The DOXA Film and Video Series ran from March to August 2001.
. . .
The Documentary Media Society marked International Women's Day with the world premiere of Wendy Oberlander´s personal documentary Still (Stille) on Monday, March 12th at Pacific Cinematheque, 1131 Howe Street in Vancouver.
The evening featured two screenings of women´s films and videos, launching the 2001 DOXA Documentary Film & Video Series. This premiere was a joint benefit screening for Jewish Family Service Agency and DOXA DOCUMENTARY FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL. Oberlander was in attendance.
Still
(Stille)
Director: Wendy Oberlander, 2001 (Canada) 25:33, video, B/W
Still (Stille) looks back to the world of assimilated European Jews during the 1930s. Sixty years after the exile, Wendy Oberlander returned with her mother to Berlin - only to find the dissonance of her family´s diaspora playing in real time. Still (Stille) transforms a collection of archival footage into an indelible montage of faces, piecing together the filmmaker´s inheritance of her mother´s story.
An original score by bass clarinettist Lori Freedman, plus sections of improvisations played by Freedman and cellist Peggy Lee, amplifies the gaps between memory and history. Picture, word and music surround each other in a retelling of the endless Jewish story.
Eighty
Layers of Me (that you'll have to survive)
Director: Tricia Creason Valencia, 2000 (US) 11:00, 16 mm film,
color
Who could guess that cheerleaders, maligned as the airheads and sluts of the high school social scene, would grow up to be radical women? This richly textured documentary features interviews with three community leaders intercut with a funny and subversive performance by the X-Cheerleaders, performance artists who cheer about women´s issues. This film gives voice to three spunky women of colour who are determined to improve the lives of people--senior citizens, working women, farmworkers--in their communities.
Resilience
Director: Betty Yu, 1999 (US), 18:00 video, color
Love and labour intersect in this video in which the director documents the impact of sweatshop conditions on her family life. The film follows the lives of Yu, her sister Virginia, and their mother, Sau Kwon, an immigrant from Hong Kong who works in a New York garment factory. Resilience captures Kwan as a passionate leader in the movement against inhumane sweatshop conditions in the United States after joining the Chinese Staff and Workers´ Association, a Chinatown-based workers´ centre. Her courageous spirit has inspired many other workers to stand up and fight the rising tide of exploitation in the community and beyond it.
The
Phonebook
Director: Christine Stewart, 1998(Canada), 10:00, video
A bitingly funny commentary on women´s lost identity and their "maiden" names.
. . .
May Screenings: May 24th and 31st
Doxa
Documentary Film & Video Series
presents
Sadness
and
The Laughing Club of India
Pacific Cinematheque
1131 Howe St.
Thursday, May 24th
Repeat screenings
at 7:30 + 9:30 p.m.
Tickets $8.00 at the door.
The Documentary Media Society is pleased to present two films during Asian Heritage Month as part of our 2001 DOXA Documentary Film & Video Series.
Sadness
Director: Tony Ayres, 1999 (Australia) 52:00, video
Award-winning
photographer William Yang explores issues of grief, family and identity
in this adaptation of his acclaimed stage performance, Sadness.
Written and directed for the screen by filmmaker Tony Ayres (China
Dolls, The Long Ride), Sadness is a mesmerizing, poetic
montage of storytelling, photography and stylized reenactment, bringing
to life the stories of William Yang’s family and friends. In Sadness,
William Yang embarks on two journeys. The first is a pilgrimage to far
North Queensland to investigate the murder of his uncle Fang Yuen. Along
the way, Yang discovers why his mother was at such pains to deny his Chinese
heritage and assimilate his family into Australian culture.
The second is a journey into grief, in which Yang relates stories of friends
who have died of AIDS. “When I reread my diaries from the early nineties,
I saw that I had been to more wakes than parties. I felt compelled to
tell these stories of my friends, to unburden myself of the things that
I have seen”.
In Sadness, these two threads are delicately and skillfully woven
together to create an elegiac and intensely moving documentary sustained
by William Yang’s presence as compassionate witness.
The
Laughing Club of India
Director: Mira Nair, 1999 (India) 35:00, 16 mm film
Join the
enthusiastic converts to a new alternative health trend that recognizes
and embraces the healing powers of laughter. People from all walks of
life are engaging in spontaneous, uninhibited laughter as a means of reducing
stress and warding off depression. While the movement’s founders
claim that their practices derive from the venerable art of yoga, India’s
laughing clubs reflect an unmistakably modern need to bond with one’s
fellows in an otherwise impersonal society.
Mira Nair is a keen observer of contemporary Indian life. Her deeply textured,
intimate films have given voice to under-represented communities and ideas,
and challenged notions of patriarchy in Indian society. Though widely
known for her feature films including Mississippi Masala (1991)
and Salaam Bombay! (1988), Nair’s documentary films powerfully
and humanely explore issues of culture, identity, and exile.
. . .
Doxa
Documentary Film & Video Series
presents
Hot
from Hot Docs
Pacific Cinematheque
1131 Howe Street
Thursday,
May 31st
Two shows:
7:30 pm and 9:30 pm.
Tickets $8 for single screening, $12 for both. Available at the door.
The Documentary
Media Society is pleased to present Hot from Hot Docs
for its second year in Vancouver. Last May two award-winning Canadian
documentaries from Toronto's Hot
Docs Festival closed the 2000 Doxa Documentary Festival.
This year see more new, compelling non-fiction films from North America's
largest international documentary film festival as part of the 2001
DOXA Documentary Film & Video Series.
Co-sponsored by the Canadian Independent Film Caucus(Vancouver Branch)
and Hot Docs Canadian International
Documentary Festival.
7:30 p.m. - NORDIC SPOTLIGHT
I Remember
Lena Svedberg
Director: Carl Johan De Geer, 1999 (Sweden) 6 min, 35 mm film
A moving
and poetic portrait of a brilliant but troubled young artist.
Hot Docs second place winner for Best International Film.
Cupping
at the Kotiharju Sauna
Directors:
Tahvo Hirvonen & Simo Rista, 1999 (Finland) 6 min, 35 mm film
A look at an age-old Finnish healing practice of bloodletting known as "cupping" at the last wood-heated public sauna in Helsinki.
Vision
Man
Director: William Long, 1998 (Sweden) 51 min, 35 mm film
This stunning
film shot in the icy landscape of northwest Greenland brings to the screen
the warmth, strength and wit of 87-year-old Inuit hunter Utuniarsuak Avike.
Whether looking back on his illustrious hunting feats when traditional
culture flourished or contemplating the changing conditions of contemporary
life, Avike faces each day with humour and wisdom.
HOT DOCS prize for Best Nordic film and winner of 30 international
awards.
9:30 p.m. - NEW CANADIAN DOCUMENTARIES
In
the Shadow of a Saint
Director: Richard Meech, 2000 (Canada) 54 mins, video
Journalist Ken Wiwa is the son of well-known Nigeria writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, executed in 1995, despite worldwide protest, for fighting Nigeria's brutal political dictatorship. In 1999, Ken Wiwa returns to his homeland with a film crew to claim his father's body and carry out a proper burial. In Ken Wiwa's personal struggle to come to terms with a father who forsook his family for political activism, he must reckon with the will of the Ogoni people who revere his father as a martyr and a saint.
Journey
to Little Rock - The Untold Story of Minnijean Brown Trickey
Director: Rob Thompson, 2000 (Canada) 52 mins, video
In 1957, Minnijean Brown Trickey was one of the "Little Rock Nine" - nine black teenagers in Arkansas who defied death threats, the National Guard and the state governor to attend an all-white school. Later moving to rural Ontario, she continued to stand up for equality as an activist, mother and teacher throughout her life. Including footage of Ms. Trickey at age 58 receiving a Congressional Gold Medal from President Bill Clinton, this film celebrates a life marked by courage, commitment and compassion
. . .
Doxa
/ KickstART Celebration of Disability Arts +
Culture
Video In Studios
1965 Main Street
Monday, August 20th
8:00 pm
Tickets at the door only. Sliding scale: $6 - $9
The 2001 DOXA Documentary Film & Video Series wraps up with an evening of compelling and provocative documentaries presented by the Documentary Media Society and co-sponsored by The Society for Disability Arts and Culture and Video In. This event is presented as part of the KickstART Celebration of Disability Arts & Culture.
Disability
Culture Rap
Director: Jerry Smith; Producers: Cheryl Wade & Jerry Smith, 22 minutes
A fresh look at what it means to be disabled in America. Cheryl Marie Wade, the "Queen Mother of Gnarly," guides this fast-paced, bold manifesto, which mixes political satire, spoken word, performance, and visual art to reveal the multiple meanings of disability from the inside out.
Outside
In
Director: Margaret Williams, 15 minutes
This stylish British video offers a playful look at the work of CandoCo Dance Company. Since 1991, Britain's first 'integrated' dance company has built up a reputation for producing challenging and innovative work with some of today's leading choreographers. CanadoCo has garnered rave reviews all over the world - except Vancouver. See the dance company that local dance critic Michael Scott loves to hate!
The
Living Museum
Director: Jessica Yu, 80 minutes
This documentary feature explores the Living Museum, an art community in a New York mental institution. Located at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, the Living Museum is the only facility in the United States entirely devoted to the art of the mentally ill. In this 40,000 square foot installation where every inch of space is treated as canvas, the patients are more than schizophrenics, manic-depressives or psychotics; here, they are artists. The film illuminates the life and work of seven of the Living Museum's artists, and how they manage to "turn their vulnerability into a weapon."
. . .
The DOXA DOCUMENTARY FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL is a biannual event. The next festival is May 22 to 26, 2002.