Founded by KPU instructor Janice Morris, KDocsFF is KPU’s own documentary film festival.  KDocsFF 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 William Rees), Orgasm Inc. (with director Liz Canner), and How to Survive a Plague (with director David France)

With KDocsFF, we took the film series to the next (and always intended) stage: KPU’s own official documentary film festival. We were thrilled to launch KDocsFF 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, KDocsFF 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.

On February 19 and 20, 2016, KDocsFF held its second annual official documentary film festival.  Films included Drone, The Mask You Live In, Peace Officer, Food Chain$, Ivory Tower, and Fractured Land. Special guests and keynote speakers included Brandon Bryant (star of Drone and Founder, Project Red Hand, via video recording), Michelle Segal (Project Red Hand, for Drone), Luke Bokenfohr (Former Royal Marine Commando, current Vancouver Police Department, for Drone), David Hatfield (Leadership Consultant, for The Mask You Live In), William “Dub” Lawrence (star of Peace Officer), Pablo Godoy (National Representative, UFCW Canada and National Coordinator, Students Against Migrant Exploitation/S.A.M.E., for Food Chain$), Kathy Corrigan (MLA, Burnaby-Deer Lake, and Official Opposition Critic for Advanced Education, for Ivory Tower), and Caleb Behn (star of Fractured Land). Approximately 700 people attended the festival, with a 35% increase in average per-film attendance, and feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

On February 16-19, 2017, KDocsFF held its third annual official documentary film festival. Films included Racing Extinction; How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change; The Pass System; After the Last River; We Call Them Intruders; Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World; Do Not Resist; After Spring; Migrant Dreams; Sonita; Life, Animated; and Wizard Mode. Special guests and keynote speakers included William Rees (Human Ecologist, Ecological Economist, and Professor Emeritus, UBC, for Racing Extinction and How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change), Lekeyten (Kwantlen Nation Elder and Elder-in-Residence, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, for The Pass System and After the Last River), Lisa Monchalin (Professor of Criminology, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, for The Pass System and After the Last River), Alex Williams (Director, The Pass System, for The Pass System and After the Last River), Victoria Lean (Director, After the Last River, for The Pass System and After the Last River), Tamara Herman (Co-director, We Call Them Intruders, for We Call Them Intruders), Susi Porter-Bopp (Co-director, We Call Them Intruders, for We Call Them Intruders), Wade Deisman (Professor of Criminology, for Do Not Resist), Saleem Spindari (Manager, Refugee Settlement Support Projects, Family and Settlement Services, MOSAIC, for After Spring), Min Sook Lee (Director, Migrant Dreams, for Migrant Dreams), Faith Bodnar (Executive Director, Inclusion BC, for Life, Animated and Wizard Mode), Robert Gagno (Star, Wizard Mode, for Wizard Mode), Kathy Gagno (Star, Wizard Mode, for Wizard Mode), Maurizio Gagno (Star, Wizard Mode, for Wizard Mode), Jeff Petry (Co-director, Wizard Mode, for Wizard Mode), and Nathan Drillot (Co-director, Wizard Mode, for Wizard Mode). Over 1200 people attended the festival, which has doubled in size and scope every year!

On February 15-18, 2018, KDocsFF held its fourth annual official documentary film festival. Films included The Caretakers, How to Stop a Pipeline, To the Ends of the Earth, Modified, Solitary: Inside Red Onion State Prison, Death by Design, Vancouver: No Fixed Address, Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS, Birth of a Family, Generation Revolution, Shadow World, Black Code, Workers Voices, and Dolores. Special guests and keynote speakers included Lekeyten (Kwantlen Nation Elder and Elder-in-Residence, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, for The Caretakers, How to Stop a Pipeline, and To the Ends of the Earth), David Goldberg (Director, The Caretakers, for The Caretakers), Gordon Laxer (Political Economist, Author, and Speaker, for To the Ends of the Earth), Aube Giroux (Director, Modified, for Modified), Jay Aubrey (Counsel-Litigation, BC Civil Liberties Association, for Solitary), Stephanie Farrior (Director, Center for Applied Rights; Professor of Law, Center of Applied Human Rights; and USA-Asia Partnerships for Environmental Law Administration, for Death by Design), Charles Wilkinson (Director, Vancouver: No Fixed Address, for Vancouver: No Fixed Address), Jean Swanson (Anti-poverty and Social Justice Activist, for Vancouver: No Fixed Address), Arjun Chowdhury (Associate Professor, Political Science [International Relations], University of British Columbia, for Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS), Raven Sinclair (Professor, Faculty of Social Work, University of Regina; and film director/producer, for Birth of a Family), Cicely Blain (Co-founder, Black Lives Matter-Vancouver; and Founder, Cicely Blain Consulting, for Generation Revolution), Johan Grimonprez (Director, Shadow World, for Shadow World), Andrew Feinstein (Founding Director, Corruption Watch; and Author, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade, for Shadow World), Ron Deibert (Director of the Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto; and Author, Black Code: Inside the Battle for Cyberspace, for Black Code), Chaumtoli Huq (Director, Workers Voices, for Workers Voices), and Pablo Godoy (Regional Director, United Food and Commercial Workers' Union, for Dolores). Over 1500 people and 30 exhibitors were in attendance throughout the four-day festival, our biggest yet!

On February 6, 2019, KDocsFF held its fifth annual festival — our 2019 Spring Mini-Fest. This double-feature showcased the award-winning documentaries RBG and Won’t You Be My Neighbour?  Our special guest and Keynote Speaker for the evening was Ellen Woodsworth, and panelists also included Mebrat Beyene (Executive Director, WISH Drop-In Centre Society), Cicely Blain (Co-founder, Black Lives Matter-Vancouver), Chastity Davis (Chair, Minister’s Advisory Council on Aboriginal Women for the Province of British Columbia), Anita Huberman (CEO, Surrey Board of Trade), Debra Parkes (Professor, UBC, and Chair, Centre for Feminist Legal Studies), and Jinny Sims (MLA, Surrey-Panorama). Over 300 people were in attendance!

On February 20-23, 2020, KDocsFF held its sixth annual official documentary film festival. Films included the feature-length films Inventing Tomorrow, Beyond Climate, Because We Are Girls, Conviction, Toxic Beauty, Killing Patient Zero, nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, Prey, Push, Human Nature, Bellingcat: Truth in a Post-truth World, and The Corporate Coup d’État, as well as the documentary shorts Little Things Matter: The Impact of Toxic Chemicals on the Developing Brain and The Arctic Lion. Special guests and keynote speakers included Lekeyten (Kwantlen Nation Elder and Elder-in-Residence, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, for Inventing Tomorrow), Ian Mauro (Executive Director, Prairie Climate Centre; Associate Professor, Department of Geography, University of Winnipeg; and Director, Beyond Climate; for Beyond Climate), David Suzuki (Environmentalist; Geneticist; Broadcaster; Professor Emeritus, University of British Columbia; Author; Speaker; and Film Subject, Beyond Climate, for Beyond Climate), Jeeti Pooni (Film Subject, Because We Are Girls, for Because We Are Girls), Selwyn Jacob (Producer, Because We Are Girls, for Because We Are Girls), Kim Pate (Canadian Senator and Film Subject, Conviction, for Conviction), Ariella Pahlke (Co-director, Conviction, for Conviction), Bruce Lanphear (Clinician Scientist, Child & Family Research Institute, BC Children’s Hospital; Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University; and Film Subject, Toxic Beauty, for Toxic Beauty), Richard McKay (Author, Patient Zero and the Making of the AIDS Epidemic and Wellcome Trust Research Fellow, Department of History, University of Cambridge, for Killing Patient Zero), Patricia Barkaskas (Academic Director, Indigenous Community Legal Clinic and Instructor, Peter A. Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia, for nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up), Don Wright (Founder and Retired Executive Director, BC Society for Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse, for Prey), Leilani Farha (UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing; Executive Director, Canada Without Poverty; and Film Subject, Push, for Push), Elizabeth Simpson (Professor, Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia and Coordinator, Simpson Lab, University of British Columbia, for Human Nature), Christiaan Triebert, Investigative Journalist, Visual Investigations, The New York Times; Former Senior Investigator and Lead Trainer, Bellingcat; and Film Subject, Bellingcat: Truth in a Post-truth World, for Bellingcat: Truth in a Post-truth World), John Ralston Saul (Philosopher; Public Intellectual; Writer; Speaker; and Film Subject, The Corporate Coup d’État, for The Corporate Coup d’État), Fred Peabody (Director, The Corporate Coup d’État, for The Corporate Coup d’État), and Jeff Cohen (Producer, The Corporate Coup d’État, for The Corporate Coup d’État). Over 2100 people and 36 exhibitors were in attendance throughout the four-day festival, our biggest audience yet!

On March 12-21, 2021, KDocsFF held its seventh annual official documentary film festival—fully online for the first time! Films included the feature-length films A Thousand Cuts, And Then They Came for Us, Capital in the Twenty-first Century, Chão (Landless), Hong Kong Moments, iHuman, Influence, Overseas, Sea of Shadows, The Great Green Wall, The Guardian of Memory, The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel, We Are the Radical Monarchs, Welcome to Chechnya, and Wood. Special Guests, Keynote Speakers, Panelists, and Moderators included George Takei, Diana Morita Cole, Satsuki Ina, Abby Ginzberg, and Greg Chan (for And Then They Came for Us); Camila Freitas, Fernando Cilento, Adriana Paz Ramirez, Gilvan Rodrigues, and Jennifer Hardwick (for Chão (Landless)); Clement Tong (for Hong Kong Moments); Anita Ho (for iHuman); Richard Poplak, Diana Neille, and Wendy Royal (for Influence); Geraldine Pratt (for Overseas); Andrea Crosta (for Sea of Shadows); Jared P. Scott (for The Great Green Wall); Marcela Arteaga and Carlos Spector (for The Guardian of Memory); Joel Bakan (for The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel); David France (for Welcome to Checknya); and Alexander (Sascha) von Bismark (for Wood). Over 2300 guests bought a ticket for KDocsFF 2021 people and 25 digital exhibitors were in attendance throughout the ten-day festival, our biggest festival and audience yet!

On February 18-27, 2022, KDocsFF celebrated its tenth year with its eighth annual official documentary film festival—fully online for the second year in a row. Films included feature-length films A Once and Future Peace, Alice Street, All Light, Everywhere, Ascension, Dead Boy, Food for the Rest of Us, Haiti Betrayed, In the Rumbling Belly of Motherland, Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy, Seyran Ateş: Sex, Revolution and Islam, Someone Like Me, The Ants and the Grasshopper, The Gig Is Up, The Magnitude of All Things, Waging Change, Warrior Women, and the short films Jean Swanson: We Need a New Map, Lupita, Mary Two-Axe Earley: I Am Indian Again, Ride Fair, and What about Our Future? Special Guests, Keynote Speakers, Panelists, and Moderators included Jennifer Abbott, The Magnitude of All Things; Steve J. Adams, Someone Like Me; Brishkay Ahmed, In the Rumbling Belly of Motherland; Aaron Doyle, All Light, Everywhere; Tracey Cochrane, Dead Boy; Caroline Cox, Food for the Rest of Us; Harold Gatensby, A Once and Future Peace; Stuart Hammond, Haiti Betrayed; Vicki Haynes, Warrior Women; Sean Horlor, Someone Like Me; Seyran Ateş, Seyran Ateş: Sex, Revolution and Islam; Saru Jayaraman, Waging Change; Jessica Kingdon, Ascension; Bill McKibben, The Ants and the Grasshopper; Len Pierre, Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy; Saroeum Phoung, A Once and Future Peace; Shannon Walsh, The Gig Is Up; and Spencer Wilkinson, Alice Street. Panelists and Moderators included for The Gig Is Up/Waging Change/Ride Fair Thorben Wieditz, Film Subject, Ride Fair and Ride Fair Co-founder; Abby Ginzberg, Director, Waging Change; Nikki MG Cole, Film Subject, Waging Change and Former National Policy Director of One Fair Wage; Saru Jayaraman, Film Subject, Waging Change and President, One Fair Wage and Director, Food Labor Research Centre; and Javier Lovera, Director, Ride Fair; for Warrior Women/Lupita/Mary Two-Axe: I Am Indian Again Madonna Thunder Hawk, Film Subject, Warrior Women; Marcella Gilbert, Film Subject, Warrior Women; Monica Wise Robles, Director, Lupita; Guadalupe Vázquez Luna (aka Lupita), Film Subject, Lupita; Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse, Film Subject, Mary Two-Axe Earley: I Am Indian Again and Executive Director, Yellowhead Indigenous Education Foundation; and Vicki Haynes, Faculty, Indigenous Studies, KPU; and for Alice Street Spencer Wilkinson, Director, Alice Street; Pancho Pescador, Film Subject, Alice Street and Muralist; Desi Mundo, Film subject, Alice Street and Muralist; Brandon Gabriel, Kwantlen First Nation Mixed Media Artist; Jean Swanson, Film subject, Jean Swanson: We Need a New Map and Vancouver City Councillor; and Michael Ma, Faculty, Criminology, KPU; for Food for the Rest of Us Caroline Cox, Director/Co-producer, Food for the Rest of Us; Tiffany Ayalik, Co-producer, Food for the Rest of Us; Marjorie Ovayuak, Film Subject, Food for the Rest of Us; Maurice (Eric) Person, Film Subject, Food for the Rest of Us; and Shiva Olyaei, Faculty, Policy Studies, KPU.

On February 22-26, 2023, KDocsFF held its ninth annual official documentary film festival (our eleventh year!)—its biggest festival yet, back in-person (since 2020) with 25 films over 5 days in 2 theatres. This year’s festival also included 25 keynote addresses, 9 panel discussions/Q&As, and 17 exhibitors.

Films included the feature-length films A Story of Bones, Alice Street, Backlash: Misogyny in the Digital Age, Category: Woman, Coextinction, DƏNE YI'INJETL: The Scattering of Man, Into the Weeds: Dewayne “Lee” Johnson vs. Monsanto Company, Love in the Time of Fentanyl, Navalny, Rebellion, Returning Home, The Cartel Project, The Cost of Freedom: Refugee Journalists in Canada, The Doctrine of Recovery, The Happy Worker, or How Work Was Sabotaged, The Monopoly of Violence, The Shadow of Doubt, The Territory, The YouTube Effect, TikTok, Boom., Unarchived, Wochiigii lo: End of the Peace, and Writing with Fire, as well as the short films Jean Swanson: We Need a New Map and Militant Mother.

Special guests and Keynote Speakers included Lekeyten, Kwantlen Nation Elder and Elder-in-Residence, Kwantlen Polytechnic University; Alex Winter, Director, The YouTube Effect; Carol Todd, Mother of Amanda Todd, Founder, the Amanda Todd Legacy Society, for Backlash: Misogyny in the Digital Age; Luke Gleeson, Director, DƏNE YI'INJETL: The Scattering of Man; Heather Hatch, Director, Wochiigii lo: End of the Peace; Colin Askey, Director, Love in the Time of Fentanyl; Lisa Sundstrom, Political Science, UBC; Principal Investigator, ActInCourts Network, UBC, for Navalny; Jules Giraudat, Director, The Cartel Project; Alessandra Santos, Latin American Studies Program, UBC, for The Territory; Brisind, Director, The Doctrine of Recovery; Phyllis Jack-Webstad, Film Subject, Returning Home; Jennifer Baichwal, Director, Into the Weeds: Dewayne "Lee" Johnson vs. Monsanto Company; Annina (Nina) van Neel, Human Rights Commission, Equality & Human Rights Commission, Saint Helena; Film Subject, A Story of Bones; Jamie Kneen, Mining Watch, for The Shadow of Gold; Swaysən (Will George), Co-collaborator and Film Subject, Coextinction; Farhana Yamin, Lawyer, Author, Speaker, Activist; Co-author, Paris Climate Accords; Film Subject, Rebellion; Liudmila (Lucy) Jdanova, Department of Psychology, KPU, for The Happy Worker, or How Work Was Sabotaged; David Dufresne, Director, The Monopoly of Violence; James Cullingham, Director, The Cost of Freedom: Refugee Journalists in Canada; Phyllis Ellis, Director, Category: Woman; Avriel Epps-Darling, PhD Candidate, Harvard School of Education, for TikTok, Boom.; Grace Wong, Board Chair, Chinese Canadian Museum; Film Subject, Unarchived; Rintu Thomas, Co-director, Writing with Fire; Spencer Wilkinson, Director, Alice Street; Teresa Alfeld, Director, Jean Swanson: We Need a New Map, also on behalf of Militant Mother.

The event was another opportunity to consider issues and controversies close to home and around the globe and to exemplify the kind of learning we want to share, enliven, and deepen within our communities. To see photos from the event, please visit, join, and stay up-to-date with KDocsFF online at www.KDocsFF.com, on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/KDocsFF, on Twitter at @KDocsFF, and on Instagram @KDocsFF. You can also view all the keynote addresses and panel discussions on our official YouTube Channel, KDocs Talks.