Media Release

In February, The Banff Centre will host a satellite screening of the best of DOXA, the acclaimed Vancouver-based documentary film festival, bringing in films from the 2009 festival, along with interactive sessions with their directors. A mix of Canadian and international films, the juried and curated festival is dedicated to screening independent and innovative documentary, and promoting documentary film as an art form. Spanning stories from around the globe, DOXA uncovers little-seen stories of culture, history, politics, and social struggles.

The Banff screening, February 5 to 7, will bring in filmmakers including Tracy Deer, director ofClub Native, who grew up on the Mohawk reserve at Kahnawake, and director David E. Simpson, whose film Milking the Rhino explores community-based conservation work in the Maasai region of Africa. Mercedes Stalenhoef, the Netherlands-based director of Carmen Meets Borat, will participate in an audience Q & A session via Skype.

DOXA 2009 films screened in Banff include:

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.

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.

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 misogynist world of hip 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.

The Best of DOXA is a partnership between the DOXA Documentary Film Festival and Film and Media at The Banff Centre.

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• More information on DOXA at The Banff Centre