Documentary Activism: How to Launch a Social Justice Film Festival and Outreach Program

As educators, how can we cultivate sites for speaking truth to power that extend beyond our classrooms? Focusing on KDocs Documentary Film Festival and its Outreach Program based at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Vancouver, Canada, this workshop will explore possibilities for establishing a film festival (or special screenings) plus community outreach activities (town halls, doc-making workshops). We will consider best practices and lesson learned from KDocs, which began in 2012 as a special screening of Siebel Newsom's "Miss Representation," an event that featured Margaret Atwood as its keynote speaker, and has since grown to a 4-day film festival in 2018 that welcomed over 1,500 guests, 15 keynote speakers, and 37 panelists.The workshop will allow us to- Identify social justice issues most relevant to our students, colleagues, and institution;- Craft a mandate and mission statement for a starter film festival;- Determine recruitment strategies for keynote speakers and panelists;- Explore partnership opportunities across the disciplines/in the community; and- Map out an initial plan for funding and sustainability.As Paulo Freire says,"I engage in dialogue because I recognize the social and not merely the individualistic character of the process of knowing. In this sense, dialogue presents itself as an indispensable component of the process of both learning and knowing." Join us to discover how documentary activism can be the catalyst for Freire's dialogue -- dialogue that has the power to engage us in critical thinking and understanding about ourselves, our communities, and our world.