How to Change the World looks at a group of scrappy radicals ‘haunted by the spectre of a dead world.’
DOXA, Vancouver's documentary film festival, will open this year with a film that has deep local resonance: How to Change the World charts the beginnings of Greenpeace in Vancouver by a group of scrappy radicals "haunted by the spectre of a dead world."
The film focuses in particular on the source of that quote: Greenpeace co-founder Bob Hunter, who died in 2005.
Jerry Rothwell's documentary features never-before-seen archival footage and interviews with Mr. Hunter's old colleagues, including Paul Watson and Patrick Moore, as well as narrated sequences of Mr. Hunter's writing.
How to Change the World is one of several films that focus on the environment on this year's DOXA program, which was announced on Thursday.
Robert Alstead's Running on Climate, having its world premiere at the festival, follows Victoria-based climatologist Andrew Weaver on the campaign trail as he runs for the BC Green Party, in the 2013 provincial election, ultimately winning his seat.
Another Canadian film having its world premiere at DOXA is Victoria Lean's After the Last River, which examines the impact of South African mining giant De Beers's move to Canada, as it opened its second Canadian mine in 2008 in Northern Ontario, 90 kilometres upstream from the Attawapiskat First Nation.
There's even some celebrity content: DOXA will screen the world premiere of James Franco's film I Think You're Totally Wrong: A Quarrel, adapted from the book by David Shields and Caleb Powell.
The film (part of the Satire & Subversion series) documents a messy days-long quarrel in the Cascades involving Mr. Shields and Mr. Powell. Mr. Franco gets in on the argument action as well.
Other highlights include the timely world premiere of April Martin and Paul Hill's Cincinnati Goddamn, about the deaths of two unarmed black men at the hands of local law enforcement in Cincinnati in 2001, sparking a city-wide riot; and the Canadian premiere of Austerlitz, Stan Neumann's cinematic adaptation of W.G. Sebald's award-winning novel (part of DOXA's French program).
The festival closes with a tribute to the legendary documentarian Albert Maysles, who died in March, with screenings of Iris, his penultimate film.
DOXA runs April 30 through May 10.
Editor's note: A previous version of this story said the mine featured in the film After the Last River was De Beers's first Canadian mine and that it was located 90 kilometres downstream from the Attawapiskat First Nation. In fact, the mine was the company's second in Canada and it was located upstream of Attawapiskat.
Marsha Lederman