Diversity is, implausibly, one of the most important values an organization should hold.
Today, so many companies and organizations say they value diversity but how many truly do the work to instill diversity across the board?
Vancouver’s annual DOXA Documentary Film Festival is one organization I believe does diversity the “right way”. Vancouver’s annual DOXA Film Festival features documentaries from around the world.
DOXA believes it is crucial to highlight the adversities Black and Indigenous peoples face in our world today; systemic racism, police brutality, and the conditions of white supremacy that still govern our institutions and ways of being in the world.
“As the impact of COVID continues to be felt, economic uncertainty and increased social isolation has, in many ways, forced people to pay attention to the system injustices around us in more detail. It’s also given us perspective on the importance of having systems in place to support the more vulnerable, distribute resources deliberately, and think collectively/beyond just ourselves.” – DOXA Resources & Actions
One of DOXA’s core principles is to engage with a diversity of curators, filmmakers, academics, and activists to illuminate the intersections of social, economic, and environmental injustice.
DOXA as well encourages all viewers (especially those in a place of racial or economic privilege) to interrogate themselves and learn to feel uncomfortable.
This year, out of the nearly 80 documentaries being shown at the festival, almost a fifth are about the stories of Black and Indigenous people. Another 5 follow the theme of justice reform internationally. Each documentary varies in run-time, from short films to feature documentaries.
DOXA Film Festival 2022 will be the world-premier of Beyond Extinction: Sinixt Resurgence, a feature-length documentary about the strenuous battle the Sinixt Nation has gone through to be recognized as living people after being declared extinct by the Canadian government.
🎥 #DOXA2022 Beyond Extinction: Sinixt Resurgence (@a_kazimi) In the making since 1995, Ali Kazimi’s film is a longform firsthand account of the Sinixt Nation’s battle for recognition, a people previously declared extinct by the Canadian government. ✊ pic.twitter.com/QHXrENH1N9
— DOXA Festival (@DOXAFestival) April 15, 2022
Also being shown at the festival is Dear Jackie, a cinematic letter addressed to the iconic baseball player, Jackie Robinson, who broke barriers for black communities across North America. The documentary is an ode to the people of Montreal’s historically black neighbourhood, Little Burgundy, and paints a picture of the racism and inequality in Quebec.
These films are just a couple of wonderful documentaries with themes of diversity you can watch at the DOXA Film Festival this year.
If you aren’t able to view the documentaries in person, almost every film shown at the 2022 DOXA Film Festival will be available online during the festival.