DOXA is proud to welcome filmmakers from Canada and beyond to this year’s festival (Apr 30 - May 10, 2026). Our audiences will have the chance to meet, chat with and learn from each other throughout the festival. Make sure to check-out our Industry events as well as the VPL workshops for further learning tools and resources. Keep reading to learn more about the visiting filmmakers and which screenings will have filmmaker Q&As!
Partition
Sat, May 2nd, 2:00 PM @ The Cinematheque
Sun, May 3rd, 6:00 PM @ The Cinematheque
Diana Allan is a filmmaker and professor of anthropology at McGill University. She is the co-director of the Nakba Archive and holds a Canada Research Chair in the anthropology of living archives. Her films include, So Dear, So Lovely (2018), Terrace of the Sea (2010), and Still Life (2007), and her publications include Voices of the Nakba: A living history of Palestine (2021) and Refugees of the Revolution: Experiences of Palestinian Exile (2014).
致亞歷珊卓 To Alexandra
Fri, May 1st, 8:40 PM @ The Cinematheque
Yi Cui is a Chinese media artist. Her practice is rooted in process and collaboration. She engages time-based forms as a way of listening, thinking, and relating. Through her evolving framework of “Migrating Cinema,” she explores intersections between grassroots filmmaking, expanded cinema, traveling projection, and ancient screen arts such as shadow theatre. For over a decade, Yi has worked closely with communities in Eastern Tibet, supporting local audiovisual creation by herding families, monastic filmmakers, and students. These sustained relationships have deeply shaped her artistic approach, emphasizing situated knowledge, mutual learning, and media-making as a relational, open-ended process. Her work has been presented at exhibitions and festivals including Rotterdam, Images, and Viennale. It has received recognition such as the Grand Prize at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and the Libraries’ Award at Cinéma du Réel, and is held in the audiovisual collection of the Bibliothèque publique d’information at the Centre Pompidou, Paris.
Powwow People
Mon, May 4th, 8:20 PM @ The Cinematheque
Fri, May 8th, 10:00 AM @ SFU - Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema
Sky Hopinka (Bellingham, WA United States 1984) teaches at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (Wisconsin) and the University of Illinois Chicago (Illinois). His work has screened at ImagineNATIVE Media + Arts Festival (Toronto), Ann Arbor Film Festival (Ann Arbor), Wavelengths (Toronto), Sundance (Park City), Projections (New York). His work was a part of the 2016 Wisconsin Triennial (Madison) and the 2017 Whitney Biennial (New York). Lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
WINDWARD
Sat, May 2nd, 6:30 PM @ The Cinematheque
Sharon Lockhart (b. 1964, Norwood, Massachusetts, US) creates installations, photography, film, painting, and sculpture that explore landscapes and those who inhabit them. Her practice is grounded in deep, long-term commitments to her collaborators and subjects. Layered histories and a multifaceted present serve as the foundation for concise, rigorous compositions that delicately interrogate attention and focus. Often undertaking extended projects that result in cycles of interconnected works across media, Lockhart employs a research-intensive approach, immersing herself within communities while building trust and meaningful relationships.
Saigon Story: Two Shootings in the Forest Kingdom
Fri, May 1st, 5:15 PM @ VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Thu, May 7th, 5:30 PM @ SFU - Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema
Kim Nguyen is a writer and Academy Award®-nominated director best known for War Witch (Rebelle, 2012), which follows the harrowing path of a child soldier in an imaginary DRC. The film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars and screened at the Berlin International Film Festival, where lead actress Rachel Mwanza won the Silver Bear for Best Acting. Ngyuyen’s other award-winning features include the multi-Jutra-nominated feature The Marsh (2002, Official Selection, Cameraimage film festival); Truffle (2008, Best Feature, Karlovy Vary’s Fresh Film Festival; Best Directing, Austin’s Fantastic Fest); Two Lovers and a Bear (2016, Director’s Fortnight, Cannes); Eye on Juliet (2017, Best Film, Federation of Film Critics of Europe and the Mediterranean); and The Hummingbird Project (2018, Toronto International Film Festival). Saigon Story is his second feature documentary, following Empire of Scents (2015, Montreal International Documentary Festival).
MODERATOR:
Karen Thảo La (she/her) is a Vietnamese-Canadian artist, cultural producer, and facilitator based on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ Nations. With roots from Sài Gòn to Cà Mau, her community-engaged practice is shaped by collective memory, ancestral folklore, and a childhood dream to create freely. Her work centres on creating accessible artistic experiences and spaces for gathering, connection, and learning. She collaborates with artists, cultural non-profits, and local municipalities to produce work that spans from intimate artistic offerings to large-scale, free public art festivals for all to enjoy. Her latest initiative, Vòng Vòng (“around”), is a periodic, interdisciplinary series of events and community projects weaving themes of identity and cultural exchange between generations. She also co-leads a youth residency at Vancouver’s Roundhouse Community Centre and has facilitated hands-on workshops for children across British Columbia and in Vietnam. Most recently, she led the Gibson Art Museum’s Open Studio Saturdays. She holds a BFA from the University of British Columbia and is committed to ongoing un/learning and embodied practice.
The Sandbox
Sun, May 3rd, 6:15 PM @ VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Mon, May 4th, 6:00 PM @ The Cinematheque
Kenya-Jade Pinto is an Indo-Kenyan-Canadian documentary photographer, filmmaker, and lawyer. She grew up chasing crabs on the Kenyan coast, before moving to Alberta’s foothills as a teen. Her hyphenated worldview informs her work where she focuses on non-fiction and narrative projects that navigate themes of displacement, belonging, and access to justice. Kenya-Jade blends her creative eye with thoughtful precision, and most recently supported Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson as an associate producer on Scarborough – all the way to the Toronto International Film Festival and beyond. Kenya-Jade’s training as a human rights lawyer has deepened her practice as a documentarian on projects like Not Yet Home, Level Justice, and more recently, The Sandbox. She has participated in DOC Institute’s Breakthrough Program as well as HotDocs’ Emerging Filmmaker Program. She’s the filmmaker-in-residence at York University’s Refugee Law Lab, and in 2021, she was named a National Geographic Explorer. She is currently directing her first documentary feature with frequent collaborators, Compy Films. Kenya-Jade is also a member of Women Photograph and Diversify Photo, and holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations as well as a Juris Doctor (cum laude) with a specialization in International law. She is a member in good standing of the Law Society of Ontario.
MODERATOR: 
Darren Byler is an Associate Professor in the School for International Studies at Simon Fraser University whose research focuses on the Uyghur people in China, surveillance technologies and colonial racial capitalism. He is the author of Terror Capitalism: Uyghur Dispossession and Masculinity in a Chinese City, co-winner of the 2023 Gregory Bateson Award from the Society for Cultural Anthropology and the 2023 Margaret Mead Award from the Society for Applied Anthropology. He is also author of In the Camps: China's High-Tech Penal Colony, which investigates the surveillance and internment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, and co-translator of The Backstreets a Uyghur language novel by Perhat Tursun.
Soul of the Foot
Sat, May 2nd, 8:45 PM @ The Cinematheque
Sun, May 3rd, 4:15 PM @ VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
INDUSTRY EVENT: Spotlight on Editing: Mustafa Uzuner
Saturday, May 2, 2026 11:00AM @ SFU - Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre
Mustafa Uzuner is a PhD candidate in Cinema and Media Studies at York University. His research-creation practice explores counter-archives, political memory, and spatial testimony through experimental nonfiction media. His writing has appeared in Screen, e-flux, Senses of Cinema, and Convergence, among others, and his films have screened internationally at IDFA, Berlinale, Venice, NYFF, and TIFF.
Under the Red Roof
Wed, May 6th, 10:00 AM @ SFU - Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema
Thu, May 7th, 6:30 PM @ The Cinematheque
Yushi Nagamatsu (born September 8, 1996) is a Japanese independent filmmaker and founder of monotalk studio Inc., a creative production company dedicated to capturing unspoken human emotions through documentary storytelling. Born in Tokyo and raised across the UAE, Belgium, and South Africa, he graduated from Waseda University, having studied the foundation of filmmaking during an exchange program at NYU. Under the Red Roof is his debut feature documentary.
Numakage Public Pool
Sat, May 2nd, 5:00 PM @ VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Born in Japan in 1985, Shingo Ōta graduated from Waseda University with a degree in humanities and social sciences. His first feature-length documentary The End of the Special Time We Were Allowed (2013) screened at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival and was broadcast in 12 countries. He subsequently directed his first feature film, Fragile (2014), in which he plays the lead role and shines a light on one of Japan's poorest neighbourhoods. The film screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival and subsequently had a national release in Japan in 2019. Since his first stage appearance in Five Days in March presented in Hong Kong in 2010, Shingo Ōta has continued his acting career, often appearing in Toshiki Okada's creations such as Super Premium Soft Double Vanilla Rich presented in Paris as part of the Festival d'Automne in 2015. Since his first theatre production, Ghost Takes a Taxi (2019), Shingo Ōta has cultivated a field that lies between documentary and performance and, through his staging, seeks a way to blur the audience's sensations of expectation.
Shelly’s Leg
Fri, May 1st, 6:00 PM @ The Cinematheque
Wes Hurley was born Vasili Naumenko in Vladivostok, Soviet Union. After immigrating to the US, Hurley studied drama, interdisciplinary arts, and film at the University of Washington. He has written, directed, and produced dozens of award-winning shorts, three feature films, and two seasons of Capitol Hill, a series he created for Huffington Post which was later picked up for television. Hurley is a recipient of the Creative Capital Award, the Seattle Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture Award, City Arts Magazine’s Artist of the Year, and Advocate Magazine’s Person to Watch. His documentary short Little Potato won the Jury Prize at SXSW, along with 27 other awards worldwide. His autobiographical comedy Potato Dreams of America premiered at SXSW 2021 in the Narrative Feature Competition.
Bella Sutra
Thu, Apr 30th, 7:00 PM @ SFU - Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre
O.K. Pedersen is an American artist and filmmaker of Iraqi descent, based in Montreal. As an image-maker, her work revolves around mass media, collective dreaming, the technology of memory, and the future world we are building. Her most recent film, Orchard Station Road (2025), was presented in a solo exhibition at Centre Clark for the MOMENTA Biennial of Contemporary Art in Canada. She holds a Master’s in Photography from Concordia University, and is the 2022–23 recipient of Dazibao’s Jeune tête d’affiche prize.
Illustrated Legacies: Graveyard of the Pacific
Sat, May 2nd, 5:15 PM @ SFU - Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema
Thu, May 7th, 10:00 AM @ SFU - Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema
Tanner Zurkoski is a third-generation Indigenous filmmaker born in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, and raised across Coast Salish and Nuu-chah-nulth territories. Immersed in filmmaking from childhood, he began by logging tapes for his mother, documentary filmmaker Nitanis Desjarlais, whose work documented the frontlines of Indigenous resistance. Storytelling runs deep in his family, shaping Tanner’s commitment to authentic narrative and community-centered filmmaking. He studied film production at York University before writing, directing, and producing the comedy series The Village Green for Canal+. His creative work blends history, animation, and contemporary Indigenous experience, including the short film ʔiiḥtuup (Whale) and his role as animation producer on Kokum and Dot. Tanner continues to develop projects that reflect his values as a filmmaker while contributing to a wide range of productions across documentary, series, and animation.
təm kʷaθ nan Namesake
Sat, May 2nd, 2:45 PM @ SFU - Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema
Sun, May 3rd, 8:50 PM @ VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
MODERATOR: 
Daisy Rosenblum is a settler scholar and Assistant Professor in Critical Indigenous Studies and Anthropology at UBC-Vancouver on Musqueam territory. She co-founded and directs CEDaR Space, a lab for community-led development of relational technologies to support cultural and linguistic continuity. Her partnerships with communities engaged in language reclamation draw on her training and experience as a discourse-functional linguist, an elementary school art teacher, and maker-organizer-advocate of art and community gardens in urban and rural contexts. She has worked closely with Bak̕wa̱mk̓ala and Kwak̓wala language revitalization programs for over fifteen years, as well as with scholars and students from around the world, toward long-term goals of linguistic and territorial sovereignty.
FILMMAKERS:
ƛɛsla Dr. Evan Adams – Director
Physician and actor, Evan Adams is widely known for Smoke Signals, Reservation Dogs, and Bones of Crows. He currently serves with the First Nations Health Authority and the National Circle for Indigenous Medical. Evan previously co-directed the documentary Kla Ah Men: As Far Back as the Story Goes about the Tla’amin Treaty process. In Namesake, he helps guide viewers through history, memory, and present-day conversation.
t̓agəm Eileen Francis – Director
Eileen Francis is a filmmaker and IT technician for the Tla’amin Nation, documenting stories for future generations. A graduate of Capilano University’s Indigenous Independent Digital Filmmaking program and the Powell River Digital Film School, she has worked with APTN and served as a cultural consultant on Bones of Crows. Her short film tiskʷat screened at the 2024 qathet International Film Festival. Eileen’s work is guided by a lifelong commitment to carrying forward the storytelling traditions of her family’s matriarchs.
Claudia Medina is a filmmaker and editor working through her production company EnMedia. She has directed and edited for APTN and creates both documentary and experimental media. Based in the qathet region, her work explores connection, land, and identity. On Namesake, she was involved from the outset, bringing thoughtful storytelling and deep respect for the local and historical nuances of the project.
Sun, May 3rd, 7:40 PM @ SFU - Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema
Sat, May 9th, 5:50 PM @ The Cinematheque
Morgan Tams is a Canadian documentary director and cinematographer with an
interest in the creative intersections of landscape and the humanity within it. His
practice focuses on process-driven projects in remote and challenging locations
around the globe. Traveling by foot with a camera and tripod slung across his back is
his favourite place to be. Immersion in his environment, trust, and sensitivity to the
world around him are his core values as an art maker. His film credits include the
documentaries ‘Green Valley’ (2025) and 'Dear Mr. Dudley' (2021) among others. His
work has screened at festivals internationally, including: Clermont-Ferrand International
Short Film Festival, Big Sky Documentary Festival, RIDM, Festival du Nouveau Cinema
and DOXA.
Wed, May 6th, 7:00 PM @ VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Sat, May 9th, 8:15 PM @ The Cinematheque
In Conversation with Jessica Johnson and Ryan Ermacora
Saturday, May 2, 2026 3:00 PM PDT
Jessica Johnson and Ryan Ermacora are award-winning filmmakers based on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish Tsleil-Waututh nations. Their films investigate the visible and unseen mechanisms through which humans have engraved themselves onto the biosphere. Rooted in a structural approach to filmmaking, their work examines the convergence of labour and landscape. Their films have screened at festivals and cinemas including Cinéma du réel, The Walker Art Center, Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, Open City Documentary Festival, Kassel Dokfest and VIFF.
In Tyee Country
Thu, May 7th, 7:30 PM @ SFU - Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema
Fri, May 8th, 5:45 PM @ SFU - Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema
Jevan Crittenden works as a filmmaker encompasses narrative, documentary, branded content and music videos and is fascinated by people and place
s at the fringe - those who explore new forms and move culture forward.
Nate Slaco is a British Columbia born and raised filmmaker whose work focuses largely on the connections between humans and their environment. Nate works closely with a variety of organizations to help tell the stories of the work they do that benefits the planet. This work has brought him into contact with a variety of compelling stories about how individuals are fighting for corners of the planet and pieces of their culture. Nate recently completed an hour-long documentary 'Moonless Oasis' for CBC produced with the participation of the Rogers Documentary Fund.
Au Hasard
Sun, May 3rd, 8:00 PM @ The Cinematheque
Sun, May 10th, 3:00 PM @ The Cinematheque
Darren Dominique Heroux is a filmmaker working in experimental and hybrid
documentary forms. His practice is grounded in a playful formalism that explores
perception, attention and how meaning is produced under conditions of partial
engagement. Heroux’s films have screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR),
International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Ann Arbor Film Festival, and Festival du
nouveau cinéma, among others.
The Flower and the Flood
Sun, May 3rd, 3:15 PM @ The Cinematheque
Sun, May 10th, 3:00 PM @ The Cinematheque
Elisa González is an artist and filmmaker whose practice is centred with in our
interconnected relationships with the natural world. Working between analogue
experimentation and digital form, process-based making is at the root of her practice.
Elisa’s work has exhibited internationally in film festivals and galleries such as Hotdocs
and Pierre-Francois Ouellette Art Contemporain. She is a recipient of funding awards
from Canada Council for the Arts and the National Film Board of Canada among
others. She holds an MFA in Documentary Media from Toronto Metropolitan University
and a BFA in Photography from Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design. She lives and
works on the traditional territory of the Sḵwx̱ wú7mesh Úxwumixw in western Canada.
Bubba
Fri, May 1st, 8:10 PM @ VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Sun, May 10th, 3:00 PM @ The Cinematheque
Kayli Koonar (she/her) is a filmmaker and artist based out of
‘Vancouver’ and ‘Montreal’. Her work is varied with
experimental approaches in mediums such as animation,
photography and art direction. She is interested in the relations
between people and their environments.
A Cree Approach
Sat, May 9th, 2:30 PM @ SFU - Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema
Tristin Greyeyes, a Two-Spirit Nehiyaw & Anishinaabe visual storyteller. She is a registered member of the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation. Tristin just released her first feature documentary, A Cree Approach. Tristin founded Ācimowin Film Festival, which she hopes will create Indigenous on-screen sector development in Saskatchewan; Treaty 6 Territory. Tristin is determined to empower Indigenous voices across Turtle Island & Globally through the art of film. She has also made it into other film festivals with her shorts. She was an indie film lab instructor for youth groups at Pacific Cinémathèque in Vancouver and documentary mentor at Chokecherry Studios in Saskatoon, SK. Tristin received her Bachelor’s Degree in Motion Picture Arts, 2021. Before she graduated, she helped create the National Indigenous Student Advisory Committee with the Canadian Alliance Associations.
Living Containers (Shorts Program 2: In Earth and Sky)
Fri, May 1st, 6:00 PM @ The Cinematheque
Sun, May 10th, 3:00 PM @ The Cinematheque
Kara Ditte Hansen is an artist who works with film, video, collage and installation. Her films have been screened at such venues as the 13th Seoul Media City Biennale, DOXA Documentary Film Festival, WNDX festival of moving image, e-flux screening room, Prismatic Ground, Vancouver International Film Festival, Gene Siskel Film Center, Milwaukee Underground Film Festival, Cosmic Rays, Light Matter Film Festival, Onion City Film Festival, and Antimatter.
Who Is Still Alive
Tue, May 5th, 5:45 PM @ VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
MODERATOR: 
Arman Kazemi is the co-founder of MENA Film Festival, which he helped co-found in 2019 to platform the work of MENA/SWANA artists from the region and across the diaspora. Arman is a member of the local From the river to the sea collective which since 2023 has advocated for Palestine and Palestinian liberation through film and media. As a journalist his work appears in the Globe and Mail, CBC, the Georgia Straight, while other writing has been published in PRISM International, Inverted Syntax and others.
Nicolas Wadimoff was born in 1964 in Geneva and is a Swiss director, documentary filmmaker and producer. He is the cofounder of Etat d’Urgences, an association managing the cultural centre USINE in Geneve. He has been a guitar player in a rock band, touring around Europe. In 1988 he graduated from UQAM (Université du Québec a Montreal) in communications with a specialization in cinema. Nicolas made his first documentary in 1990. He worked as a film director at Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS) and founded Akka Films, devoted to the development of fiction films and production of documentaries. He has directed more than 20 films, both fiction and documentaries, among them the multi awarded CLANDESTINS (1997), AISHEEN, STILL ALIVE IN GAZA (2010), OPERATION LIBERTAD (2012), SPARTIATES (2014), JEAN ZIEGLER, THE OPTIMISM OF WILLPOWER (2016) and THE APOLLO OF GAZA (2018) which have been shown at major international film festivals such as Berlinale, Festival del film Locarno, Canne’s Director’s Fortnight, etc.