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.

Articles

In “Sisters”, Vancouver’s Maria Munro honours the life of her long-lost sibling

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At Vancouver Latin American Film Festival, Mayra Hermosillo discovers empathy on both sides of camera

Mexican actor and first-time feature director reflects on the powers of film to find the universal in the local and reveal new sides of an artist’s personality

Vancouver Latin American Film Festival kicks off with A Loose End on September 10

Writer-director Daniel Hendler’s feature blends elements of noir and comedy to tell the tale of a mild-mannered cop on the run from corrupt colleagues

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Film reviews: Social satire abounds at Visions Ouest and Alliance Française summer screen series

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Lineup opens with cop-on-the-run comedy A Loose End and closes with Vainilla, renowned Mexican actor Mayra Hermosillo’s directorial debut

Vancouver Queer Film Festival unveils 2026 program, slated for September event

Compelling shorts, strong documentaries, and features such as Apolo and Gugu’s World bring forward local and international voices

Summer series of new French-language films kicks off at Alliance Française Vancouver, August 19 and 20

Visions Ouest Productions and the Alliance present true-life sports comedy Le Rêve américain and compelling walking documentary Á pied, with English subtitles

The Dude and many iconic others abide at VIFF Centre’s 90s, Baby!, to August 31

Retro summer series continues with the cult hit The Big Lebowski, a rare big-screen look at the risk-taking Run Lola Run, and more

Laura Crema pays tribute to Jazz on a Summer’s Day star, August 9 at VIFF Live

Local singer puts her own improvisational spice on classic songs in ode to Anita O’Day’s iconic performance in the acclaimed, 1959 Newport Jazz Festival documentary

Maiku Hama trilogy still buzzes with ’90s-era wit, corruption, and cool at The Cinematheque

Hayashi Kaizo’s hard-boiled trio moves from cheerful spoof to disturbing violence in a distinctly Japanese play on old Mickey Spillane stories

At The Cinematheque’s Film Noir 2026, Niagara’s Marilyn Monroe conjures a full-colour femme fatale

Set on the edge of Horseshoe Falls, the stunningly shot crime thriller with the dangerous femme fatale deserves a new look on the big screen

Vancouver Latin American Film Festival unveils program of more than 70 films for event September 10 to 20

Highlights include Argentinian-Uruguayan opener A Loose End, and guest filmmakers Oscar Ruiz Navia and Mayra Hermosillo

VIFF Live announces 2026 program of film screenings, immersive concerts, and “reworlding”

The series includes appearances by Canadian and international artists, including throat-singing duo Silla, composer Kelly Moran, and experimental rock act Xiu Xiu

Unlock serious savings at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival with VIFF+ memberships

Save up to 30 percent on festival packs and passes—and get exclusive access to festival tickets 24 hours before they go on sale to the general public

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Canada Day Animation Jamboree celebrates National Film Board classics, at the Rio Theatre July 1

Oscar-winning Vancouver animator David Fine curates some of his favourite shorts, plus his own Animal Behaviour and Bob’s Birthday

Screenings at The Cinematheque and VIFF Centre bring past and future into focus on National Indigenous Peoples Day, June 21

Ranging from 1970s-era experiments in animation to an urgently current documentary, the offerings delve into the meaning of community and the power of place names

Women outwit Iran’s ban on watching World Cup in Offside, at Deckchair Cinema, June 25

Screened outdoors at Cates Deck, outside The Polygon Gallery, Jafar Panahi’s guerrilla-style 2006 comedy captures the mood of World Cup fever

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B.C. filmmakers create grassroots vision of liberation and risk with phantasmagoric feature Lucid

Amid small miracles, and also tragedies, Deanna Milligan and Ramsey Fendall conjured analogue, ’90s-era strangeness by adopting the spirit of a community art project

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The theatre’s organ was installed in 1927—the same year Alfred Hitchcock released his first thriller, about a Jack the Ripper–esque killer

The Cinematheque hosts Love, Sex, Religion, Death: The Complete Films of Terence Davies, May 21 to June 28

Retrospective unites the late British filmmaker’s feature-length works, including A Quiet Passion and Distant Voices, Still Lives

HAUI’s “Aunt Harriet” draws together fragments of history at rEvolver Festival, May 24

Short film poetically remembers a Black woman from an old photograph

Kunsang Kyirong’s 100 Sunset peers into hidden daily lives of Tibetan-Canadian community

With influences including Hideaki Anno and Alfred Hitchcock, debut feature by Surrey-raised director builds uncanny atmosphere as a quiet young woman points her camera into neighbours’ windows

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Illustrated Legacies: Graveyard of the Pacific wins Nigel Moore Award; And the Fish Fly Above Our Heads و الأسماك تطير فوق رؤوسنا named best feature

The Last One for the Road follows two barflies through the back side of Veneto, at VIFF Centre, to May 14

Down-and-out buddies follow the randomness of life in evocatively shot Italian film by Francesco Sossai

Acclaimed director Sophy Romvari creates emotion-charged family portrait in Blue Heron

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