DOXA Documentary Film Festival announces opening and closing night films for 2025 edition
In Aisha’s Story, a Palestinian matriarch uses food for generational healing, while Saints and Warriors follows a Haida basketball team
Aisha’s Story.
A CINEMATIC EXPLORATION of how food can contribute to generational healing will open this year’s DOXA Documentary Film Festival, which takes place from May 1 to 11.
Aisha’s Story by B.C.’s Elizabeth Vibert and Chen Wang follows Palestinian matriarch Aisha, who runs her family’s grain mill in Jordan. She passes down traditional recipes to displaced generations, proving that food is a key part of cultural expression and a vital tool for resistance. The film combines the skillsets of filmmaker-historian Vibert, whose work focuses on food justice within the context of poverty and colonial inequities, and Wang, an internationally award-winning photographer and cinematographer.
Aisha’s Story will screen at the Vancouver Playhouse on May 1 at 7 pm as part of the Opening Gala hosted by Margaret Gallagher of CBC Radio’s North by Northwest; refreshments will be provided.
Saints and Warriors.
The Closing Gala will feature Saints and Warriors by Patrick Shannon (Nang Ḵ’uulas), at the Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema in the SFU Woodward’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts on May 10 at 6:30 pm. For the people of Xaaydaga Gwaay.yaay (Haida Gwaii), basketball serves as an important lesson in leadership, resistance, and cultural preservation. When Indigenous gatherings were banned under colonial rule, basketball became a way to carry Haida traditions from generation to generation.
Shannon, a Haida film director from Skidegate, follows the legendary Skidegate Saints team at the All Native Basketball Tournament during the 2023–24 season. While the players work toward a win, tensions arise and allegiances shift as the fight for Indigenous land rights continues.
Both Saints and Warriors and Aisha’s Story will be nominated for the Colin Low Award for Best Canadian Director and the Vancouver Film Studios Award for Best BC Director at DOXA.
The full DOXA lineup will be announced on April 3. 
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