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"We are excited to celebrate 25 festival editions highlighting important, entertaining and relevant documentary films," says Artistic Director Sarah Ouazzani. "This is an important milestone, and we are pleased to share a great program with the Vancouver film community once again this year, including a slate of innovative short films, a diverse range of International and Canadian features, and a thought-provoking and informative series of Industry events."
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DOXA’s Mid-Week Gala presentation, taking place at 7:00pm on May 6 at VIFF Centre, is the BC Premiere of Concrete Turned to Sand, directed by local filmmakers Jessica Johnson and Ryan Ermacora. The film follows oyster farmers on Cortes Island, BC, and observes the shifting intertidal zone under the pressures of ocean warming and acidification. Johnson and Ermacora will also participate in an Industry Panel on May 2 at 3pm at SFU’s World Art Centre.
Still from Saigon Story
DOXA’s Justice Forum is returning for its 16th year, highlighting films that showcase resistance, environmental justice and human rights. Saigon Story: Two Shootings in the Forest Kingdom is the Justice Forum Special Presentation, which will screen at 5:15pm on May 1 at VIFF Centre. The film explores the connection between two families and the famous photograph Saigon Execution. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Kim Nguyen will be in attendance.
The Closing Gala presentation is the BC Premiere of Time and Water, from Oscar-nominated director Sara Dosa, and will take place at 6:30pm May 9 at SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts. The film is a lyrical meditation on climate grief, memory and belonging, centred on writer Andri Snær Magnason. Drawing from Magnason’s home movies and photographs, myths and songs, the film is an intimate and expansive cinematic journey through memory and loss.
Other highlights from this year’s lineup include AMERICAN DOCTOR (Sundance, Hot Docs), Bouchra (TIFF), Traces (Berlinale), Who is Still Alive (Venice, Hot Docs), Steal This Story, Please! (DOC NYC, Hot Docs), Windward (Cinema du réel), Powwow People (TIFF), Alea Jacarandas (Visions du reel), Life After Siham (ACID Cannes), The Sandbox (CPH:DOX, Hot Docs) and The Oldest Person in the World (Sundance, Hot Docs). Local features with filmmakers in attendance include təm kʷaθ nan Namesake, Green Valley, Touching Rocks, In Tyee Country and The Latest News from ‘Deseret,’ as well as the previously mentioned Illustrated Legacies: Graveyard of the Pacific and Concrete Turned to Sand.
DOXA is pleased to present South Korea as the Country of Honour with guest curation by Byungwon Jang, Head Programmer of the DMZ International Documentary Film Festival (DMZ Docs). Jang previously served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Korean film weekly FILM2.0 and worked as a programmer for the Jeonju International Film Festival. Currently, he is active as a film critic and teaches film theory at Chung-Ang University in Seoul. This guest-curated program includes feature films Beyond Now, Nyein (2025) and Untold (2021), and short films The Silent Bearers (2023) and Last May in Theatres (2025). Tying these films together, Byungwon Jang is also contributing an essay, titled No Barriers, No Nations: Transnational Expansion in Contemporary Korean Documentary, to be published in the 2026 DOXA program book.
Returning to the festival this year is DOXA’s Rated Y for Youth–a program of films curated to foster media literacy in youths. The popular paraDOXA program, which spotlights experimental and boundary-pushing documentaries, will return for its second year. In addition, DOXA’s robust industry program will feature panels and masterclasses, as well as a series of free workshops and a surprise screening held in partnership with VPL’s Central Library.
All tickets and festival passes are on sale now at doxafestival.ca. Festival passes include access to all film screenings as well as our Opening and Closing Galas, and Mid-Week Film.
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The entire DOXA Documentary Film Festival Lineup Includes:
FEATURE FILMS:
Bella Sutra (Canada) *film performance
Director: OK Pedersen
Green Valley (Canada)
Director: Morgan Tams
The Latest News from 'Deseret' (Canada)
Director: Christopher Pavsek
Illustrated Legacies: Graveyard of the Pacific (Canada)
Director: Tanner Zurkoski
təm kʷaθ nan - Namesake (Canada)
Director: Evan Adams & Eileen Francis
Concrete Turned to Sand (Canada)
Director: Jessica Johnson, Ryan Ermacora
In Tyee Country (Canada)
Director: Jevan Crittenden & Nate Slaco
Soul of the Foot (Turkey/Canada)
Director: Mustafa Uzuner
致亞歷珊卓 To Alexandra (Canada/USA/China)
Director: Yi Cui
Saigon Story: Two Shootings in the Forest Kingdom (Canada)
Director: Kim Nguyen
There Are No Words (Canada)
Director: Min Sook Lee
Partition / تقسیم (Canada/Lebanon/Palestine)
Director: Diana Allan
Kindergarten (Canada)
Director: Jean-François Caissy
The Sandbox (Canada)
Director: Kenya-Jade Pinto
Puntos de fuga (Vanishing Points) (Canada, Colombia)
Director: Lina Rodriguez
Untold (South Korea)
Director: Bora Lee-Kil
Bouchra (Italy, Morocco, United States)
Director: Orian Barki, Meriem Bennani
Time and Water (USA, Iceland)
Director: Sara Dosa
Powwow People (USA)
Director: Sky Hopinka
Beyond Now, Nyein (South Korea)
Director: Lim Daecheong
Life After Siham (France, Egypt)
Director: Namir Abdel Messeeh
Under the Red Roof (Japan)
Director: Yushi Nagamatsu
Enough is Enough (France & Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Director: Elisé Sawasawa
Remake (USA)
Director: Ross McElwee
AND THE FISH FLY ABOVE OUR HEADS و الأسماك تطير فوق رؤوسنا (Lebanon/France/Saudi-Arabia)
Director: Dima El-Horr
WINDWARD (USA/Canada)
Director: Sharon Lockhart
Replica (Australia/France)
Director: Chouwa Liang
The Life that Will Come/ La vida que Vendrá (Chile/Colombia)
Director: Karin Cuyul
Numakage Public Pool (Japan)
Director: Shingo Ota
What Comes from Sitting in Silence? (France/South Korea/Switzerland/USA)
Director: Sophie Schrago
Alea Jacarandas (Algeria/France)
Director: Hassen Ferhani
Amílcar (Spain/France/Portugal/Cabo Verde/Sweden)
Director: Miguel Eek
AMERICAN DOCTOR (United States/State of Palestine/Malaysia/Qatar)
Director: Poh Si Teng
Ça reste entre nous (Iran)
Director: Maryam Shapoorian
Frío Metal (México)
Director: Clemente Castor
Who is Still Alive (Switzerland/Palestine/France)
Director: Nicolas Wadimoff
Traces (Ukraine/Poland)
Director: Alisa Kovalenko, Marysia Nikitiuk
Steal This Story, Please! (USA/East Timor/Nigeria)
Director: Carl Deal & Tia Lessin
Stories of a Lie (Greece/France)
Director: Olia Verriopoulou
The Oldest Person in the World (USA)
Director: Sam Green
SHORTS & MID-LENGTH FILMS:
Au Hasard (Canada)
Director: Darren Dominique Heroux
Tuktuit : Caribou (Canada)
Director: Lindsay McIntyre
Mirrorpond (Canada)
Director: Christopher Pavsek
The Flower and the Flood (Canada)
Director: Elisa González
BAEA (USA)
Director: Terra Long
Living Containers (Canada/USA)
Director: Kara Hansen
Bubba (Canada)
Director: Kayli Koonar
Touching Rocks (Canada)
Director: Laurence Olivier
Last Evenings on Earth (Canada)
Director: Ralitsa Doncheva
Morning Circle (Canada/United Arab Emirates)
Director: Basma al-Sharif
Momentum (Canada)
Director: Nada El-Omari
TIGERS CAN BE SEEN IN THE RAIN (Colombia/Canada)
Director: Oscar Ruiz Navia
FELT (USA/Spain/Canada)
Director: Blake Williams
Last May in Theaters (Indonesia/South Korea)
Director: Arief Budiman
The Silent Bearers 조용한 선박들 (South Korea)
Director: Yeoreum Jeong
Ndjimu (USA/DRC)
Director: Petna Ndaliko Katondolo
IS GANG STALKING REAL (USA)
Director: Theodore Collatos
Niña Chilapa - Chilapa Girl (Colombia)
Director: Juana Lotero López
Filme-Copacabana (Brazil)
Director: Sofia Leão
Le Meilleur Spectateur de la pièce historique qui se joue sur terre (France)
Director: taleb lachheb
Their Eyes (France)
Director: Nicolas Gourault
As Far As We Imagine (Belgium/Netherlands)
Director: Raouf Moussa
Intersecting Memory ذاكرة متقاطعة (Palestine/France)
Director: Shayma' Awawdeh
Okay Keskidee! Let Me See Inside (UK)
Director: Rhea Storr
Shelly's Leg (USA)
Director: Wes Hurley
Words Fly Back to the Black Earth (USA/China)
Director: Xiao Zhang
an open field (South Africa/ France/ Germany/Ethiopia)
Director: Teboho Edkins
The Phalanx (USA)
Director: Ben Balcom
Buckskin (USA)
Director: Mars Verrone
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