DOXA 2016: Curated Programs
Vancouver, BC / Wed., April 27, 2016 – DOXA is very proud to offer three special curated programs this year, each of which spring from a deeply personal place – be it race, revolution or a retrospective. In addition to their selections, our guest curators also contributed essays to the DOXA program guide that contextualize the work, and give direct and potent voice to the radical and humanist spirit embodied in these films.
Writer/activist Rebecca Carroll’s Black Life Is, Ain’t and Still Rises encompasses three extraordinary films that each examine ideas, perceptions, and construction of race. From Marlon Riggs’s seminal, and final film (Black Is…Black Ain’t), to a new film biography of Maya Angelou (Maya Angelou and Still I Rise), as well as Ava DuVernay’s first documentary This is the Life — these films are fearless, angry, proud, and powerful.
Zeina Zahreddine’s personal take on the bold new wave of Arab cinema emerging out of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt comes directly out of her own experience. This group of films is from a new generation of artists and filmmakers who are making work in the midst of profound cultural and social change. The films in Arab Spring/Arab Fall include Farid Eslam’s Yallah! Underground, Afraa Batou’s Skin and Salim Abu Jabal’s Roshmia.
DOXA’s second iteration of French French includes ten films that run the gamut of subject matter: from cutting edge technology in the service of the world’s most ancient art form in the prehistoric cave of Chauvet Pont d’Arc, to works by new auteurs that contend with the refugee crisis in Europe, and humanity’s devastating environmental impact in China. This year’s edition of French French also includes a retrospective of the work of Claire Simon. Claire was part of DOXA last year with our first selection of French documentaries curated by Thierry Garrel, where she delivered an amazing masterclass. We are extremely happy to welcome Claire back to Vancouver with seven of her most celebrated films. Spanning the length of her career, this selection of work is imbued with enduring compassion, curiosity, and most wonderfully, openness to all of the foibles, joys and pathos of humanity
DOXA Documentary Film Festival runs May 5 –15, 2016. Tickets are available online HERE. For further information, call DOXA at 604.646.3200. DOXA is presented by The Documentary Media society, a Vancouver-based non-profit, charitable society.
