Categories: Things To Do

PNE Amphitheatre to host a drive-in film festival this May

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We can’t help but get excited for the latest event to come to the PNE Amphitheatre, since it means we get to check out some amazing films in a drive-in format! Vancouver’s own DOXA Documentary Film Fest recently announced they’ll be screenings a selection of films from the 2021 festival this May. Here’s a little more information.

Over 3 nights from May 13th to May 15th, DOXA will host seven different screenings showing off some standout films this year. And, the lineup includes a few from local Vancouver creators and directors! Let’s check out what DOXA has chosen for this drive-in lineup.

First up is Shannon Walsh’s The Gig is Up, which explores the explosion of the gig economy and its effects on workers around the world. In a similar vein, Sheona McDonald’s Dead Man’s Switch: a crypto mystery looks at the disappearance of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency following an untimely death.

For some closer to home programming, we might recommend Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers’s Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy, since it offers an empathetic, yet unflinching, look at a drug-use and poisoning epidemic in Alberta’s Kainai First Nation. Or, the youth-rated Someone Like Me, which tells the story of a gay man from Uganda as he resettles in Vancouver and finds a support network.

If you’re looking for some international content, then Brishkay Ahmed’s In the Rumbling Belly of Motherland is for you. A Vancouver production, the documentary looks at Zan TV, which is a female-operated and oriented TV network located in Kabul, Afghanistan.

And finally, a pair of music-oriented documentaries will be screened at the drive-in. First up is Bobbi Jo Hart’s Fanny: The Right to Rock, which covers the group of the same name, and they became the first all-female, with Asian and LGBTQ+ members, to sign with a major label. Alternatively, Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché, offers a look at a complicated, but pioneering black woman in punk music, as examined by her own daughter.

So, you’ve got some fantastic options, and certainly ones outside of the usual 1980s classics that are usually drive-in fare. For more information, just click the link below!