Five films to see at this year’s DOXA Documentary Film Festival

Still from Co-Creators, one of the docs screening at this year’s DOXA Film Festival.

A Vancouver radical, a Japanese contemporary artist, and autistic Finnish punk musicians are among the people whom audiences at this year’s DOXA Documentary Film Festival will meet.

This year’s DOXA features 93 films (shorts and features). Spotlight series include Press Play and Quietute, about the power of music and the benefits of silence and observation, respectively. Guest curated programs look at the rise of the rightwing and environmental crises facing Tibetan China. are autistic are among the people.

The DOXA Documentary Film Festival runs May 3 –13. For more info on tickets and some of the films, see below.

The Rankin File: Legacy of a Radical—With a municipal election around the corner, this portrait of  Vancouver lawyer, city councilor, and housing activist Harry Rankin couldn’t be more timely. The Rankin File opens the festival on May 3.

Kusama-Infinity—All advance tickets for Infinity Mirrors, Yayoi Kusama’s current mind-blowing exhibition (on until May 27) at the Art Gallery of Ontario “have been booked,” according to the AGO’s website. But you can see what all the hoopla is about in this documentary about the 88-year-old Japanese contemporary artist.

Yayoi Kusama and her famous polka dots.

Punk Voyage—”The four members of the Finnish punk band Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät (PKN) have autism or Down syndrome,” according to the synopsis of this Finland/Denmark/Norway/Sweden co-production. “But that hasn’t stopped them from representing Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest.” They said it.

Belinda—This doc follows Belinda, a young girl of Yenish (an itinerant population in France) descent, as she grows from a “coltish nine-year-old, happily waving at trucks on the street” to “a tough-talking teenager” and young adulthood. According to doxafestival.ca, the film “is a warts-and-all look at prejudice, intolerance, and marginalization in French society through the experience of one young woman.”

Scene from Belinda.

Co-Creators: The Rat Queens Story—Rat Queens is a successful comic book series featuring strong female characters. It’s also created by two men, writer Kurtis Wiebe and artist Roc Upchurch. At the height of the book’s popularity, artist and co-creator Upchurch was arrested for domestic abuse. Vancouver director Lonnie Nadler looks at the story of the men behind the Rat Queens.

DOXA Documentary Film Festival

When: May 3 –13, 2018
Where: The Vancouver Playhouse, VIFF’s Vancity Theatre, The Cinematheque, The Orpheum Annex, Museum of Vancouver, SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts
Tickets: at doxafestival.ca

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