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

The Collaborators brings retrospective of cinematic art to Paul Kyle Gallery, to March 28

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”

Indigenous science-fiction film Slash/Back screens at the Shadbolt Centre, March 27

When an alien invasion threatens a remote town in Nunavut, three teenage girls must save the day

$At Vancouver Greek Film Festival, visual innovation throws light on social fracture$

At Vancouver Greek Film Festival, visual innovation throws light on social fracture

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

Film review: Moi qui t’aimais explores troubled passion between star couple Signoret and Montand

Diane Kurys’s gossipy, subtly performed biopic portrays the last years of a legendary relationship rife with destructive compulsions

Vancouver filmmaker Emma Higgins and actor Kate Hallett upend teen horror in Sweetness

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

A Cree Approach profiles groundbreaking language keeper, March 5 to 8 at VIFF Centre

Vancouver-based Tristin Greyeyes finds inspiration in her grandmother’s story in documentary at GEMFest

Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival scales peaks and paraglides down, February 27 to March 11

Views and feats to inspire, from a Women Mountaineers program at The Cinematheque to the Everest tales of adventure filmmaker Elia Saikaly

Hair of the Bear searches out psychological thrills in a lethal landscape

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

B.C.-made Foreigner and Blue Heron among winners at Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards

Keeper, Tuner, and Forward join Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie in prizes for Canada’s top movies of the year

Film reviews: Thrillers to sci-fi, Rendez-Vous French Film Festival explores genre

Gourou, Dalloway, and a flick inspired by Liliane Bettencourt of the L'Oréal dynasty help launch 32nd annual fest

Sundar Prize Film Festival announces 2026 lineup highlighting Canadian-made titles

Offerings span basketball documentary Saints and Warriors, identity-focused short “One Day This Kid”, and beyond

Emergence: Women in the Storm looks at B.C. communities rebuilding from climate disaster, to March 2

At VIFF Centre, new Velcrow Ripper and Nova Ami documentary finds women leading residents out of wildfire and flood catastrophes, in Lytton, Yarrow, and beyond

VIFF Centre continues screening this year's Oscar-nominated films to March 14

Offerings include features Sirât and Mr. Nobody Against Putin, plus programs for Live Action, Animated, and Documentary shorts

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie time travels to absurd new heights, at the Park Theatre February 13 to 26

Matt Johnson is back with a chaotic, unabashedly Canadian followup to the cult web series

Adopted as a child, filmmaker travels back to Haitian birthplace in Through Her Eyes (À travers tes yeux), February 11

Visions Ouest and Alliance Française present poignant documentary about a woman retracing her roots to a vibrant but deeply troubled country

You’re the Top delivers a “de-lovely” Valentine’s date with Cole Porter

Classic film scholar Michael van den Bos hosts evening that mixes vintage film clips with the jazz sounds of the Laura Crema Sextet

Vancouver arts groups mark Black History Month with film screenings, live music, and more

Artists like Dee Daniels, Brandon Thornhill, and Krystle Dos Santos are performing around the city this February

Ahead of the Family Forward Festival, Ruby Chopstix praises their mom’s unconditional support

In a short documentary, the Vietnamese Canadian queen reflects on becoming the country’s first drag artist-in-residence

All That's Left of You tracks a Palestinian family's intergenerational pain, at VIFF Centre to February 12

Oscar-shortlisted film takes a sweeping, humanistic look at the toll of decades of violence

The Cinematheque spotlights the films of Naruse Mikio with Short Is the Life of a Flower, to February 21

Retrospective closes with the Japanese director’s melancholic final picture, Scattered Clouds

Les Furies rolls out the fun in story of small-town derby team, January 28

Visions Ouest screens raucous tale of women ousted from their Quebec rink and ready for revenge, at Alliance Française

You're the Top! brings the songs of Cole Porter to the Anvil Theatre, February 14

Event hosted by Michael van den Bos features Hollywood film projections and live music by the Laura Crema Sextet

Wrong Husband transports audiences to an ancient Far North, to January 18 at The Cinematheque

Zacharias Kunuk’s latest epic tells a meditative, mystical story of two young lovers separated by fate

The Choral fills story of First World War England with music, opening January 9

Ralph Fiennes plays a choir director in 1916, tasked with performing Edward Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius

Stir Cheat Sheet: 3 movies to catch at the New Spanish Cinema festival, January 9 to 14

A historical adventure about Cervantes and documentaries about a flamenco guitarist and a matador are among the must-sees at the expanded event at the VIFF Centre

Rowdy film captures Quebec’s hugely popular Les Cowboys Fringants in concert, January 8

Screening at Alliance Française and co-presented by Visions Ouest, the documentary of the folk-rockers’ rip-roaring 2023 show was shot less than a year before lead singer’s death

Film review: Resurrection's dream scenarios pay dazzling tribute to a century of motion pictures

At the Cinematheque, Bi Gan creates five chapters, told in vastly different visual styles—from silent-film Expressionism to shadowy noir to neon-lit contemporary

La Venue de l’avenir (Colours of Time) takes a lighthearted trip back to 1895 Paris, at VIFF Centre to January 5

Four relatives converge on an old house, discovering the story of an ancestor who journeyed to the City of Light during the Impressionist era

The Nutcracker at Wethersfield follows New York City Ballet to a wintry estate, to December 28 at VIFF Centre

The Leading Ladies bring to life Duke Ellington’s swingy twist on Tchaikovsky score at December 14 screening

At The Cinematheque, David Lynch retrospective In Dreams delves into Hollywood’s dark side

Legendary director’s groundbreaking movies and TV work create a visual language that reflects on some of film history’s most sinister figures—and mushroom clouds