2024 DOXA Documentary Film Festival

When & Where May 2 - 12, 2024 | Vancouver Playhouse, VIFF Centre, The Cinematheque & SFU Goldcorp Centre + online



Adrianne & the Castle

Canada, 2023, Dir. Shannon Walsh, 87 minutes

The 2024 DOXA Documentary Film Festival choice of Adrianne & the Castle for their opening gala is a surprising one, considering that it barely makes it in a documentary category. It’s much closer to being a bizarre love story with the quixotic couple Alan St. George and Adrianne Blue Wakefield St. George. Full Review


Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story

Canada, 2024, Dir. Michael Mabbott & Lucah Rosenberg-Lee, 99 minutes

Jackie Shane has left the building – forever. At the height of her popularity the enigmatic trail-blazer stepped away from the Saphire Tavern, a popular Jazz club located in the Confederation Life Building in Downtown Toronto and disappeared into oblivion. Full Review

 



Black Box Diaries

Japan, 2024, Dir. Shiori Ito, 103 minutes

In Japanese and English with English subtitles

Black Box Diaries is the procedural documentary version of Japanese journalist Shiori Ito’s autobiographic account of an alleged sexual assault by well known television reporter Noriyuki Yamaguchi who had a personal connection with then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Full Review

 

Red Fever

Canada, 2024, Dir. Neil Diamond & Catherine Bainbridge, 104 minutes

In English and Cree with English subtitles

In this off-beat documentary, Neil Diamond (not the guy who sang ‘Sweet Caroline’) poses the question “Why is the world so fascinated with Native American culture” – he presumably includes Canadian indigenous culture in his rhetorical question. Diamond was born and raised in Waskaganish (f ormerly Fort Rupert) Quebec. Full Review

 


The Real Superstar

France, 2023, Dir. Cédric Dupire, 69 minutes

In Hindi with English subtitles

“The biggest star in the biggest film industry in the world” is how an anonymous speaker describes Amitabh Bachchan in Cédric Dupire’s documentary. Full Review




The Originals

Canada, 2024, Dir. Niall Patric McNeil & Mike McKinley, 45 minutes

Filmmaker Niall McNeil grew up among the Carney community. He remembers vividly the founding members and the performers and designers connected with Carnival during his childhood. It would therefore seem natural (at least to him) that he would return to interview those that nurtured once him – The Originals. Full Review

 



The Movie Man

Canada, 2024, Dir. Matt Finlin, 89 minutes

Keith Stata is the quintessential movie man – no question! He isn’t a producer, or a director or even an actor. However, he has been the owner of the iconic Highlands Cinema in Kinmount, Ontario for the last forty-plus years, in good times and in bad – and there has been some bad times... Full Review




Paramount Pictures

Bob Marley: One Love

USA, 2024, Director Reinaldo Marcus Green, 104 minutes

Release Date Februart 14, 2024

Reviewer John Jane

Reinaldo Marcus Green’s biographical musical drama explores the last decade of the life and legend of Reggae musician Bob Marley. The film also focuses on his youth and his courtship to Rita Marley in flashbacks. The title is derived from the ska song “One Love” by Bob Marley's original group The Wailers from their 1965 debut album. Marley was raised by a single mother in Trench Town, known as one of the most impoverished and violent neighbourhoods in the western world. Full Review