reviewvancouver: 2025 DOXA Documentary Film Festiva, John Jane

Have you Heard Judi Singh?

Canada, 2025, dir. Baljit Sangra, 79 minutes

There’s perhaps no greater tragedy than talent unclaimed…It would seem that Judi Singh was born too early for the global acclaim that her talent deserved. Judi was the daughter of Sohan Singh Bhullar, a Punjabi Sikh and Effie Jones, whose father had been a slave in Mississippi. She began singing at Edmonton's famous jazz club the Yardbird Suite at the age of 17, and continued to perform in front of sold-out crowds at the venue throughout the fifties and sixties.

Vancouver based filmmaker Baljit Sangra’s engaging documentary follows her subject to Winnipeg, where she met and married her partner, eventual Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductee Lenny Breau. Alas, Lenny was a gifted musician, but an unreliable husband and father.

Sangra’s film owes a lot to Judi’s daughter, Emily Hughes, who serves as narrator and is seen in conversation with her mother’s friends and contemporaries who obviously adored her. Among the interviewees is fellow Edmontonian, actress Rae Dawn Chong, daughter of Tommy Chong.

While Judi Singh was underappreciated as a songwriter, she collaborated with best in a long career, such as Minnie Ripperton, George Koller and Tommy Banks. Judi passed away in Victoria, B.C, on July 18, 2021, however, her music lives on. You could find the Judi Singh Trio on iTunes and Apple Music.

Mistress Dispeller

China & USA, 2024, Elizabeth Lo, 95 minutes
In Mandarin with English subtitles

Elizabeth Lo’s strange documentary provides an intimate look at China’s booming relationship industry, that has for the last decade indicated an increase in adultery. Of course, China is hardly unique in this very human problem. However, it appears that in China the enigma is gender based. So much so, that it has given rise to a new service – namely mistress dispelling – and yes, it’s a real job.

Just observing the film’s title, one might be forgiven for expecting something libidinous (I did). However, what Elizabeth Lo had in mind is more benign than a typical love triangle. We see that in evidence at the beginning and at the end of the film with the two women central to the story each seen in a hairdressing salon with a Puccini aria heard in the background.

Wang Zhenxi is the eponymous mistress dispeller, essentially hired by real life client Mrs. Li who suspects (with good reason) that her husband is seeing another woman. She obviously still loves her husband, but wants him to stop seeing this “other woman.” To make the whole thing work Ms. Wang must somehow ingratiate herself into the social circle of both Mr. Li and Fei Fei, and do it under false pretenses.

Despite some tediously long takes and subjects who fiercely hold to their privacy, Lo’s film has much to merit it. It’s a cautionary tale – of sorts – and a situation that many ultimately find that someone invariably gets hurt.

Mr. Nobody Against Putin

Czech Republic, 2025, Dir. David Borenstein & Pavel Talankin, 90 minutes
In Russian with English subtitles

In the making of Mr. Nobody Against Putin, Danish-based documentarian Daniel Borenstein worked with educational videographer and student events coordinator Pavel Talankin. Over a two year period Talankin selectively documented the activities of students and staff at the Karabash Primary School #1. It was following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine (which Putin preferred to call a strategic military operation), when the Russian officials suddenly required schools to hold regular so-called patriotic displays to somehow justify its position. Initially, Talankin resigned in protest, but then realized that it could be an opportunity to expose his government’s political propaganda.

Karabash is a small town in Russia’s industrial heartland, roughly 1,500 km east of Moscow that is deservedly known to be one of the most toxic places on the planet. Pavel Talankin, however, had lived there his entire life, and had at one time attended Karabash Primary School as a student.

Over the last couple of years there have been several documentaries about the Ukraine War – mostly seen through a Ukraine lens. David Borenstein’s film does something different. It puts the spotlight on a Russian’s point of view. One that is unafraid to tell the truth.

Bedrock
Canada, 2025, dir. Kinga Michalska, 100 minutes
In Polish with English subtitles

Montreal based Kinga Michalska’s observational documentary investigates Poland from the perspective of people living today on or near sites that are identified with the horror of the Holocaust. Sites, such as the labour camp at Starachowice and the Stutthof concentration camp at Sztutowo where 65,000 people met their fate.

We are introduced to a young couple seemingly on a kayaking vacation in Malkinia who come across the site of the notorious Treblinka death camp where 800,000 victims perished. We witness a family discussion about the Jedwabne pogrom, where local citizens cooperated with German military police (the meaning of the word pogrom can vary depending on the specific incident which may even culminate in a massacres).

Michalska’s film is certainly not for everyone. Both in terms of its harrowing content, but also in the film’s awkward presentation. There is no narrative dialogue. There is (mostly) only benign conversations between locals of, and visitors to the various communities. Michalska has taken video footage from the project cinematographer (Hanna Linkowska), then combined and edited them. However, the result is not always coherent.