Uniting learners through social justice, global citizenship, and creative solution-building

As a premier event in Metro Vancouver, KDocsFF celebrates the power of documentary film. Working in partnership with the Vancouver International Film Centre/Vancity Theatre, KDocsFF showcases award-winning documentary films, keynote speakers, filmmakers, panelists, exhibitors, and community members. Participants 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 continues to be a foundational goal of KDocsFF--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 KDocsFF has initiated, built, and deepened, on campus and off. We look forward to further engaging with, and on behalf of, Kwantlen's many learners.

We want to work with you through our Community Outreach Program! Would you like us to visit your school, community group, or organization to screen and discuss documentaries that interest your students? Hold workshops and facilitate town hall discussions? We will work with you to customize content for your class, department, or the entire school, all depending on your teaching and learning needs. The KDocsFF Community Outreach Program is free. Contact Greg Chan at greg.chan@kpu.ca for more information and to schedule a visit.

KDocsFF Alice Street Legacy Mural

Representing KPU’s Indigenous history, cultural diversity, inclusivity, and solidarity as a community, the KDocsFF Alice Street Legacy Mural rises up to greet all those who pass through the Surrey campus library’s main atrium. You might be wondering how this 25 foot mural—a tribute to Lyackson First Nation Elder, Kat Norris—came to be.

Following their appearance on the Alice Street panel at KDocsFF 2022, Chilean studio painter/Oakland artist Pancho Pescador, Chicago-born aerosol artist Desi Mundo, and KPU Arts Artist and Writer-in-Residence Brandon Gabriel formed an enduring creative partnership. The trio—in association with their KDocsFF co-panelists, anti-poverty advocate Jean Swanson and Alice Street director Spencer Wilkinson—is now set to paint a mural on the Downtown Eastside for the 2024 Vancouver Mural. In the meantime, the KDocsFF Alice Street Legacy Group reunited at KDocsFF 2023 on February 26th for an encore screening and discussion of Alice Street + Jean Swanson: We Need a New Map. During their return engagement, Desi, Pancho, and Brandon painted the legacy mural at a live event during KPU’s reading break. Many observers stopped by the Fir Lounge and the Spruce Atrium to watch the muralists engaged in their creative process.

In March, a team of technicians, led by Delaney Reeves, raised and mounted each of the 6 panels to form the KDocsFF Alice Street Legacy Mural.

Following its installation, the KDocsFF Alice Street Legacy Mural was officially unveiled on April 14, 2023 in the KPU Surrey Library. Special guests included Kat Norris’s family members who were central to the dedication ceremony. KDocsFF Community Outreach is proud to have coordinated this project on behalf of KPU and is grateful to the university-wide team that made the mural a reality in less than three months. Thank you to our sponsor,  Diane Purvey; our co-presenter, Shelley Boyd; our host, Todd Mundle; our ad hoc steering committee members, Ying-Yueh Chuang, Armaan Dhillon, Brandon Gabriel, Romy Kozak, Lesli Sangha, Asma Sayed, Peter Smailes, David Stewart, and Fiona Whittington-Walsh; our procurement liaison, Dani Blackett; our advisors in Fine Arts, Alison MacTaggart and Ying-Yueh Chuang; our essential Facilities crew led by Lori Scanlon and Delaney Reeves; our supporters, Kachina Melinda Bige, Christina Fung, Jamie Bige-Gabriel, Jonas Bige, and Eric Hettema; our videographer, Elton Hubner; our Marketing and Communications support team of Byron Dueck, Leland Dieno, Hayley Mica, and Anati Manzoul; our site protectors, KPU Security; and the initiators of the mural project, Spencer Wilkinson and Janice Morris.

Most of all, thank you to the astonishing artistry of the creative team: Brandon Gabriel, Desi Mundo, and Pancho Pescador.

 

KDocsFF Benefit for Ukraine: KDocs Movie Lounge + Social Justice Makers Lab

KDocs Outreach was pleased to have hosted a pop-up benefit for Ukraine across two campuses.

On April 7, 2022, the Outreach team ran the KDocs Movie Lounge where two screenings of Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom were followed by a screening of episodes from Servant of the People starring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. A makers lab where guests could press their own Ukraine button or pick up a ready-made one ran alongside the movie lounge. Local artist Eleanor Reardon’s “Sunflowers for Ukraine” hand-crafted bookmarks were also part of the fundraiser. While this took place on the Surrey campus, the Richmond campus library hosted a satellite button pick-up counter. Activities on both campuses were by donation, with all proceeds going to the Canadian Red Cross and its humanitarian campaign in Ukraine.

Thanks to the generosity of the KPU community, the KDocsFF benefit raised $800 for the Canadian Red Cross.

 

KDocsFF Presents Emergence: Out of the Shadows

In celebration of National Coming Out Day on October 11, 2021, KDocsFF Outreach and the Department of Asian Studies proudly presented Vinay Giridhar's Emergence: Out of the Shadows, a Surrey-based documentary that follows Kayden, Jag, and Amar as they come out to their conservative families and struggle for acceptance in their Punjabi Sikh cultures. The event included a panel discussion/Q&A featuring producer and keynote speaker Alex Sangha, director Vinay Giridhar, and film subjects Jag Nagra and Jaspal Sangha (Alex's mother). KPU's Dr. Kamala Nayar (ASIA) served as the moderator. Film Synopsis: For Kayden, Jag, and Amar, awakening to and expressing their sexuality within conservative South Asian families was a lonely and terrifying experience. Denial, shame, and despair haunted their youths, even threatening their lives. Yet, they’ve emerged. In the feature documentary Emergence: Out of the Shadows, the disparate journeys of Kayden, Jag, and Amar converge around a shared sense of compassion and healing as they bravely convey their often heart-wrenching stories. Confronted with tradition and taboo, Jag’s parents and Amar’s mother choose love and support for their children, offering courage and inspiration to individuals and communities struggling with acceptance. KDocsFF Presents Emergence: Out of the Shadows was part of KDocsFF's two-part series to Stop Anti-Asian Hate.

 

KDocsFF Presents You Are Here: A Come from Away Story

Where were you on September 11, 2001? On September 17, 2021, You Are Here with KDocsFF.

In commemoration of 9/11's 20th anniversary, KDocsFF Outreach was pleased to be bring you Moze Mossanen's You Are Here: A Come From Away Story to the KPU community. Mossanen's critically acclaimed documentary follows the story of the 6,600 "Come from Aways" who touched down on that fateful day in Gander, Newfoundland, and the compassionate townspeople who opened their homes to them for five days. With its mission "to spread the spirit of kindness," You Are Here: A Come From Away Story "goes beyond the stories dramatized in the musical to reveal how an isolated community with a particularly unique culture and character connection with the world at large by reaching out to people with extraordinary kindness at a time of great need."

This commemorative event included a keynote from director Moze Mossanen, a screening of the documentary, and a panel discussion featuring 9/11 literary specialist Dr. Gavin Paul (ENGL), Une île, une nation? author Dr. Valérie Vézina (POLI), and proud Newfoundlander Dr. Kelly Doyle (ENGL), who served as our moderator. Joining the KPU panelists were special guests Diane and Nick Marson, two "Come from Aways" who met on one of the grounded planes, fell in love in a Gander shelter, and (spoiler) later married. Diane and Nick are featured subjects in Mossanen's documentary.

 

KDocsFF Presents My Name Was January

This year's Transgender Day of Remembrance was commemorated at KPU by its premiere screening of My Name Was January on November 20th. Originally developed as a Surrey Pride event to be held at the Surrey Conference Centre, KDocsFF Presents: My Name Was January was recommissioned as a virtual event co-hosted by KDocsFF, the KFA's LGBTQ2S+ Committee, and the KSA's Queer Initiative. Directed by Journalism alumni Elina Gress and Lenée Son, the documentary reflects on the life of the late trans activist, January Marie Lapuz. The virtual event included a keynote by film producer Alex Sangha and a panel discussion featuring filmmaker Lenée Son; Canada's premiere transsexual fetish lady, Velvet Steele; and non-binary student activist Jack Kennedy. Criminology's Tara Lyons served as the moderator. KDocsFF Presents: My Name Was January brought out over 100 virtual participants--students, faculty, staff, high school counselors, graduate students/researchers, and LGBTQ2S+ community members--who engaged in documentary activism with the panel.




KDocs Talks to Virago Nation

In the fall of 2019, KDocs Outreach produced a documentary short on the All Indigenous Burlesque dance troupe known as Virago Nation. “KDocs Talks to Virago Nation” catches up with Shane Sable, convening member of Virago Nation, and Dr. Jennifer Hardwick, KPU English faculty and KDocsFF board member, as they coordinate a performance at the Wilson School of Design. The Viragos are joined by special guest performers Bo Dyp and Evan Ducharme for “An Evening of Dinner, Dancing, and Dialogue with Virago Nation.” Shane and Jennifer’s ongoing collaboration is part of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funded initiative, “’Medicine in our Very Bones’: Gender, Sexuality and Embodied Resistance in Indigenous Burlesque.”

 

KDocsFF Presents Resilience

How resilient are we to childhood stress and trauma? On November 5, 2019, KDocs Outreach partnered with KPU Counselling to present a special screening of James Redford and Karen Pritzker’s critically acclaimed Resilience, a documentary that investigates the science of toxic childhood stress and how field-test therapies could protect you in adulthood from its harmful effects. Our mental health awareness event opened with a keynote by Laurie Edmundson, community mental health advocate, who briefed us on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). The audience took an ACEs quiz to determine their predisposition to mental conditions and diseases. Following the screening of the documentary, our panel—KPU Counsellor Wendy Belter, Jack.org Mental Health Speaker Calvin Tiu, and KPU English/Empathy Researcher Dr. Bryn Jones Square—engaged the audience in a discussion of ACEs, mental health awareness, and resources to make us more resilient. They were moderated by KPU Criminology Instructor Kristina Wijnsma. This event was sponsored with generous support from KPU Counselling and the KPU Coast Capital Savings Library.

 

KDocsFF Presents ​The True Cost

Did you know that the fashion industry is one of the world's largest polluters, second only to the oil industry, and that 80 billion pieces of clothing are manufactured each year -- mostly by women earning less than $3 per day? On March 4, 2019, KDocsFF’s Community Outreach partnered with the KSA to co-host a special ecoDAYS screening that put these facts into context. Andrew Morgan's The True Cost, a documentary about the fashion industry and sustainability, was screened in combination with opening remarks from Dr. Paul Richard, Chair of Environmental Protection, and a keynote address by Nabila Idris, Doctoral Student in Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge. A panel discussion/Q&A session followed the screening of the documentary. Our panel included Mariana Carneiro, Fashion Designer; Irina McKenzie, FABCYCLE Founder and Frameworq Director; Dr. Paul Richard, Environmental Protection; and Wendy Schindler, Fourth-year Design Student, Wilson School of Design.

KDocsFF Presents Metamorphosis: Tale of a Wetland at the Peatlands for People Revisited Conference

In celebration of its 30th anniversary, the Burns Bog Conservation Society held its first conference on October 11-13, 2018 at KPU. The three-day science conference included presentations, breakout sessions, a keynote by the University of Greifswald's Dr. Hans Joosten (Secretary-General of International Mire Conservation Group), and a capstone event hosted by KDocsFF: a special screening of Bryan Maltais's documentary, Metamorphosis: Tale of a Wetland, followed by a panel discussion. The panelists included Dr. Paul Richard (Environmental Protection), Lee Beavington (Biology),  Shaina Carter (Horticulture alumnus), and Mark Robertson (Burns Bog Conservation Society). Filmmaker Bryan Maltais joined the conversation via Skype. KDocsFF Community Outreach was pleased to host this special event on behalf of the President's Office.

Video Project:
Surrey's Phoenix Society/Kwantlen Humanities 101 Program

In the summer of 2018, the Community Outreach videography team partnered with Surrey’s Phoenix Society to produce a documentary short on the Kwantlen Humanities 101 program it sponsors. Run by KPU English instructor Kegan Doyle, the program offers non-credit courses led by KPU faculty for community members struggling with addiction. Our Community Outreach team of Manon Boivin (producer) and Melissa Fraser (editor/student assistant) filmed a class meeting, interviewed instructors and students, and joined Humanities 101 for its graduation ceremony.

 

Video Project: KPU's First-Year English Writing Labs

The Community Outreach videography team collaborated with the English Department in the summer of 2018 to produce a promotional video on the First-Year English Writing Labs. A free service available to KPU students struggling with their academic writing, the labs operate as drop-in workshops run by English instructors Heather Cyr and Jennifer Williams. Community Outreach producer Manon Boivin and student assistant/editor Melissa Fraser were there to showcase the valuable work of the Writing Labs, filming a series of interviews with the instructors, peer tutors, and students.

 

KDocsFF Movie Lounge Special Event: International Antiracism Day

The KDocsFF Community Outreach team hosted a drop-in Movie Lounge as one of the campus-wide events to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. With a focus on race, racism, and calls to action, a series of antiracism documentaries were screened throughout the day. The event also included two informal workshops in between screenings: a Privilege Walk led by KDocsFF Community Outreach Facilitator Naveen Shums, and an art therapy/calligraphy session hosted by KDocsFF Community Outreach Specialist Tauheed Faheem.

The following documentaries were screened at the March 21, 2018 event:

History of Racism in Canada

Our Canada: Are We Racist?

The Sikh Experience in America

What Does My Headscarf Mean to You?

A Conversation on Race

Being Black in Canada

One-Two-One-Seven

How to Stop a Pipeline: Canadian First Nations' Legal Battle for Their Territories

Force 136: Chinese Canadian Heroes

Where Is Home?

 

Guest Lecture at UBC

The KDocsFF Community Outreach team of Greg Chan and Naveen Zafar were invited to be guest speakers in Dr. Andre Elias Mazawi’s Educational Studies 565 seminar at UBC. Greg and Naveen engaged in a lively dialogue with Mazawi’s graduate students, who are studying documentary films and festivals, adult learning, and dialogic imagination, about the KDocsFF story/documentary activism. Their October 28, 2017, guest lecture included an interactive exercise, the “Privilege Walk”, followed by an overview of KDocsFF and its mandate, and a Q&A session. The class also discussed Mise-en-scene: The Journal of Film and Visual Narration, the film studies publication sponsored by KDocsFF. Furthering our collaboration with Dr. Mazawi and his students, they will be authoring an article on their study of documentary film as “scenes of address” for an upcoming issue of the journal.

 

 

“Analyzing Film” and “Interviewing Skills” with the DigitaLENS Club

KDocsFF recently became a community partner—joining The Visual Media Workshop, The Surrey School District, Princess Margaret Secondary School, and KPU—with the DigitaLENS Club. Aiming to cultivate digital literacy in Surrey youth, DigitaLENS enlists digital storytellers to mentor Grades 8-12 high school students. These students participate in a series of workshops held after school at KPU, ultimately leading to the creation of a final project: a 2-5 minute movie that combines photographs, video, animation, sound, text, and often the voiceover of the filmmaker. By design, each movie challenges a stereotype about Surrey youth.

On October 18, 2017, the KDocsFF Community Outreach Program team of Greg Chan and Manon Boivin hosted a half-day workshop for the DigitaLENS students on film studies (“How to Analyze a Film Scene”) and documentary filmmaking essentials (“Interviewing Skills”). The goal was to highlight the two sides of film: research-based and production-based. Greg and Manon also introduced the students to KDocsFF and documentaries as social justice activism. Now having a new set of narrative tools, the DigitaLENS storytellers are moving forward with their documentary shorts, which will be showcased on the Visual Media Workshop and KDocsFF websites; they will also have a special screening at KDocsFF 2018.

KDocsFF Community Outreach is grateful to DigitaLENS Program Coordinator Aisha Amijee and the student storytellers for this opportunity to discover and share authentic stories of Surrey youth.

 

Documentary Workshop at Langley Fine Arts Secondary School

On November 1, 2017, KDocsFF Community Outreach presented an "Interviewing Techniques" workshop at Langley Fine Arts Secondary School. The workshop was presented to Grade 11 and 12 students of Writing Major Kylie Mantei and Photography Major Donna Usher. Kylie and Donna co-teach a Journalism course that produces multimedia content for the school's online magazine, The Mix, a website where the students post interviews and videos about student life and explore their community through the lens: www.lfasmix.com. Every year a number of highly talented, well respected artists and speakers visit the school. The students are responsible for documenting and representing these special guests through video interviews, including cover footage of each event. In order to help the students improve their interviewing techniques and take their skills to the next level, Manon Boivin, KDocsFF Board Member and Documentary Film Producer/Director, was invited to facilitate the "Interviewing Techniques" workshop. She took the students through the different types of interviews and interviewing styles that professionals use in order to show them the available choices and options, such as how to prepare for an interview, how to prepare your guest, how to do camera set-ups when you are working with only one or up to three cameras, how to formulate and ask questions, and how to interact with your guest during an interview. Students engaged in a listening exercise in pairs, where one student asked a question and the other simply listened and maintained eye contact for 60 seconds. This seemingly easy task is always much harder than people realize, but critical when interviewing a guest. Listening, maintaining eye contact, and not interrupting are skills that must be learned and practiced. Interview editing techniques, such as bridging and condensing by using narration, word boards, cover footage, and camera work, were also discussed. Several videos were screened to reinforce some of these techniques. So much was covered in a short time, and the students were wonderful, very engaged, and interested, sharing their own ideas and asking great questions. Manon also received a special request to review and critique students' work in progress, including some of their interviews as well as mini-docs that students have been working on. 

 

"Brainstorming Ideas" with the Pathways Aboriginal Centre

On October 19, 2017, KDocsFF Community Outreach partnered once again with the Pathways Aboriginal Centre in Richmond. KDocsFF Board Member, Manon Boivin, facilitated a "Brainstorming Ideas" workshop with some of the Centre's youth, in collaboration with program coordinator Jelica Shaw. The goal was to help them come up with a theme for a short video they wanted to produce surrounding identity. With eagle feather in hand, Manon began the process by asking each youth to come up with one word that expressed what it meant to be a young aboriginal person, or a word that described what was on their mind. The feather was passed around many times, giving each youth who held it the floor and the time to speak uninterrupted. This process yielded several themes that were then merged and purged until a single theme presented itself to the group. Manon then guided the group in a discussion about visual possibilities, narration or voice-over options, and music. 

 
 

KDocsFF Community Outreach Workshop at Sands Secondary School

On December 1, 2016, KDocsFF Board Member Manon Boivin facilitated a KDocsFF Community Outreach workshop at Sands Secondary School in Delta, working with a Grade 8 Social Studies class. The students were studying religions of the world and were given an interesting assignment: interview members of the community who observe different religions. Manon presented a workshop on the three phases of video production (pre-production, production, and post-production), with a focus on interviewing techniques. The workshop was a success, and the students were great participants!

 

 

Practicum Students Co-Host Two KDocsFF Special Screenings

As their practicum project, a group of fourth-year KPU English students worked with KDocsFF Community Outreach to create two community events. The first was a screening of Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s The Mask You Live In about hypermasculinity and the socialization of boys. Sponsored by KPIRG (Kwantlen Public Interest Research Group), the event included a performance of "Lost Boy Like Me" by rapping KPU English alumnus Calvin "Kalvonix" Tiu, a post-screening discussion forum, and breakout groups facilitated by the practicum students. The special guests of the evening were the youth from the Pathways Aboriginal Centre in Richmond. This special event took place on June 3, 2016 at the Melville Centre for Dialogue.

The second event was an LGBTQ+ Pride Week screening of two CBC documentaries, Transforming Gender and How We Got Gay. A keynote address by Gerald Walton (Educational Studies faculty and author of The Gay Agenda) opened the evening; the screenings were followed by a panel discussion led by Walton, Tara Lyons (Criminology faculty), and Kari Michaels (KPU student and WOOW co-founder). Brandy Svendson (Co-founder and CEO, Be the Change) served as the event’s moderator. Practicum students Neil Bassan, James Hospedales, Amanda Lam, and Kelsey Oskam were responsible for selecting the documentaries, promoting the event, running social media, recruiting panelists and the keynote speaker, writing a grant application, coordinating set-up, and hosting the evening. This special event took place on July 28, 2016 in the Fir 128 Theatre.

 

 

KDocsFF Partners with Delview Secondary for a "Legacy Project"

On June 21, 2016, Delview's History 12 class premiered seven original documentaries as the completed products of the Legacy Documentary Project. The process of bringing these stories to life took almost the entire semester from start to finish. Through the use of extensive interviews and supporting materials such as photos and video clips, each documentary highlights the experience of a person, familiar to our students, who survived a major historical event of the 20th century.

In the last 100 plus years, our world has experienced and continues to experience great shifts in politics and governments. These shifts caused two world wars and countless revolutions and conflicts. Cumulatively, this resulted in the massive destruction of property, displacement of countless people, endless examples of human brutality, and the deaths of hundreds of millions of combatants and civilians. Despite this dire backdrop, the Legacy Documentaries share the common themes of resilience, hope, remembrance, and new beginnings.

I believe the love and understanding of history are garnered by our connection with the experiences of the individual rather than the masses. History is most meaningful when we are able to connect to it intellectually and emotionally. I am proud of and humbled by every one of my students for their hard work, their commitment to giving voice to the stories of their subjects, and to being the conduits that help us make these connections.

I would like to acknowledge and thank those who helped support this project: Manon Boivin and Greg Chan from KDocsFF, my colleague Noah Choy, and most importantly, the subjects of the documentaries for sharing their stories.

 

Annie Li-Hindson
Delview Secondary

 

featured documentaries

 

 

Death by Diamonds

        -Produced by Jshandeep Jassal, Madison Knox, Sobia Moman

 

John Baxter

        -Produced by Joanna Adams, Noah Cousineau

 

The Forgotten 9/11

        -Produced by Kaley Banga, Leah Fitzsimons, Senol Sasmaz

 

 

Legacy projects

Kenya's Independence    

        -Produced by Serene Aulakh,  Bavraj Basram, Annmol Sihota

 

Partition of India and Pakistan

        -Produced by Simran Bains, Allison Lucchesi, Hannah Pozdnikoff

 

Prague Spring

        -Produced by Abhi Bajwa, Dane Jasek, Connor Liptak

 

The Second Gulf War

        -Produced by Adrian Canoe, Anna Culchesky, Ty Stadel

 

 

 

 

 

 

KDocsff workshop & Delview screening of the "legacy Project"

Thank you Manon Boivin and Greg Chan of the KDocsFF Community Outreach Program for supporting my first time attempt at using documentary making as a medium to teach History. Manon’s expertise and experience as a producer and filmmaker helped greatly with our project. Manon provided feedback on the criteria for our Legacy Documentary, workshopped my class through the stages (pre-production, production, and post-production) of filmmaking, and offered continuous support throughout this project. To see such a high level of student engagement in this undertaking has made me truly appreciate the power of documentary making. I would also like to thank KDocsFF for showcasing our Legacy Documentaries on the KDocsFF website, making it possible for my students to share their stories with a wider audience. I hope to have the opportunity to work with KDocsFF again in the near future.
— Annie Li-Hindson, History Teacher at Delview Secondary School

 

 

 

 


 

 

KDocsFF Launches Its Community Outreach Program

The KDocsFF team is pleased to announce the launch of its Community Outreach Program in the fall of 2015. The goal of this initiative is to connect with students in the communities KPU serves--Richmond, Surrey, and Langley--by bringing a documentary and facilitated discussion to their high school classroom. The first Community Outreach workshop took the KDocsFF team of Janice Morris, Chris Traynor, and Greg Chan to Christa Barberis' Social Justice 12 class at Langley Secondary School, where we screened Andrew Rossi's Ivory Tower (2014) and led a discussion about the state of higher education in America. As a take-home assignment, the students made social media posts (via Facebook and Twitter) and short reaction videos to the day's social justice issue. We are looking forward to visiting more schools in 2016.

 

 

Rachel Lee's Margaret Atwood Project

My name is Rachel I’m 11 years old, grade 5 at Quilchena. I’m doing a project (evening of eminence) about Margaret Atwood. For the project I am going to dress up as Margaret Atwood and make a poster board. My dad saw that Margaret Atwood was coming here to Vancouver on February 16 in the news paper and my dad said it was too expensive for both of us to go to the show because we are not students. Maybe could I please meet Margaret Atwood before the show to talk to her for a few minutes? It would be great and important for my project because I could maybe get a picture with her, ask her a few questions, and get her autograph and even more!
— Rachel Lee

When we first met Rachel Lee, she was an 11-year-old, Grade 5 student at Quilchena Elementary School in Richmond. At that time, Rachel was preparing to participate in her school’s “Evening of Eminence” event, where she would be showcasing her project on renowned Canadian author Margaret Atwood. When she read in a local newspaper that Ms. Atwood would KDocsFF's special guest and keynote speaker at our screening of Payback, the documentary adapted from Atwood’s Massey Lecture and book of the same name, Rachel wrote to us, hoping to attend and maybe, just maybe, meet Ms. Atwood. Not only did we invite Rachel and her dad, Edmund, to be our special Gold Circle guests, but also we arranged for them to meet Ms. Atwood for some one-on-one time before the show! To say that Rachel was prepared for her big interview is an understatement! She came with many of Atwood's books, interview questions, and camera in hand, and as a special treat, Rice Krispie squares (Ms. Atwood was most appreciative)! For 20 minutes, the soft-spoken but inquisitive Rachel held Ms. Atwood’s undivided attention, asking her about her childhood, education, and many publications, all the while Edmund snapped photos and recorded everything. Ms. Atwood could not have been more lovely, sharing her most personal bits of advice (one gem: when Rachel asked, “What is your advice for a working woman who has to travel a lot?”, Ms. Atwood responded, “Think pink, but pack black!”).  As you can see, Rachel took these words to heart, and when she presented her project, she made sure to do just that—love the stylish Margaret Atwood wig, Rachel (good idea to colour it in with a Sharpie!), and pink scarf (mimicking the one Atwood wore the night of the event). Not only did Rachel produce a fantastic visual and written project, but also she created a diorama of the farm that Ms. Atwood grew up on (something they spent quite a bit of time talking about—did you know that Ms. Atwood had a pet rat?).  Thank you Rachel, for helping us to talk about Payback and for sharing your experiences with your community.

Rachel's Grade 5 class project based on Margaret Atwood's KDocsFF talk at KPU (2013)

Rachel's Grade 5 class project based on Margaret Atwood's KDocsFF talk at KPU (2013)