DOXA Documentary Film Festival
For over 20 years, DOXA Documentary Film Festival has been bringing the best in Canadian and international nonfiction cinema to Vancouver audiences. Its name, DOXA, draws from the Greek word meaning “common belief” or “popular opinion”.
The beloved annual event aims to provoke critical thought, inspire action, and support audiences’ understanding of the world we inhabit, in all of its complexity—just like the world’s best documentaries do. It promotes public engagement and sicource through its public screenings (including those hosted online), workshops, panel discussions, public forums, and youth educational programs.
Networking opportunities are a huge feature of the festival, geared as it is toward filmmakers and other industry professionals. And whether it’s panels, juries, industry events, or ancillary activities, the goal is always artistic excellence, cultural diversity, and gender parity. The fest has made its name for diversity and equity in film programming, of critical importance to the Vancouver arts community and across Turtle Island at large, and has hosted the premieres of films made by Indigenous filmmakers since its inception.
Feature documentary award winners from the past several years show the impressive and diverse range of programming, whether it’s Virunga, the powerful look at Congolese fighting to protect gorilla habitat; The Creators of Universes, an eccentric personal story of a teen and his 97-year-old grandmother as they spend their days making amateur shoot-em-up telenovelas; or Greetings From the Free Forests, the atmospheric study of Slovenian forests that once hid war atrocities.
Several recurring programs are cornerstones of DOXA. Its school-outreach program Rated Y is designed to facilitate intelligent dialogue and critical media literacy for youth. Meanwhile, the Justice Forum facilitates active and critical engagement, creating space for dialogue and sowing seeds for social change, pairing each Justice Forum film with a panel of speakers including filmmakers, experts in the field, academics, and community activists.
The Documentary Media Society presents the festival along with the Vancouver Podcast Festival, out of The Post at 750 office and studio facilities, where it’s a founding member tenant of the 110 Arts Cooperative that manages the arts hub. The society was founded by Kris Anderson in 1998. It operates in a horizontal management structure, with a core group of staff who share directorship collectively instead of an executive director, and was recently certified as a Living Wage Employer
In 2020, DOXA became the first Canadian film festival to hold its event online. As it moves into the future, DOXA will continue to strive to maintain its commitment to grassroots social justice as well as providing a platform for innovative new forms of media presentation, including literary essays, extended discussions, and interactive elements.
