KDocsFF 2022 seeks truth, inspires change through the power of documentary film
Social-justice issues are in the spotlight at the annual Metro Vancouver festival, which marks its 10th anniversary this year
Among the films being featured at KDocsFF 2022 is Mary Two-Axe Earley: I Am Indian Again, about the subject’s fight against the Government of Canada for revoking her Indian Status because she married a non-Indian.
KDocsFF 2022: Seeking Truth. Waging Change runs online from February 18 to 27.
WE ALL LEARN in different ways, and one of the most powerful forms of education, as seen through Janice Morris’s lens, is documentary film. For the founder and festival director of KDocsFF, Metro Vancouver’s leading social-justice film festival, the presentation of powerful stories that explore pressing social issues is just the starting point. Sparking action is the goal.
“The purpose is to start with creating awareness, and then ideally engagement and community-building,” Morris says in a phone interview with Stir. “I see the kind of depth and breadth of critical thinking that can be born at an event like this. It’s really a microcosm of life: It’s about engaging and learning with a purpose of helping each other.
“I know for a fact that everything comes down to learning, and education doesn’t have to be formal,” she adds. “Learning is the pathway to action, discussion, community building, and engagement. KDocs is really just a big classroom.”
As it marks its 10th year, the fest is celebrating its biggest and most ambitious event yet, with 21 films over 10 days. What began as a single-film night in 2012 turned into an official film festival in 2014, doubling in size and scope for each of its first three years. Viewers get an immersive experience, with in-depth Q&As; access to information and resources on urgent causes; the opportunity to connect with filmmakers, film subjects, activists, advocates, community groups, and educators; and, most importantly, ways to get involved. The aim is to rouse people and spur activism related to a vast range of issues, including housing rights, Indigenous sovereignty, the climate crisis, prison reform, poverty, labour exploitation, the opioid crisis, oppression, and much more. In addition to the festival itself, KDocsFF has given rise to three other engagement streams: a year-round program; a free Community Outreach Program (which organizes screenings and facilitates workshops, town hall meetings, or discussions at schools, community groups, and other organizations); and the KDocs Talks YouTube channel, with videos led by experts in their fields.
Janice Morris, founder and festival director of KDocsFF.
Morris’s long-term vision (along with colleague Greg Chan, KDocsFF director of community outreach and KPU English instructor) is for the festival’s very underpinnings to lay the foundation for the KDocs Institute for Documentary Activism. While many universities have programs related to filmmaking and media studies, none, to her knowledge, have a dedicated focus on documentary activism, which is a burgeoning area of study. “It’s a perfect example of the way education is becoming so much more interdisciplinary,” Morris says. “We envision scholarly and research arms but a program that is community-facing, that has community engagement, that is rooted in the community, driven by community needs and community building.
“We can celebrate good documentary films and the creation of documentary film, but documentary activism is where the film and filmmakers and film subjects are driving activism through their art, through their work. Social-justice issues are tough issues with tough questions and a lot of unhappy endings, but there are so many more potential happy endings by creating opportunities, by giving a voice to someone who needs it, giving a platform to a person or a cause.”
Morris, who’s also an instructor of English in the Faculty of Academic and Career Preparation at KPU, painstakingly narrowed down the 2022 lineup from a total of 450 films. Of note are three special presentations that feature a live Q&A/panel discussion.
Still from The Gig Is Up.
On February 19 at 7 pm, the focus is on labour, with The Gig Is Up showing with Ride Fair and Waging Change. The Gig Is Up looks at the real costs of the platform economy through the lives of people working for companies such as Uber and Amazon. Waging Change shines a light on the growing movement to end the U.S. federal tipped minimum wage of $2.13 for restaurant servers and bartenders and the #MeToo movement’s efforts to end sexual harassment. Ride Fair chronicles three community organizers fighting to regulate Uber and Lyft in Toronto so that the companies operate in the public interest. Joining the conversation are Waging Change director Abby Ginzberg and film subject Saru Jayaraman, who’s president of One Fair Wage and director of Food Labor Research Center; Nikki MG Cole, Waging Change film subject and former national policy director of One Fair Wage; Shannon Walsh, director of The Gig Is Up; Javier Lovera, director of Ride Fair; and Thorben Wieditz, Ride Fair film subject and cofounder of Ride Fair. Javier Lovera, director of Ride Fair, moderates.
Madonna Thunder Hawk (left) and Marcella Gilbert in Warrior Women. Photo courtesy Castle King LLC
On February 25 at 7 pm, the special presentation zeroes in on strong women, featuring Warrior Women, Lupita, and Mary Two-Axe Early: I am Indian Again. Appearing at the live discussion are Warrior Women film subjects Madonna Thunder Hawk and Marcella Gilbert; Lupita director Monica Wise Robles and film subject Guadalupe Vázquez Luna (aka Lupita); and Jodi Calahoo-Stonehouse, film subject of Mary Two-Axe Earley: I Am Indian Again and executive director of Yellowhead Indigenous Education Foundation. The discussion is moderated by Vicki Haynes of KPU’s Indigenous Studies.
Jean Swanson in Jean Swanson: We Need a New Map.
The February 26 special presentation highlights systemic inequality with Alice Street and Jean Swanson: We Need a New Map. In Alice Street, Oakland artists Pancho Peskador, a Chilean studio painter, and Desi Mundo, a Chicago-born aerosol artist, create a four-storey mural in the heart of the city’s downtown, their project becoming a rallying point for the community to protect cultural arts and resist gentrification. Often called the “Canadian Bernie Sanders”, Swanson is a Vancouver city councillor and long-time activist who has built her decades-long career on fighting systems that keep people entrenched in poverty. The post-film chat features Swanson herself; Alice Street director Spencer Wilkinson along with Peskador and Mundo; and Brandon Gabriel, Kwantlen First Nation muralist and mixed-media artist. The moderator is Michael Ma of KPU’s criminology department.
Among the many other standout 2022 titles are The Ants and the Grasshopper—a film 10 years in the making about Anita Chitaya’s global quest to address climate change, gender and racial inequality, and the gaps between the rich and the poor—showing with What About Our Future?, about the Vancouver-based Sustainabiliteens group. The keynote address is by author, educator, and activist Bill McKibben. Elle–Máijá Tailfeathers’s Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy offers an intimate look at the impacts of substance use and the drug-poisoning epidemic in her home of Kainai First Nation in Southern Alberta and the healing that is taking place. Len Pierre is the keynote speaker, the Coast Salish educator, consultant, cultural practitioner, social activist, and traditional knowledge keeper hailing from the Katzie First Nation.
“All creative representation is important, but with film in general, there is something about the power of images, in particular moving images, that stimulates our brains,” Morris says. “As a teacher, I see the effect it can have on someone. When you see the suffering of other people, the oppression of other people, even if you cannot relate to it personally at all, you can’t unsee it. I think most people have a basic level of empathy, and they just may not have the ability or belief that they can do anything about it. My job is to show them otherwise. Doing something about it can start with simple education and awareness. I know that that is at the root of any positive change.”
For the full festival lineup, tickets, and other information, see KDocsFF 2022: Seeking Truth. Waging Change.
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