, 2024
• Location: Various Theatre Venues (SFU Goldcorp Centre, VIFF Centre, The Cinematheque, and The Vancouver Playhouse)
• Tickets: $16-$21 for general admission and special presentations
  • Tickets available for purchase online.
  • Tickets available in packs: 5 Ticket pack $70, 10 ticket pack $120
  • Festival pass (excluding Industry Program) $195; Festival pass + Industry Pass $245

The DOXA Documentary Film Festival showcases 48 features and mid-length films, 34 short films, as well as industry events and opportunities for filmmakers, audiences, and industry professionals to connect. View the full program of events online.

This year’s Opening Presentation is Shannon Walsh‘s Adrianne & The Castle on May 4th at the Vancouver Playhouse. Inventive and whimsical, Adrianne & The Castle is the story of Alan St-Georges and the castle he built by hand with his beloved late wife Adrianne, which now stands as a “temple” to their love. Walsh will be speaking about her work as part of the DOXA Industry program on Monday, May 6th in an event co-presented by the Directors Guild of Canada and DOC Northwest, and celebrating the launch of her new book, The Documentary Filmmaker’s Intuition.

DOXA is proud to showcase the World Premiere of nanekawâsis, the latest film from festival alum Conor McNally. George Littlechild, a celebrated and beloved nêhiyaw (Cree) artist, shares his wisdom, perspectives on social issues and his own personal history in this charming and affecting portrait of an artist’s life and work. This Mid-week Gala screening will take place at VIFF Centre on Wednesday, May 8th at 7:45pm (enter to win tickets below).

Additional Canadian filmmakers launching their World Premieres are: Ryan Dickie’s film Tea Creek, which chronicles the Indigenous food sovereignty work of activist Jacob Beaton; and The Originals (directed by Niall Patrick McNeil and Mike McKinlay), about the history of BC’s Caravan Farm Theatre—a legendary outdoor theatre company established in 1978. Short films Cake and Death (William Brown), Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying (Natalie Baird and Toby Gillies), and Twig (Claire Sanford) enjoy world premieres during this year’s festival as well.

DOXA’s Closing Presentation gives pride of place not only to Canadian directors but also to a Canadian music legend. Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee’s Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story is a mesmerizing journey from the R&B of 1950s Nashville to the nightlife of Toronto in the ‘60s that follows trailblazing transgender performer Jackie Shane, as she fearlessly navigates music and life. The film will screen on Saturday, May 11th at SFU’s Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema, following the Closing Awards Ceremony.

DOXA Spotlights and Program Streams

There will also be a guest curated program from Dennis Lim, a New York-based film curator and writer, and beyond the festival’s cornerstone Justice Forum and Rated Y for Youth programs, DOXA 2024 will include four Spotlight programming streams: 

Paint Me a Film, featuring works that engage critically with the camera’s role as both disruptor and co-creator, examining the mediums of film and photography in and of themselves; True Lies, a selection of experimental and hybrid films that blur the lines between narrative and documentary forms; The Devil Stole Our Laughter, which takes its name from a quote by Mexican land defender Isela González Díaz and features films that follow individuals and communities living in the aftermath of change and disruption, as they search for meaning in the landscape; and Children of the Sun, titled after the late Lebanese painter and poet Etel Adnan’s work of the same name, featuring a collection of films from both Lebanon and Palestine, two places which are deeply and historically intertwined.

Enter to Win

I have a pair of tickets to give away to the mid-week gala featuring the World Premiere of nanekawâsis, here’s how you can enter to win:

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