Co-presented with: Pacific Cinematheque, Cineworks Independent Filmmakers Society, Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design, Moving Images Distribution & Screen Siren Pictures

Join DOXA and others as we proudly co-present "Drawing Out the Demons", David Vaisbord's intimate profile of internationlly acclaimed artist Attila Richard Lukacs. Lukacs' massive figurative paintings, typically of naked men in the threatening guise of neo-Nazi skinheads, gained him notoriety -- and meteoric success -- as the Bad Boy of Canadian Art; further fame would follow in Berlin. But as Vaisbord's troubling and trenchant documentary begins, the enfant terrible artist is no longer such an enfant, and things have gotten pretty terrible indeed. Five years in the making, and featuring appearances from many key figures in the Vancouver art scene, this is a riveting look at fame, fortune and failure in the art world.
David Vaisbord and Attila Richard Lukacs will be in attendance for the April 15th Vancouver premiere.

For ticket information: www.cinematheque.bc.ca, 604-688-FILM

past events

Sunday, April 10, 2005 at 3:00 pm
IN SATMAR CUSTODY
at the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival
Co-presented by DOXA
When a Jewish family leaves Yemen to join an ultra-orthodox Satmar Hassidic sect in New York, they find themselves suffering the ultimate betrayal as their children are confiscated from them. A stirring and disturbing film that is not to be missed.
(For ticket information: 604.488.4300, www.vjff.org)

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Tuesday, March 1st, 2005 at 7:00 pm

WEIRD SEX AND SNOWSHOES: A TREK THROUGH THE CANADIAN CINEMATIC PSYCHE
The Vancouver premiere at Opening Night of the Reel 2 Real International Film Festival for Youth

Co-presented with Moving Pictures: Canadian Films on Tour and Rendez-vous Du Cinema Quebecois et Francophone

Roundhouse Community Centre
(Pacific Blvd & Davie)

Film critic Katherine Monk, director Jill Sharpe, and producer Gabriela Schonback will be in attendance!

For ticket and program information please see the REEL 2 REAL web site: www.r2rfestival.org

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Friday, February 18th, 2005 at 2:30 pm

REFLEXXIONS
at the 7th Annual IMAGeNATION International Aboriginal Film & Video Festival

A program of documentaries about Indigenous identities around the world

Raja Cinemas
639 Commercial Drive

IMAGeNATION is Western Canada's largest Indigenous film festival and runs from February 17th - 20th at the Raja Cinemas.

For ticket and program information check out the festival web site: www.imag-nation.com.

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CELSIUS 5/11
A Fundraiser presented by DOXA

Friday, November 5th, 2004
Doors: 7:30 pm
Live music & film presentation: 9:30 pm
featuring the music of award-winning musician and composer, Stefan Smulovitz, on viola and laptop, accompanying a century-old documentary film.

HERITAGE HALL
3102 Main Street (at 15th)

SILENT AUCTION - lots of amazing items to bid on, including:
concert and theatre tickets, artwork, fine dining, vacation getaways, hair stylists, tattoos, CD packages, private film screenings, festival passes and much, much more....

• Door prizes
• Food
• Refreshments (free drink with admission)
• Great people

Tickets $30.
available at DOXA (call 604-646-3200 for more information)
Videomatica (1855 W. 4th) & Bibliophile Bookshop (2012 Commercial)

Help DOXA raise money for our next documentary festival in May 2005!!

Sponsored by Precision Media & the National Film Board of Canada

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Saturday, May 29th, 2-4 pm, Pacific CinÉmathÈque
Free admission

DOXA Documentary Film & Video Festival presents a forum on:

Activating the Documentary
With moderator Paul Grant (CBC arts reporter) and contributors Alanis Obomsawin, Craig Chivers, and Deblekha Guin (Access to Media Education Society).

As this year’s DOXA festival programming would suggest, documentary filmmakers position themselves in a variety of roles when it comes to tackling social issues. Whether passively observing the unfolding of events or relying upon the hand-held camerawork of activists in the eye of the storm, the filmmaker communicating about social issues constantly negotiates the terrain between observation, editorialising, and activism.

This year’s DOXA festival forum panellists will consider how they position themselves in regards to social issues, what they feel their role is in communicating about these issues, and if/when they feel they’ve entered into the realm of activism. This discussion will also, of course, consider the crucial relationships created between the director and subjects during filming. By discussing life from both sides of the lens, we hope that the audience and panellists will come to share experiences about the hurdles met along the way of social issue filmmaking, along with the possibilities for agency inherent within.

Moderator Paul Grant was born and raised in Vancouver, and grew up watching old movies and WW II documentaries on black and white TV. He worked as a cab driver, logger, pretzel salesman, cook and itinerant musician before hooking up with CBC Radio in 1979. Since then he has worked for CBC in Charlottetown, Regina and since 1985, in Vancouver, where he is the national arts reporter and the host of the long-running jazz show Hot Air.

Alanis Obomsawin has been directing films since 1967 for the National Film Board of Canada out of its Montreal Headquarters. Working mostly in a non-fiction form, Obomsawin has chronicled relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities through a series of uncompromising films such as Incident in Restigouche, Richard Cardinal: Cry From The Diary of a Metis Child and No Address. However, it is her films detailing the 1990 Oka crisis (Kanehsatake and Rocks at Whiskey Trench) that have earned her worldwide acclaim and international attention. Obomsawin is also leading this year’s NFB Master Class at the Pacific Cinematheque, May 28th, 11:30am.

Craig Chiver’s previous credits include co-directing the compelling street-youth story Turning Away for the NFB. His latest NFB film No Place Called Home documents a Canadian family’s search for affordable housing. It recently premiered at Hot Docs in Toronto and will screen at DOXA on May 29th, 4:30pm.

Deblekha Guin took a detour from her Master’s in Communications (SFU) when she began working with a handful of other local Galianoites and committed media activists to invent the Gulf Islands Film and Television school (GIFTS). She ultimately completed her MA and founded the Access to Media Education Society which developed a ground-breaking series of fully-subsidized intensive video programs for a range of socially and economically “disenfranchized” youth.

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Wednesday, May 26, 4-6 pm, Pacific CinÉmathÈque

The Documentary Organization of Canada - BC
In conjunction with DOXA Documentary Film and Video Festival presents:

The Feature Doc
A panel discussion with Bart Simpson, Avi Lewis, Craig Chivers & Velcrow Ripper

Free for DOC members / $8 Non-members
(FREE with ticket to Wed. DOXA screening)

The glory days of the feature documentary are here, or so you might think from the press, accolades, and per-screen averages bandied about in regards to recent films like Bowling for Columbine, The Corporation, and Super Size Me. Documentary filmmakers dream of making a feature doc, being freed from the conventions of television to be able to be more creative, lyrical, or at least comprehensive.

But wait a second. In Canada, anyway, you will still see broadcaster credits at the end of most feature-length documentaries. Are these filmmakers really escaping the system? What kind of new challenges are faced in a feature-length film, from funding to narrative structure? Is it possible to be exclusively a feature documentary filmmaker in today's climate- and if so, how? From new technologies to age-old storytelling techniques, our panelists will discuss their experiences with feature documentary-making and why the form is important to their stories.

Moderator Bart Simpson most recently produced The Corporation, the Canadian feature on Corporate Psychosis that has taken the box office by storm. Bart has worked on such feature docs as A Place Called Chiapas and Juicy Danger Meets Burning Man. Bart currently serves as National Chairperson of the Documentary Organization of Canada.

Avi Lewis is the host of counterSpin, Canada's only nationally televised debate show, now in its third season on CBC Newsworld. He recently took a break from his on-air career to direct his first feature documentary film, The Take, which he and Naomi Klein bring to DOXA's Opening Night Gala. Set in Argentina, it's an emotional story of hope and resistance in the global economy.

Craig Chiver's NFB film No Place Called Home recently premiered at Hot Docs in Toronto and continues its run here at DOXA. He previously co-directed the compelling street-youth story Turning Away, also for the NFB.

Velcrow Ripper is a Genie award winning filmmaker, writer, and sound designer. He has directed over thirty films and videos, both fiction and issue oriented documentary. He is currently directing the feature documentary ScaredSacred.