Documentary films take leading role

Documentary films are taking on a new prominence in the Bow Valley this weekend with the introduction of a new film festival.

Building on the strength and popularity of the monthly Reel Time film series, The Banff Centre is hosting its first satellite screening of the Best of Doxa Documentary Film Festival, which is scheduled for Friday to Sunday (Feb. 5-7) at the Margaret Greenham Theatre.

Doxa is a Vancouver-based non-profit organization that provides a forum for independent and innovative documentary films.

Kerry Stauffer, director of Digital Film & Media Production at The Banff Centre, said Monday (Jan. 25) Reel Time is a good example of the appetite for high-quality documentary films in the Bow Valley.

“We saw how loyal the community was; they came out every week and there was satisfaction, there was clapping at the end of the movies, which never happens,” she said.

“As I volunteered for that, I thought part of what Digital Film and Media should have is a curated screening.”

As the Reel Time film series draws from the Toronto International Film Festival, Stauffer wanted to find a western outlet, which led her to Doxa.

To add another dimension to the Banff event, Stauffer has arranged interactive sessions with a number of the filmmakers featured in the Banff showing of Doxa films – some in person and some by Skype.

Stauffer said she hopes to see the Banff screening of Doxa films become an annual event.

“In my mind, it could become an annual event that celebrates film and filmmakers and encourages the art of filmmaking in our community,” she said.

“There’s a great audience that loves that genre of films, love of that content and is looking forward to it. It’s a whole other film out there.”

And one of the areas she wants to build on is the opportunity for audiences to interact with the filmmakers.

Tickets are $10 per film or $8 per film when tickets for two or more films are purchased. The Film Festival Pack is $60.

FRIDAY, FEB. 5, 4:30 P.M. (OPENING RECEPTION

6:30 P.M.)

Club Native (Canada): Following the stories of four women on the Mohawk reserve at Kahnawake, this film explores the exclusionary attitudes – don’t marry or have a child with a white person – that divide the community and others like it across Canada.

Milking the Rhino (USA): Director David E. Simpson takes his camera into Kenya and Namibia, into the heart of the Maasai people, as they navigate the clash between wildlife tourism and community-based conservation.    

SATURDAY, FEB. 6, 2 P.M.

In a Dream (USA): Directed by his youngest son, Jeremiah, this documentary portrait examines the life and work of tormented artist Isaiah Zagar, who over four decades has covered more than 50,000 feet of his south Philadelphia neighbourhood with vibrant mosaics.

Yodok Stories (Norway): Filmmaker Andrzej Fidyk collaborated with Jung Sung San, a North Korean defector trained in his country’s theatrical style. They create and film a large-scale musical based on true tales of the bleak horror of North Korea’s Yodok concentration camp, which houses more than 200,000 men, women and children.

Carmen Meets Borat (The Netherlands): Director Mercedes Stalenhoef tells the story of 17-year-old Carmen, whose family in a remote village in Romania was misled into participating in the film Borat – depicted as primitive caricatures, they were later approached by a lawyer who promised to get them a multi-million-dollar settlement from Twentieth Century Fox.

SUNDAY, FEB. 7, 2 P.M.

Afghan Girls Can Kick (UK / Afghanistan): Made by director Bahareh Hosseini, this film follows the members of the first Afghanistan women’s national football team as they prepare for a tournament in Islamabad, their first game on a real soccer field.

Say My Name (USA / UK): This vibrant, music-filled documentary takes viewers inside the passionate, often misogynistic world of hip hop and R & B, following a group of female emcees on a tour through urban music venues from London to Detroit to L.A.

Mirage of Eldorado (Canada): Director Martin Frigon’s film pits a farming community in the Huasco valley of northern Chile against Canadian mining giants Barrick Gold and Noranda, as they fight over open pit mining operations for a fragile ecosystem in one of the driest regions of the globe.

Upstream Battle (Germany): This film tracks the fight for the Klamath River in northern California and Oregon, one of the continent’s most important salmon spawning grounds, now choked by four hydro-electric dams. Director Ben Kampas captures the struggle between ordinary people and the multinational corporations with interests on the river.