‘Bella Sutra’ Live Cinematic Performance to Open 25th DOXA Documentary Film Festival Lineup

The 25th edition of DOXA Documentary Film Festival is set to return to Vancouver from April 30 to May 10, 2026, showcasing 40 features and 29 short or mid-length films, including 27 Canadian films.

The Opening Gala presentation is the live cinematic performance piece Bella Sutra, directed and narrated by OK Pedersen and accompanied by musicians Eden Glasman and Jakob Tokarczyk. Bella Sutra is a personal essay about life as an innkeeper in Bella Coola, BC. With honesty and levity, the piece reflects on our current communication crisis, the rural/urban philosophical divide, and the myth of progress.

DOXA’s Mid-Week Gala presentation is the BC Premiere of Concrete Turned to Sand, directed by local filmmakers Jessica Johnson and Ryan Ermacora. The film follows oyster farmers on Cortes Island, BC, and observes the shifting intertidal zone under the pressures of ocean warming and acidification.

The Closing Gala presentation is the BC Premiere of Time and Water, from Oscar-nominated director Sara Dosa. The film is a lyrical meditation on climate grief, memory and belonging, centred on writer Andri Snær Magnason. Drawing from Magnason’s home movies and photographs, myths and songs, the film is an intimate and expansive cinematic journey through memory and loss.

DOXA’s Justice Forum, highlighting films that showcase resistance, environmental justice, and human rights, will present Saigon Story: Two Shootings in the Forest Kingdom from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Kim Nguyen. The film explores the connection between two families and the famous photograph Saigon Execution.

Films holding their World Premieres at DOXA 2026 include Under the Red Roof by Yushi Nagamatsu, Illustrated Legacies: Graveyard of the Pacific by Tanner Zurkoski, The Flower and the Flood by Elisa González, and Bubba by Kayli Koonar.

“We are excited to celebrate 25 festival editions highlighting important, entertaining, and relevant documentary films,” says Artistic Director Sarah Ouazzani. “This is an important milestone, and we are pleased to share a great program with the Vancouver film community once again this year, including a slate of innovative short films, a diverse range of International and Canadian features, and a thought-provoking and informative series of Industry events.”

Other highlights from this year’s lineup include American Doctor, Bouchra, Trace, Who is Still Alive, Steal This Story, Please!, Windward, Powwow People, Alea Jacarandas, Life After Siham, The Sandbox, and The Oldest Person in the World.

DOXA presents South Korea as the Country of Honour with guest curation by Byungwon Jang, Head Programmer of the DMZ International Documentary Film Festival (DMZ Docs). This guest-curated program includes feature films Beyond Now, Nyein (2025), and Untold (2021), and short films The Silent Bearers (2023) and Last May in Theatres (2025). Tying these films together, Byungwon Jang is also contributing an essay, titled No Barriers, No Nations: Transnational Expansion in Contemporary Korean Documentary, to be published in the 2026 DOXA program book.

Screenings will take place at SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, The Cinematheque, and VIFF Centre, with industry events held at SFU’s World Art Centre and The Post at 750.

See the 2026 DOXA Documentary Film Festival lineup below:

FEATURE FILMS

Bella Sutra (Canada) *film performance
Director: OK Pedersen

Green Valley (Canada)
Director: Morgan Tams

The Latest News from ‘Deseret’ (Canada)
Director: Christopher Pavsek

Illustrated Legacies: Graveyard of the Pacific (Canada)
Director: Tanner Zurkoski

təm kʷaθ nan – Namesake (Canada)
Director: Evan Adams & Eileen Francis

Concrete Turned to Sand (Canada)
Director: Jessica Johnson, Ryan Ermacora

In Tyee Country (Canada)
Director: Jevan Crittenden & Nate Slaco

Soul of the Foot (Turkey/Canada)
Director: Mustafa Uzuner

致亞歷珊卓 To Alexandra (Canada/USA/China)
Director: Yi Cui

Saigon Story: Two Shootings in the Forest Kingdom (Canada)
Director: Kim Nguyen

There Are No Words (Canada)
Director: Min Sook Lee

Partition / تقسیم (Canada/Lebanon/Palestine)
Director: Diana Allan

Kindergarten (Canada)
Director: Jean-François Caissy

The Sandbox (Canada)
Director: Kenya-Jade Pinto

Puntos de fuga (Vanishing Points) (Canada, Colombia)
Director: Lina Rodriguez

Untold (South Korea)
Director: Bora Lee-Kil

Bouchra (Italy, Morocco, United States)
Director: Orian Barki, Meriem Bennani

Time and Water (USA, Iceland)
Director: Sara Dosa

Powwow People (USA)
Director: Sky Hopinka

Beyond Now, Nyein (South Korea)
Director: Lim Daecheong

Life After Siham (France, Egypt)
Director: Namir Abdel Messeeh

Under the Red Roof (Japan)
Director: Yushi Nagamatsu

Enough is Enough (France & Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Director: Elisé Sawasawa

Remake (USA)
Director: Ross McElwee

AND THE FISH FLY ABOVE OUR HEADS و الأسماك تطير فوق رؤوسنا (Lebanon/France/Saudi-Arabia)
Director: Dima El-Horr

WINDWARD (USA/Canada)
Director: Sharon Lockhart

Replica (Australia/France)
Director: Chouwa Liang

The Life that Will Come/ La vida que Vendrá (Chile/Colombia)
Director: Karin Cuyul

Numakage Public Pool (Japan)
Director: Shingo Ota

What Comes from Sitting in Silence? (France/South Korea/Switzerland/USA)
Director: Sophie Schrago

Alea Jacarandas (Algeria/France)
Director: Hassen Ferhani

Amílcar (Spain/France/Portugal/Cabo Verde/Sweden)
Director: Miguel Eek

AMERICAN DOCTOR (United States/State of Palestine/Malaysia/Qatar)
Director: Poh Si Teng

Ça reste entre nous (Iran)
Director: Maryam Shapoorian

Frío Metal (México)
Director: Clemente Castor

Who is Still Alive (Switzerland/Palestine/France)
Director: Nicolas Wadimoff

Traces (Ukraine/Poland)
Director: Alisa Kovalenko, Marysia Nikitiuk

Steal This Story, Please! (USA/East Timor/Nigeria)
Director: Carl Deal & Tia Lessin

Stories of a Lie (Greece/France)
Director: Olia Verriopoulou

The Oldest Person in the World (USA)
Director: Sam Green

SHORTS & MID-LENGTH FILMS

Au Hasard (Canada)
Director: Darren Dominique Heroux

Tuktuit : Caribou (Canada)
Director: Lindsay McIntyre

Mirrorpond (Canada)
Director: Christopher Pavsek

The Flower and the Flood (Canada)
Director: Elisa González

BAEA (USA)
Director: Terra Long

Living Containers (Canada/USA)
Director: Kara Hansen

Bubba (Canada)
Director: Kayli Koonar

Touching Rocks (Canada)
Director: Laurence Olivier

Last Evenings on Earth (Canada)
Director: Ralitsa Doncheva

Morning Circle (Canada/United Arab Emirates)
Director: Basma al-Sharif

Momentum (Canada)
Director: Nada El-Omari

TIGERS CAN BE SEEN IN THE RAIN (Colombia/Canada)
Director: Oscar Ruiz Navia

FELT (USA/Spain/Canada)
Director: Blake Williams

Last May in Theaters (Indonesia/South Korea)
Director: Arief Budiman

The Silent Bearers 조용한 선박들 (South Korea)
Director: Yeoreum Jeong

Ndjimu (USA/DRC)
Director: Petna Ndaliko Katondolo

IS GANG STALKING REAL (USA)
Director: Theodore Collatos

Niña Chilapa – Chilapa Girl (Colombia)
Director: Juana Lotero López

Filme-Copacabana (Brazil)
Director: Sofia Leão

Le Meilleur Spectateur de la pièce historique qui se joue sur terre (France)
Director: taleb lachheb

Their Eyes (France)
Director: Nicolas Gourault

As Far As We Imagine (Belgium/Netherlands)
Director: Raouf Moussa

Intersecting Memory ذاكرة متقاطعة (Palestine/France)
Director: Shayma’ Awawdeh

Okay Keskidee! Let Me See Inside (UK)
Director: Rhea Storr

Shelly’s Leg (USA)
Director: Wes Hurley

Words Fly Back to the Black Earth (USA/China)
Director: Xiao Zhang

an open field (South Africa/ France/ Germany/Ethiopia)
Director: Teboho Edkins

The Phalanx (USA)
Director: Ben Balcom

Buckskin (USA)
Director: Mars Verrone