DOXA Documentary Film Festival launches 23rd annual edition in Vancouver, May 2 to 12

Shannon Walsh’s Adrianne & the Castle (2023) opens the festival’s screenings at the Vancouver Playhouse on May 4

SPONSORED POST BY DOXA Documentary Film Festival

Adrianne & the Castle (2023).

DOXA Documentary Film Festival’s 23rd edition is taking place from May 2 to 12 this year, with screenings held at the Vancouver Playhouse, The Cinematheque, VIFF Centre, and SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts.

The B.C. premiere of director Shannon Walsh’s 2023 documentary Adrianne & the Castle kicks off the festival at the Vancouver Playhouse on May 4 at 7 pm. Inventive and whimsical, Adrianne & the Castle is the true story of Alan St. George—a mascot-maker and artist in rural Illinois—and the ornate castle he built by hand with his beloved wife Adrianne prior to her passing in 2006.

Since Adrianne’s death, Alan has continued to put finishing touches on Havencrest Castle, which now stands as a “temple” dedicated to the couple’s transcendent love. “She really was her own art,” Alan says in the film. His grief threatens to overtake him, but his sorrow connects him to Adrianne’s love, giving him the strength to carry on.

Adrianne & the Castle (2023).

Acclaimed filmmaker Walsh (whose previous projects include 2021’s The Gig Is Up and 2019’s Illusions Of Control) collaborates with Alan to tell his and Adrianne’s fairytale love story through fantastical musical sequences: a reenactment of Alan and Adrianne’s first meeting and Alan’s immediate infatuation; opulent theatrical productions in the castle hallways; dreamy visions of Adrianne in the afterlife, appearing as a bejeweled angel floating in kaleidoscopic light. As he continues his work, Alan grapples with his profound grief, revealing with lucidity and extraordinary candor his struggle to find a way forward without the love of his life.

An additional screening of Adrianne & the Castle runs at the VIFF Centre on May 11 at 1:45 pm, and Walsh will be hosting an industry event at SFU’s Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre on May 6 at 12:30 pm.

Closing the festival at the SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts on May 11 at 7 pm is Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee’s Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story (2024), which follows the mesmerizing journey of trailblazing transgender performer Jackie Shane.

To purchase tickets, browse a film guide, and view a complete festival schedule, visit DOXA’s website.

Post sponsored by DOXA Documentary Film Festival.