Ed Barreveld and Dr. Jules Arita Koostachin will be the recipients of this year’s DOC Institute Honours. They will be recognized with the Rogers-DOC Luminary Award and the DOC Vanguard Award, respectively. The honours will be handed out at the DOC Institute’s annual fête on December 4 hosted by Makayla Walker (Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story) aka Makayla Couture of Canada’s Drag Race.
This year’s DOC Institute Honour were unanimously determined by a jury of their peers from the documentary field. The jurors included Hot Docs interim executive director and last year’s Rogers-DOC Luminary Award winner Janice Dawe, Batata director and 2023 DOC Vanguard winner Noura Kevorkian, and director/producer Sun-Kyung Yi, founder of Documentary Filmmaking Institute at Seneca Polytechnic.
The Rogers-DOC Luminary Award goes to an individual who has notably contributed to and advanced the Canadian documentary community. Barreveld is a veteran producer on the Canadian scene who co-founded the Toronto-based production company Storyline Entertainment in 2000. His credits as producer and executive producer include a track record for bolstering emerging talents, including directors who’ve gone on to be shortlisted and nominated for Oscars, and developing opportunities for co-production.
Barreveld’s body of work as a producer includes Aftermath: The Remnants of War (2001); the Gemini Award wines Shipbreakers (2004) and Tiger Spirit (2009); The World Before Her (2012), which won Best Canadian Feature at Hot Docs; the Canadian Screen Award winning The Real Inglorious Bastards (2013); the Emmy-winning Herman’s House (2014); the Oscar-shortlisted short doc Frame 394 (2017); and The League of Exotique Dancers, which opened Hot Docs 2016. That same year, Barreveld received the Don Haig Award at Hot Docs in recognition for his body of work as a producer and mentor.
Barreveld’s most recent credits include Queen of the Deuce, an archival doc about the matriarch of the New York City adult theatre scene. The film, a Greek-Canadian-American co-production, won Greece’s Oscar equivalent for Best Documentary Feature. His 2023 film Coven screened at Hot Docs and brought witches to the screen long before Wicked reigned at the box office. His latest film, Harkness, about the iconoclast musician, is set to premiere at the Whistler Film Festival.
“I am grateful and proud to be named the 2024 recipient of the DOC Institute’s Luminary Award,” said Barreveld in a statement. “Since the nomination comes from the documentary community, this is an especially meaningful honour.”
“Ed exemplifies the qualities that the Luminary Award seeks to recognize: he truly embodies the creative spirit of the Canadian documentary tradition and has consistently displays generosity in supporting the next generation of doc-makers through his mentorship,” said Dawe in a jury statement. “Ed’s impressive legacy is exemplified not only in award winning films he produced at Storyline but in the documentary work being carried on by younger filmmakers he has nurtured. Those who have worked with Ed shared meaningful stories of his guidance, support and friendship.”
Koostachin, meanwhile, will receive the Vanguard Award, which recognizes a mid-career filmmaker whose work heralds a voice to watch. The filmmaker gained notice for her work behind the camera with last year’s WaaPaKe, a documentary that explored her own family’s confrontation of generational violence caused by residential schools in Canada. WaaPaKe won Best BC Film at the 2023 Vancouver International Film Festival and was nominated for a Director’s Guild of Canada Award.
Koostachin’s 2010 thesis documentary Remembering Inninimowin, produced during her studies at then-Ryerson University’s Documentary Media master’s program, explored the disappearance of language, including Cree. (Koostachin is band member of Attawapiskat First Nation and was raised by her Cree-speaking grandparents.)
The filmmaker received her PhD from the University of British Columbia with a focus on Indigenous documentary and protocols and processes. Her forthcoming documentary feature NiiMisSak: Sisters in Film pays tribute to Indigenous women behind the camera who’ve created space for their stories on screen. The film debuts at the Whistler Film Festival.
“The jury was captivated by the careful and creative approach that Dr. Jules Koostachin brought to her very personal documentary work. Jules embodies the spirit of this award, breaking barriers and reshaping the landscape of documentary filmmaking with her bold vision and unwavering commitment to truth,” said Kevorkian on the jury’s decision. “As a Cree filmmaker, writer, and educator, Jules channels her deep-rooted connection to her culture and heritage into powerful narratives that amplify Indigenous voices and histories. She reminds us that documentaries can do more than document—they can heal, empower, and transform.”
Previous recipients of the Rogers-DOC Luminary Award include Anita Lee, Sylvia D. Hamilton, Anne Pick, Zoe Dirse, Alanis Obomsawin, Chris McDonald, Daniel Cross, Elizabeth Klinck, and POV editor Marc Glassman. Past winners of the Vanguard Award include Nisha Pahuja, Tamara Mariam Dawit, Chelsea McMullan, Millefiore Clarkes, Lisa Jackson, Amar Wala, Victoria Lean, Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, and Brett Story.
