2023 DOXA Documentary Film Festival

WHEN & WHERE May 4 - 14, 2023 | VIFF Centre, The Cinematheque & SFU Goldcorp Centre + online

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Big Fight in Little Chinatown

Canada/USA, 2022, Director Karen Cho, 88 minutes

In English and Cantonese with English subtitles

Chinese-Canadian director Karen Cho’s informative documentary Big Fight in Little Chinatown opens this year’s DOXA, Vancouver's documentary festival. Cho, who was born in Montreal, focuses her lens on four cities with essentially similar problems: Vancouver, Toronto, New York City and her home base Montreal. The film will surely be of interest to Vancouverites and people of Chinese heritage in general across large centres in North America. Full review



Beba

USA, 2021, Director Rebecca Huntt, 79 minutes

Rebecca Huntt, who makes the cover of this year’s DOXA Program Guide, is a proud born and bred New Yorker. When her nickname is the title of her first feature documentary, it doesn’t leave much doubt that it’s an autobiographical work. Except that Huntt goes deeper than what is typical for a cinematic memoire. The thirty-two year old Afro-Latina film-maker takes no prisoners in a brutally honest portrait of not only herself, but her entire family. Full review

La Singla

Spain/Germany, 2022, Director Paloma Zapata, 95 minutes

In Spanish and German with English subtitles

Originally titled En busca de La Singla (In search of La Singla), Paloma Zapata’s fascinating hybrid documentary features the renowned flamenco dancer Antoñita Singla, who came to be known as simply La Singla. Much of the film includes archival black and white film footage of when Singla started dancing as a child in the Barcelona Romani neighbourhood of Somorrostro. Full review

 

We Will Not Fade Away

Ukraine/Poland/France, 2023, Director Alisa Kovalenko, 100 minutes

In Ukrainian with English subtitles

Ukrainian award-winning documentary filmmaker Alisa Kovalenko takes a cynical, yet a simultaneously hopeful look at life in the conflict-ridden Donbas region of Ukraine in her new documentary We Will Not Fade Away. Full review

 

Má Sài Gòn (Mother Saigon)

Canada, 2023, Director Khoa Lê , 100 minutes

In Vietnamese with English subtitles

Paris of the Orient and Uncle Ho Chi Minh are nicknames afforded to Ho Chi Minh City, but apparently many of its ten million residents still affectionately call it Mother Saigon. Full review

 

Anhell69

Columbia/Romania/France/Germany, 2023, Director Theo Montoya, 75 minutes

In Spanish with English subtitles

The curious title comes from the Instagram moniker of Camilo Najar, the director’s anti-hero in his film within a film – a film that was never completed. Colombian director Theo Montoya has to rethink his film-making strategy when his intended protagonist suddenly dies of a heroin overdose. Full review

 

Manufacturing the Threat

Canada, 2023, Director Amy Miller, 85 minutes

In English and French with English subtitles

Manufacturing the Threat is Amy Miller’s engaging exposé into the RCMP’s handling of the so-called Project Souvenir and other such clandestine operations that involve targeting individuals and gathering evidence through suspect methods. Full review

 

Troika

Canada, 2023, Directors Robert Mentov & Karl Kai, 20 minutes

In Ukrainian with English subtitles

There are a number of films making it into the DOXA Film Festival this year that centre on the ongoing invasion of Russia into Ukraine. Troika (Russian word meaning threesome) is a short film that is part of an assemblage of seven films.....Full review

 

Delikado

Philippines, 2022, Director Karl Malakunas, 94 minutes

In Tagalog and English with English subtitles

Karl Malakunas’ eco-documentary Delikado certainly doesn’t pull any punches as it looks for both heroes and villains in Palawan’s, an archipelagic province in the Philippines, war on illegal logging and fishing. El Nido Mayor Nieves Rosento and local lawyer Bobby Chan and his squad of para-enforcers who go about confiscating chainsaws are very much the heroes. Full review