DOXA 2003 Special Events

special events

The Politics of Prison: A Joint Effort Film Night

Co-presented by DOXA, Video In Studios and Joint Effort

Corporate Lockdown & Doing Time
followed by speakers

Thursday, January 22, 2004 at 7 pm
Video In Studios
1965 Main Street

Corporate Lockdown
Sarah Zammit | Canada | 2001 | 22 mins

Corporate Lockdown is a 22 minute documentary examining the role of prisons in society as a private corporation enters into the management of an Ontario adult correctional facility.

"My intention in making Corporate Lockdown was to contribute to the current discussion within the mainstream about the privatization of the first adult correctional facility in Canada. I believe that the debate is misleading; the criminal justice system is clearly not working as per its mandate; to keep communities safer or to rehabilitate offenders – whether it is privately run or publicly operated. Corporate Lockdown takes a deeper look at the real agenda behind the increasingly global prison industrial complex."

Doing Time
Lorna Boschman | Canada | 1991 | 27 mins

This video takes a look at the lives of women who have been locked inside the Canadian prison system. It is the result of a collaboration between four ex-inmates and an artist. Through personal stories, these women explore issues such as poverty, racism and violence against women.

Speakers

We will be looking at the implications of the upcoming BC Liberal government's closure of the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women in March. Women in prison in BC are heading into worse conditions, some heading straight into mens lock ups. Find out more about privatization of Canadian prisons.

past events

The Last Round

Co-presented by DOXA, Hot Docs and DOC Talk.

Monday, October 27th, 2003 at 7 pm
Capitol 6 Theatre, Theatre 6
820 Granville Street

The Last Round
Joseph Blasioli | Canada | 100 mins

This Canadian documentary looks back at the extraordinary events preceding the day that George Chuvalo, a working class boy from Toronto, took on Muhammad Ali at the Maple Leaf Gardens on March 29, 1966 - a watershed in the history of boxing. Fast paced archival images and compelling commentary by eye witnesses bring this dramatic story to life. Two exceptional atheletes battle it out in the turbulent cultural and political climate of the 1960's. Winner of a Special Jury Prize at Hot Docs 2003.

The Damned and the Sacred
Dans, Grozy dans

At the Vancouver International Film Festival. Co-presented with DOXA.

Tuesday October 7 | 2003 | 7:30 pm
Thursday October 9 | 2003 | 3:00 pm
Granville 7 Cinema 1

The Damned and the Sacred (Dans, Grozy dans)
Jos de Putter | Netherlands | 2003 | Color, 35mm | 76 min

From the first frames of Daymmokhk arriving to rehearse in a golden hued, late-summer field, this is a most extraordinary documentary filled with great cinematic beauty. Every frame, edit, format choice and sound has art and purpose. Jos de Putter follows the Youth Dancing Group from Grozny as they prepare for and then tour Western Europe. Troupe leader Ramzan Akhmadov explains that while on tour their task is to "show the world we are normal people," but by the end we may leave convinced these young cultural ambassadors are anything but ordinary. The film reveals their skill, dedication and an extraordinary professionalism, particularly given their youth and the context of the second Chechen war. Theirs is a modest and non-confrontational, but effective way of asserting cultural independence and finding hope for a future in artistic tradition.

Upon winning the Chicago Doc Grand Prix at the First Chicago International Doc Festival, Jos de Putter dedicated the award to the Chechen people. Ramzan and his partner Aliza have made a similar commitment to Chechens by gathering together a company of children dispersed and traumatized by war. Some of the youth were found in refugee camps while others still live in bombed-out homes. The older girls explain that many of their male counterparts are arrested on the pretext of having invalid papers. If their families find out in time they can often buy their sons' freedom with bribes, but as one of the girls puts it, Chechnya is "no place for healthy, normal boys." The juxtaposition of these young dancers against the backdrop of modern warfare is a powerful and much needed corrective to the very limited view of Chechnya offered in our daily news. Filled with superb dancing and music which reaches the soul, this is also the art of documentary at its finest.

Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin

At the Out on Screen Vancouver Queer Film & Video Festival. Curated by DOXA Documentary Film and Video Festival

Thursday August 14 | 2003 | 7:00 pm
Cinemark Tinseltown
Vancouver

Brother Outsider
Nancy Kates and Bennett Singer / USA / 2003 / video / 84 mins

Brother Outsider: The Life Of Bayard Rustin combines rare archival footage with provocative interviews to illuminate the life and work of a forgotten prophet of social change.

If you have never heard of Bayard Rustin, you're not alone. Since his greatest work as a civil rights movement organizer was done mostly behind the scenes, his contributions have largely been reduced to footnotes. This compelling new film by two award-winning filmmakers chronicles Rustin's complex life story - a tale of race, homophobia and struggle.

Early in 1956, Bayard Rustin travelled from New York to Montgomery, Alabama to assist with the boycott of the city's segregated bus system. Upon arriving, he discovered guns inside Martin Luther King Jr.'s house and armed guards posted outside King's doors. Rustin persuaded boycott leaders to adopt complete nonviolence, teaching King about Mohandas Gandhi's vision and strategy of civil disobedience. Rustin helped to mold the younger King into an international symbol of peace and nonviolence, and organized the triumphant 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Yet Rustin was silenced, threatened, beaten, arrested, imprisoned and fired from important leadership positions - sometimes because of his uncompromising political beliefs, but often because he was a gay man in a fiercely homophobic era.

The Documentary Media Society is pleased to present our 2003 DOXA programs, showcasing documentary films and videos from Canada and the world. Click here for the program.

Reel to Real International Film Festival For Youth - Special Documentary Screening

In collaboration with DOXA Documentary Film + Video Festival

TUESDAY MARCH 4 | 2003 | 5:00 pm
at the Roundhouse Community Centre
(Pacific Boulevard & Davie Street)
Vancouver
For information on this program:
www.r2rfestival.org
604-224.6162

The Ball
Orlando Mesquita, Mozambique/South Africa, 5 min

In a small village in Mozambique young boys have found an especially imaginative use for condoms. In Ximanica with English subtitles.

Ochre and Water
Craig Matthew, Jöelle Chesselet

The Himba of Namibia resist a hydroelectric scheme that would flood their pasture and ancestral graves, threatening their way of life as successful nomadic herders.

Deconstructing Supper: A Chef's Journey
Marianne Kaplan (in attendance), Canada, 2002
48:00, documentary

Vancouver chef John Bishop meets with scientists and activists, journalists and farmers in North America, Great Britain, and India to gain a better understanding of genetic engineering and modern food production.

Proudly sponsored by DOXA Documentary Film and Video Festival

Company's Left Town gala screening

at the Planet in Focus Environmental Film Festival

Friday September 27 | 2002 | 8:00 - 10:00pm
The Royal Cinema, 608 College Street. Toronto

DOXA is pleased to co-sponsor a special screening at Toronto's Planet In Focus Environmental Film Festival opening gala. We are especially proud to be a part of presenting a BC film by Vancouver's David Vaisbord at this important Ontario festival.

Vibrant communities once surrounded the abandoned mines and mills that now dot the Canadian landscape. When the companies closed many towns inherited a legacy of pollution, contamination and related health problems. Tonight's gala screening takes us on an epic journey of love, passion, tragedy, greed and resistance that sets off from the complex intersection of community, corporations and contamination.

Britannia Beach
David Vaisbord, Canada, 2002
57:00, video, colour, documentary

The coastal community of Britannia Beach is home to a small and eccentric population of artists, writers, bikers, loggers, burger-store owners, drug dealers, dreamers, the unemployed and a handful of old-timers who stayed on after owners abandoned the local mine in 1974. In this finely crafted documentary, director David Vaisbord takes us on a personal journey from first impressions to a deeper understanding of Britannia's past and the quixotic group of people who are fighting for the place they call home.

Following the screening there will be a talk given by environmentalist broadcaster, and Honorary Patron of Planet in Focus, Dr. David Suzuki.

Co-sponsored by: DOXA Documentary Film and Video Festival, The Nature of Things, and CBC.

Master Class with Colin Low

Friday May 24 | 2002 | 2:00-4:00 pm
Pacific Cinematheque

Presented by The National Film Board of Canada

There are a handful of Canadian filmmakers who can be justly called pioneers in their field. In this extraordinary company must be counted Colin Low. Few Canadian filmmakers have had as long, as varied, and as distinguished a career as the National Film Board of Canada's Colin Low. Although "retired" Colin Low is experimenting with high definition technology in 3D. In his 76th year Colin Low is still on the edge of change, advancing the medium he loves. In a recent interview, he revealed that when he dreams he dreams film.

Moderated by Vancouver documentary filmmaker and Simon Fraser University professor, Colin Browne, the Master Class will address Colin Low's creative process, including his approach to risk and experimentation, illustrated with film clips and references to his work as a documentary filmmaker. A question and answer period will form part of the Master Class.

This event is being presented in collaboration with DOXA Documentary Film and Video Festival and is free of charge and open to the public.

Trembling Before G-d vancouver premiere

Tuesday May 7th | 2002 | 7:30pm
Ridge Theatre at W. 16th and Arbutus, Vancouver, BC
Tix: $10. Avail at VJFF hotline: (604) 723-1461, or in person at Little Sister's Bookstore and The Jewish Community Centre
Info: DOXA (604) 646-3200, VJFF (604) 266-0245 www.vjff.org

DOXA Documentary Film & Video Festival, The Vancouver Jewish Film Festival and The Vancouver Queer Film + Video Festival are very pleased to announce their co-presentation of the intensely powerful and groundbreaking documentary, Trembling Before G-d. Director Sandi Simcha DuBowski will be in attendance.

"...an unforgettable picture." Elvis Mitchell, The New York Times

Trembling Before G-d is an unprecedented feature documentary that shatters assumptions about faith, sexuality, and religious fundamentalism. Built around intimately-told personal stories of Hasidic and Orthodox Jews who are gay or lesbian, the film portrays a group of people who face a profound dilemma - how to reconcile their passionate love of Judaism and the Divine with the Biblical prohibitions that forbid homosexuality. Filmmaker DuBowski tells the following story: "Last July. I wrote about an Orthodox mother who had approached me on the street and asked if I could help her cure her gay son.... Six months later, she brought him to our Tel Aviv Premiere. This mother and son who had never been able to speak about his gayness sat crying through the film, and stood hugging after, saying the movie opened up a line of communication they had not had, and thanked us."

Vividly shot with a courageous few over five years in Brooklyn, Jerusalem, Los Angeles, London, Miami, and San Francisco, Trembling introduces a formerly hidden community -- from the world's first openly gay Orthodox rabbi to closeted, married Hasidic gays and lesbians to those abandoned by religious families. For the first time, this issue has become a live, public debate in Orthodox circles, and the film is both witness and catalyst to this historic moment. In addition to screenings in New York (an unprecedented 4 month run at The Film Forum), London, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Boston, and San Francisco, the film has prompted dialogues hosted by Christian seminaries, Orthodox synagogues, African-American communities, Jewish educational and social service agencies, Muslim communities - plus an Orthodox day school.

Trembling Before G-d has screened around the world, most notably featured in the Sundance Film Festival's Official Selection (2001), and has won numerous awards including Best Documentary at the Berlin Film Festival (2001) and the Mayor's Prize for the Jewish Experience at the Jerusalem Film Festival (2001). We hope you agree that this is a very special Vancouver Premiere. Please do your part to help in the process of Tikkun Olam - the repair of the world.

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Background still from Sisters in Resistance by Maia Weschsler