As more and more ears hear that DOXA, Vancouver’s Documentary Film Festival, begins this Saturday, those infamous lists of must-sees become even more loaded with excited suggestions. To add to the frenzy that is a film festival, we have compiled another list of DOXA picks, just in case you wanted your list to become longer still. Click for full details, including times and locations.
The National Parks Project The epic beauty of Canada’s national parks is set ablaze by this celebratory film of Parks Canada’s centennial. Filmmakers are paired with a myriad of Canadian musicians from Broken Social Scene to Godspeed You! Black Emperor to The Besnard Lakes and sent to the diverse landscapes that are our national parks. Spanning the mountainous lines of British Columbia to the illuminated grounds of Saskatchewan, the beauty of Canada’s rugged terrain is sure to be made more majestic with echoing Canadian voices.
Allan King’s Early Works Allan King is a master Canadian documentary filmmaker and this unique glimpse into some of his earlier works is sure not only to please but also inspire. As King’s early documentary works dive into such Vancouver issues as logging, skid row and Coal Harbour, early traits of honesty, compassion, and ingenuity slip into each scene, marking the prolific filmmaker King would become.
Welcome to Pine Point Pine Point, a place frozen in time, is unearthed as part book, part film, and part photo album in DOXA’s Interactive Documentary Screening Room. If the price of admission (free!) doesn’t peak interest, then the bittersweet, Micheal Gondry-esque portrayal of a town and community nearly vanquished by time itself surely will.
Lesson Plan One of the most bizarre class experiments to ever take place, this film unravels as a class of 15-year-old students subdivide into informers and bodyguards, guerrilla fighters and power aggressors, and subversive rioters and staunch ideologists all from the simple slogan ‘Strength through Discipline’. As the experiment of group control spirals out of hand, powerful revelations about social control and group dynamics are recounted by the 50-year-old participants in this award-winning documentary.
Darwin Recounting tales from a true ghost town whose past is distant and future unclear, the lives of each individual is woven into a beautiful narrative of regret, hope and understanding. Set to an achingly beautiful score, the haunting images o f a town long gone are striking and startling and become sincere as this distinctive band of California ex-cons, pagans, and miners reflect on isolation, capitalism, and values that determined their alienation.
DOXA Documentary Film Festival
At theatres around Vancouver
May 6– May 15, 2011
Full festival details here.