Sudbury’s own documentary film festival, Junction North, returns to Sudbury Indie Cinema from Feb. 23-26, showcasing some of the year’s best docs from festivals such as Cannes, Sundance, Venice, Berlinale, TIFF and Hot Docs.
“We have powerful stories from around the world,” said Beth Mairs, founder and lead programmer of the Sudbury Independent Cinema Co-op, which has been running a yearly documentary film festival since 2013.
The Junction North International Documentary Film Festival has its roots as The Best of Hot Docs, showcasing some of the films screened at the Toronto doc festival.
But in 2016, the festival went its own way so that Indie Cinema would have more control over programming.
Mairs said the feature documentaries in this year’s lineup, some of which have been nominated for Oscars, are from countries including Canada, Brazil, India, the United States, China, South Africa, Poland, Vietnam, Nepal and France.
“Like a lot of documentary film festivals, it's also very issue-based on topical issues — so issues ranging from climate action, Indigenous sovereignty, racial justice, women's rights, the opioid crisis, environmental activism and LGBTQ visibility,” Mairs said.
“They're also stories about really interesting people from athletes, farmers, entrepreneurs, immigrants, writers, artists, wildlife lovers, to drag queens.
“So, yeah, they're very, very intriguing stories. And because these are from amongst the best documentaries of the year, the method of storytelling is very unique as well.”
Mairs said she’d like to particularly highlight the American film “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” which is a 2023 Oscar nominee for Best Documentary Feature.
Given it focuses on the opioid crisis, it has particular poignancy here in Sudbury, which has been hard hit by this issue.
Directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras, “All The Beauty and The Bloodshed” is an epic, emotional and interconnected story about internationally renowned artist and activist Nan Goldin told through her slide shows, intimate interviews, ground-breaking photography, and rare footage of her personal fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for the overdose crisis.
The Sackler family is an American family who founded and owned the pharmaceutical companies Purdue Pharma and Mundipharma. Purdue Pharma, and some members of the family, have faced lawsuits regarding overprescription of addictive pharmaceutical drugs, including OxyContin.
Following the film, a panel discussion will take place on Sudbury’s own opioid crisis as well as on artist activism.
Junction North also features some Can Con, including “Ever Deadly,” about Tanya Tagaq, a Canadian Inuk throat singer, songwriter, novelist, and visual artist from Cambridge Bay.
Another Canadian film is “Dear Jackie,” about Jackie Robinson, the first Black player in Major League Baseball and a civil rights activist who broke the colour barrier when he joined the minor-league Montreal Royals in 1946.
“Category: Woman,” also a doc coming out of Canada, follows four athletes forced out of competition by regulations that profile and target women athletes, and the subsequent devastation to their bodies, and livelihoods.
Mairs said watching documentary films allows viewers to gain insight into people “whose lives are very different from you,” and also get a thorough analysis of an issue that you may not get through sound bites in the news.
“Sudbury Indie Cinema has taken this on, to do a documentary film festival, because it’s something that community members told us they were really interested in when we formed,” she said.
“There's a really strong interest in seeing Canadian films, documentary, and foreign language films, basically, the kind of films that you're not going to see on the big screen at multiplexes, the kinds of films that don't get theatrical releases.”
You can view the full Junction North lineup online here. Tickets and festival passes are available here.
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s associate content editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.
