Saigon Story: Two Shootings in the Forest Kingdom topped the winners at this year’s DOXA Documentary Festival. Vancouver’s doc fest made the announcement this weekend via a release. Saigon Story, directed by Kim Nguyen, won the Colin Low Award for Best Canadian Director. The film previously won Best Canadian Feature at Hot Docs for its portrait of two families connected by Eddie Adams’ iconic and controversial “Saigon Execution” photograph from the Vietnam War. The jury praised the documentary for how it “carries a haunting resonance today, illustrating how contemporary conflicts sow seeds of unimaginable consequence for generations to come.” Jean-François Caissy received a special mention for Kindergarten.
Meanwhile, Evan Adams and Eileen Francis won the Vancouver Film Studios Award for Best B.C. Director for Namesake təm kʷaθ nan. The film observes members of the Tla’amin Nation and their allies as they lobby to change the name of neighbouring city Powell City. Morgan Tams received a special mention in the category for Green Valley.
Another B.C. doc picked up a prize with Illustrated Legacies: Graveyard of the Pacific winning the Nigel Moore Award for Youth Programming. The film directed by Tanner Zurkoski uses animation to explore the history of Coast Salish territory and the oral storytelling traditions in the Pacific Northwest that have endured for generations. Chouwa Liang’s Replica received a special mention.
On the international front, Dima El-Horr’s And the Fish Fly Above Our Heads و الأسماك تطير فوق رؤوسنا won Best Feature Documentary. A French/Lebanese/Saudi co-production, the film offers a portrait of men who continue to visit their beloved beach in Beirut as Lebanon finds itself on the brink of war. Ça reste entre nous by Maryam Shapoorian received a special mention.
And the winners featured a tie for the DOXA Short Documentary Award. The prize was jointly awarded to Intersecting Memory ذاكرة متقاطعة , directed by Shayma’ Awawdeh and Tuktuit – Caribou, directed by Lindsay McIntyre. The former interrogates the Second Intifada through the director’s experiences, while the latter offers an experimental consideration of landscapes and memory. DOXA wraps May 10 with an encore presentation of its closing night film Time and Water by Sara Dosa.
