KDocsFF tickets go on sale January 5, with 25 social-justice documentaries on offer
Festival runs February 22 to 26 at VIFF Centre for its biggest festival yet
A full speaker roster returns to KDocsFF; documentary screenings this year include Wochiigii Lo: End of the Peace (above right) and Unarchived.
KDOCSFF RETURNS TO its first in-person events for the first time since 2020, with its biggest festival to date. The festival is Metro Vancouver’s premier social justice film festival.
KDocsFF will screen 25 films from February 22 to 26 at the Vancouver International Film Centre (Vancity Theatre) in Vancouver. The five-day span makes it the longest-ever in-person KDocsFF, and it’s the first in-theatre rendition of the event since 2020.
Tickets start at $5 per film and are on sale starting January 5. Find the full schedule here, and get a sneak peek the highlight reel below.
The theme of the 2023 KDocsFF is “People. Places. Power.” Thirteen of the films are Canadian.
Some notable figures are scheduled to attend this year’s festival: Carol Todd, the mother of teen Amanda Todd who lost her life due to bullying; Phyllis Jack-Webstad, the creator of Orange Shirt Day; and Dewayne Lee Johnson, who is the subject of one of the films and a successful plaintiff against Monsanto.
Farhana Yamin, international lawyer and the subject of Rebellion, is a keynote speaker at the festival. Alex Winter, the director the YouTube Effect, will also attend. The former actor turned award-winning documentarian is best known for starring in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
Thoughtfully matched double bills include Unarchived and Writing with Fire; The YouTube Effect and Backlash: Misogyny in the Digital Age; The Scattering of Man and Wochiigii Lo: End of the Peace; The Doctrine of Recovery and Returning Home; and The Monopoly of Violence and The Cost of Freedom: Refugee Journalists in Canada. (The double bills feature two films for $8, which includes two keynotes and a joint panel and Q&A.)
Watch for a Latin America theme day on February 23, and an Environment theme day on February 24, both hosted in the Vancity Studio Theatre.
And if you missed them at past fest screenings, Alice Street and Jean Swanson: We Need a New Map are both features that will return this year after much success last year.
Related Articles
Recipients were unveiled during a ceremony at Landmark Cinemas Guildford
Idyllic meditations, sharp investigations, and deeply personal questions arise in our quick takes on Green Valley, The Sandbox, There Are No Words, Numakage Public Pool, and Replica
The musical duo of Simon Dobbs and Jon McGovern found scoring Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1928 film a more daunting prospect than they anticipated
Documentary by Eileen Francis and Evan Adams looks at the Tla’amin Nation’s efforts to change the contentious name of the city of Powell River
Contemplative new work by acclaimed filmmakers Jessica Johnson and Ryan Ermacora explores imperfect balance between an ancient, shifting ecosystem and a Cortes Island community of oyster farmers
In the National Film Board documentary making its local premiere at the DOXA Documentary Film Festival, Canadian director Kim Nguyen traces the repercussions of an execution photo through the decades
“Egg Yolk Custard Bun”, “Ramen Boys”, “It’s Not You”, and the feature Blood Lines contribute to a diverse and often playful program
A reed cutter tries to solve a murder in Academy Award submission for Best Foreign Language Film; plus documentaries and soccer as fest enters second installment
Director OK Pedersen narrates the cine-concert featuring violinist Eden Glasman and pianist Jakub Tokarczyk
Vancouver filmmaker Tristin Greyeyes takes a personal approach to documentary that explores her grandmother’s role in nêhiyawêwin revitalization
Creepy trip into the West Coast woods has been earning praise for its fresh spin on the horror genre
As part of Capture Photography Festival, Dana Claxton, Althea Thauberger, and Stephen Waddell screen the films that shaped them
Vancouver New Music event brings together artists and activists for a roundtable discussion and performances
Running April 30 to May 10, 25th annual event features a South Korean spotlight, Fire of Love director Sara Dosa’s Iceland-set Time and Water, and world premieres Under the Red Roof, Illustrated Legacies: Graveyard of the Pacific, and more
Among the titles nominated across 14 categories are Bikas Ranjan Mishra’s Bayaan, Josias Tschanz’s The Fire in Our Hearts, and more
Local duo Beautiful Violence performs original music for silent film about the titular 15th-century teenage warrior
In South Korean filmmaker Hong Sangsoo’s hazily-shot latest, the viewer becomes increasingly aware that parents are casually interrogating their daughter’s poet boyfriend
B.C. filmmaker Nat Boltt brings scenic, gentle comedy to the Park big screen
Program includes offerings from Suriname, Indonesia, Belgium, and the Netherlands
Presented with the Powell Street Festival Society, Annette Mangaard’s documentary captures the life of the titular Japanese Canadian artist
The film version of Corey Payette’s Indigenous-empowered drag musical has roots in the York Theatre stage
Nettie Wild’s projected and VR-headset works include a mesmerizing three-channel ode to herring migration, the salmon-run-themed Uninterrupted, and “moving paintings”
When an alien invasion threatens a remote town in Nunavut, three teenage girls must save the day
In series at The Cinematheque, vintage home-movie glow of Kyuka: Before Summer’s End and hallucinatory shades of Harvest reveal tension and crisis beneath domestic and communal surfaces
Diane Kurys’s gossipy, subtly performed biopic portrays the last years of a legendary relationship rife with destructive compulsions
Drawing major buzz for the way it plays with genre, the story of a misguided superfan boasts maximalist visual touches, hits of dark humour, and a considerable amount of heart
Vancouver-based Tristin Greyeyes finds inspiration in her grandmother’s story in documentary at GEMFest
Views and feats to inspire, from a Women Mountaineers program at The Cinematheque to the Everest tales of adventure filmmaker Elia Saikaly
At the Rendez-Vous French Film Festival, filmmaker Alexandre Trudeau and star Malia Baker confront anxiety and mortality in the deep freeze of the Prairies
Keeper, Tuner, and Forward join Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie in prizes for Canada’s top movies of the year
