Community Outreach | KDocs, KPU's Official Documentary Film Festival
“Uniting learners through social justice, global citizenship, and creative solution-building”
About
KDocs is KPU’s very own Documentary Film Festival, led by learners and educators from all of KPU’s communities. KDocs contributes to KPU’s engagement of various and varied communities, through documentary screenings and community dialogue, in critical thinking and understanding about ourselves, our communities, and our world.
As a premier event in Metro Vancouver, KDocs celebrates the power of documentary film. Working in partnership with the Vancouver International Film Centre + Vancity Theatre, each KDocs events showcase award-winning documentary films, keynote speakers, filmmakers, panelists, exhibitors, and community members. Participants will engage in lively discussion, debate, and dialogue as they investigate today’s most pressing global issues.
Building strong partnerships in and across KPU’s many communities was (and still is) a foundational goal of KDocs—that is, to be a documentary film festival that is not just faculty-driven with narrow goals, but also student-, staff-, alumni-, and community-driven, with a global-facing, social justice education mission rooted in student engagement. We are extremely proud of the many connections and collaborations KDocs has initiated, built, and deepened, on campus and off. We look forward to further engaging with and on behalf of Kwantlen’s many learners.
As a KDocs board member and the outreach coordinator, I am proud to champion its mission: To engage KPU’s various and varied communities, through documentary screenings and community dialogue, in critical thinking and understanding about ourselves, our communities, and our world.
Vision
To become the leading documentary film festival among Canadian universities, led by learners and educators from all of KPU’s communities in continuing to build a dynamic institution that engages and leads.
History
Founded by KPU instructor Janice Morris, KDocs is KPU’s own documentary film festival. KDocs grew out of the popular documentary film series of the Miss Representation Action Group (MRAG), a KPU-based community of practice co-founded by KPU instructors Janice Morris and Helen Mendes (ret.) that came together in response to KPU's Miss Representation documentary screening and town hall event in January 2012. The Miss Representation Action Group’s mission was to continue the dialogues started at that event, and the MRAG documentary series was just one of the projects that sprang forth. The MRAG documentary series received much acclaim and successfully met its mission to foster an interdisciplinary culture of faculty, staff, student, and public engagement through the viewing and discussion of documentary film. Series events included Pink Ribbons, Inc., Payback (with special guests, Margaret Atwood and Dr. William Rees), Orgasm Inc. (with director Liz Canner), and How to Survive a Plague (with director David France).
With KDocs, we took the film series to the next (and always intended) stage: KPU’s own official documentary film festival. We were thrilled to launch KDocs in partnership with the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) with our inaugural screening of The Price We Pay, with special guest, the film’s director Harold Crooks. This launch event was held during VIFF on October 5, 2014, at the Vancity Theatre with approximately 200 in attendance.
On March 14, 2015, KDocs held its first official film festival. Films included Honor Diaries, Do the Math, and A Dangerous Game, as well as special guests Raheel Raza (featured in Honor Diaries), Bill McKibben (via video, star of Do the Math), and Anthony Baxter (director, A Dangerous Game), respectively. Approximately 300 people attended this inaugural film festival, and feedback was overwhelmingly positive.