A double-header of award-winning documentary films aims to inform and inspire a Surrey audience on a Wednesday next month.
Featured on Feb. 6 will be RGB, a 2018 doc about U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Morgan Neville’s Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, which profiles children’s television icon Fred Rogers.
The free event is presented by KDocs, Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s documentary film festival, and will be held at KPU’s Surrey Conference Centre, 12666 72nd Ave.
The “Spring Mini-Fest” will include a panel discussion and a keynote speech by Ellen Woodsworth, a former Vancouver city councillor and current consultant on urban issues; she is also the founder and chair of Women Transforming Cities, an advocacy organization.
“It is our hope that people will come away feeling both informed and inspired about what is possible, even as just one person,” Janice Morris, festival director of KDocs, said in a release.
“We want to present examples of social justice successes that have been hard-fought over many years of persistence, experience, and expertise. Both films profile individuals who, through very different methods and pathways, found a way to reach an audience with their message.”
The panel discussion will include Mebrat Beyene (WISH Foundation), Cicely Blain (Black Lives Matter-Vancouver), Chastity Davis (chair, Minister’s Advisory Council on Aboriginal Women for the Province of B.C.), Anita Huberman (CEO, Surrey Board of Trade), Debra Parkes (UBC professor and chair, Centre for Feminist Legal Studies) and Jinny Sims (Surrey-Panorama MLA).
Stated Morris: “This is a panel of formidable women from diverse backgrounds and industries – not-for-profit, community building, activism, indigenous rights and governance, law, education and politics.
“The intent is to use these films as a springboard and for the speakers/panelists to share with us their experience and expertise on the realities of being an activist, organizer, professional, and changemaker with various systems of power.”
The KDocs film festival, on a break for 2019, will return in 2020, according to KPU media rep Sucheta Singh.
While free to attend, the event on Feb. 6 requires registration to reserve a seat for each film, via email sent to rbg@kpu.ca and/or neighbour@kpu.ca.
It all starts at 3:30 p.m. with a reception, followed by keynote address at 4, screening of RBG at 4:30, panel at 6, intermission/reception at 6:45 and screening of Won’t You Be My Neighbour? at 7:15. The schedule and other event details are posted at kdocsff.com.
The KDocs mission, as posted on the website, is “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.”
The vision is “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.”
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tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
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