Along with its Spotlight on Troublemakers, the DOXA Documentary Film Festival returns this year with regular programs including French French, Rated Y for Youth, and the Justice Forum, while a special series called Trumped! Now What? takes a well-needed look at where we might want to go next down here on Planet Crazy.

We’ll be offering our take on films from all these programs in the coming weeks, starting right here and now.

The DOXA Documentary Film Festival runs at various venues from next Thursday (May 4) to May 14. See the full program schedule for all 2017's DOXA Documentary Film Festival showtimes.

Movie Notes

DOXA fest announces its 2017 award-winning films

The Feature Documentary prize went to a French film about a transgender woman on a mission to become a horse-being.

Movies Features

DOXA 2017: Tokyo Idols is a J-pop shock doc

In Tokyo Idols, filmmaker Kyoko Miyake finds more to otaku than the creepy worship of teen girls by middle-aged men.

Movies Features

DOXA looks to The Road Forward

First Nations history gets the musical treatment in Marie Clements's inspiring doc.

Movies Features

Mermaids offers break from being human

With transgender rights having crossed over to the mainstream, could transspecies issues be next on the horizon?

Health Features

Local documentary For Dear Life takes a new view of death

When he knew that his time was up, James Pollard made some unusual choices about the legacy he wanted to leave.

Movies Features

DOXA Festival 2017 gets into avant dance

As a new program of shorts demonstrates, dance filmmakers have moved a long way from just shooting a performer moving on-stage.

Movies Features

Mischief makers and rabble-rousers lead the charge at Vancouver's DOXA Documentary Film Festival

In 2017, you could say that DOXA is staring back at itself.

Movie Notes

DOXA 2017 wants to rumble

The annual Documentary Film Festival puts up its dukes with a range of topics including porn, aboriginal rights, body-shaming, and Trump, Trump, Trump.

Movie Reviews

DOXA 2017 review: The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin

Bright and breezy like his writing, this documentary is as much about Armistead Maupin as it is about the LGBT community of his dearly beloved San Francisco.

Movie Reviews

DOXA 2017 review: Ambulance

Documentarian Mohamed Jabaly embeds himself with an ambulance crew during Israel’s assault on Gaza in 2014.

Movie Reviews

DOXA 2017 review: Brasilia: Life After Design

In its own way probably the saddest movie at DOXA, Brasilia plays like a travelogue made by an alien suffering a deep bout of melancholia.

Movie Reviews

DOXA 2017 review: Island Earth

Agribusiness takes a well-deserved hit in Cyrus Sutton’s doc.

Movie Reviews

DOXA 2017 review: The Road Forward

The message is clear: art is a driving force behind reconciliation.

Movie Reviews

DOXA 2017 review: Mermaids

There are mermaid communities out there. It's real.

Movie Reviews

DOXA 2017 review: Vers la Tendresse

Nobody enjoys spending time with the relentlessly self-absorbed, so who is the target audience for Vers la Tendresse?

Movie Reviews

DOXA 2017 review: Vancouver: No Fixed Address

This fascinating doc dissects Vancouver’s housing crisis.

Movie Reviews

DOXA 2017 review: Être Cheval / Horse-Being

A 51-year-old transgender woman named Karen travels to a Florida farm where she’s trained to transform herself into a fetish object.

Movie Reviews

DOXA 2017 review: Quest

The genius of Quest is that—perhaps much like life—you’re never quite sure where it’s going to go.

Movie Reviews

DOXA 2017 review: Unrest

When Jennifer Brea ended up bedridden, her doctors told her that it was all in her head.

Movie Reviews

DOXA 2017 review: Praia

You can learn a lot about a culture by people-watching.