DOXA Documentary Film Festival announces 2023 award winners

King Coal, We Will Not Fade Away, and Notes on Displacement among the titles honoured

By Gail johnson

King Coal.

RUNNING THROUGH TO May 14, the 2023 DOXA Documentary Film Festival has announced the winners of this year’s competitions.

Elaine McMillion Sheldon’s King Coal is the 2023 winner of the Nigel Moore Award for Youth Programming. “The king in question is the coal industry of Central Appalachia, and its ghost is the industry’s decline, haunting the region through a nostalgia coiled tightly around the land and its people,” the tagline goes. Jurors Olivia Moore, Maya Biderman, Teagan Dobson, and Anna Hetherington praised the film’s hopeful and imaginative approach in a release, calling it “a spectacularly beautiful, deeply moving film that reshapes what we think of as documentary” while offering “nuanced and compassionate insight into a community at the intersection of history and progress”.

The jurors also made special mention and acknowledgement of We Will Not Fade Away. “The very existence of this film, captured at the brink of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the work of filmmaker Alisa Kovalenko, is courageous and defiant,” the panel says. “Showcasing the spirit and determination of youth, it encapsulates the honesty of feeling confined by circumstance and age. It is a film that connects to Nigel’s strong sense of justice and social awareness.”

Khaled Jarrar’s Notes on Displacement is the winner of this year’s DOXA Feature Documentary Award. “Jarrar’s bravery and compassion create a deeply human look at the individuals who find themselves forced to migrate in search of safety,” jurors Dina Al-Kassim, Kent Donguines and Nadia Shihab say.

The jurors also made special mention of Nishtha Jain’s The Golden Thread “for its meditative observation of jute mills and its dignified portrait of the low-wage workers who have laboured in the factories for decades”; and to Theo Montoya’s Anhell69 for its “hypnotic hybrid approach to storytelling and the power it gives to the Queer communities it portrays.”

This year’s Short Documentary Award goes Ritchie Hemphill and Ryan Haché’s compelling and compassionate “Tiny”. Jurors Eva Anandi Brownstein, Kinga Binkowska, and Rylan Friday were moved by the storytelling, well-executed animation, and care that the filmmakers took in crafting the story, with elder Coleen Hemphill’s memories brought to life through sound design and animation.

A special jury mention was given to Nicolas Lachapelle’s “Zug Island” for its striking cinematography, sound design, and humanist lens. This short was “brilliantly executed” in its artful portrayal of human hubris and resilience in a dystopian landscape.

Presented by the Directors Guild of Canada, the Colin Low Award for Best Canadian Director goes to Khoa Lê’s (Má Sài Gòn (Mother Saigon). Jurors Elad Tzadok, Lindsay McIntyre, and Nisha Platzer describe Lê’s “impeccable balance between his powerful and unwavering visual aesthetic, the delicate relationships he built with the community and the empathy he managed to create on screen.”

A special jury mention also goes to Rodrigue Jean and Arnaud Valade for 2012/Through the Heart (2012/Dans le coeur) for bringing to light an ugly and underreported part of Canada’s recent history with a critical eye.

“Tiny”.

Finally, the inaugural Elevate Award, presented by Elevate Inclusion Strategies, goes to Ritchie Hemphill and Ryan Haché for “Tiny”. Jurors Jaewoo Kang, Shasha McArthur, and Soloman Chiniquay praised the film’s innovative use of stop motion animation and the filmmaker’s caring celebration of elder Colleen Hemphill and the lands and waters of Alert Bay.  A special jury mention is given to Notes on Displacement, for “its timely and delicate exploration of the lives of migrant families [that] reminds us of the human beings at the heart of news stories.”

More information is at DOXA.  

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