This year, the Vancouver International Film Festival received an uncommonly high number of documentary submissions tackling controversial issues – so many, in fact, that the fest has created a special program to showcase them.

While last year’s fest inexplicably featured many films on Latin music, VIFF director Alan Franey says this year’s trend toward political docs reflects both international events and current changes in the doc marketplace.

‘It is not as though we’re actually looking for films that fit an agenda,’ says Franey, in his 23rd year at his post. He explains that many of the political docs at VIFF 2004 share common themes, influenced largely by recent events on the world stage including 9/11, the War on Iraq, the U.S. presidential election and growing disenchantment with the status quo.

Franey adds that controversial and politically charged docs such as Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 and domestic hit The Corporation, which won the award for most popular Canadian film at VIFF last year, have helped fuel the recent explosion in the genre’s popularity.

After having viewed two-thirds of the docs submitted, fest programmers were struck by the high number tackling political issues and international themes. While Franey and his programming team did consider that there might already be topic fatigue on critiques of the U.S. administration and conflict in the Middle East, they decided not to shy away from screening the best submissions, which in many cases directly address these themes.

Twenty-nine docs will screen in Changing the World, a program created to reflect this year’s abundant political docs. The only other time the festival took a similar approach was in 2002, when it created a program called Holding History Accountable to reflect the volume of films about the legacy of the 20th century.

Changing the World features seven international premieres, including Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire from U.S. director Jeremy Earp, and nine Canadian premieres, including An Algerian Dream, a France/Algeria coventure from director Jean-Pierre Lledo.

Ninety-seven docs will screen at VIFF, including 40 feature-length docs in the festival’s Nonfiction Features program, such as Tango Salon – La Confiteria Ideal from Argentinian director Jana Bokova, making its North American premiere.

Other NF highlights include Danish director Anders Hogsbro’s Tintin and I, about Georges Remi, creator of the popular cartoon character, and Imagining Ulysses from Irish director David Blake Knox, making its international premiere.

While the festival does have two doc-specific programs this year, additional docs will screen in mixed programs, including Dragons & Tigers: The Cinemas of East Asia and Spotlight on France, as well as in the festival’s domestic film program, Canadian Images.

Canadian Images includes 21 docs, 10 of which are features. The program opens with ScaredSacred, a feature doc from Vancouver filmmaker Velcrow Ripper. The film, which investigates how survivors of some of the worst tragedies around the world manage to grow in the aftermath of adversity, is in keeping with the theme of Changing the World, as were many of the Canadian doc submissions this year, according to Canadian Images programmer Diane Burgess.

‘What really jumped out at me about submissions this year was not only the strength of Canadian documentaries, but the number of them that were really looking at what it means to be a global citizen,’ she says. ‘It was interesting to see that happening both internationally and [domestically].’

Canuck offerings illustrating this theme include:

Peter Raymont’s Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire, about the now-retired Canadian lieutenant-general’s experiences with the Rwandan genocide; John Ritchie’s The Ties That Bind, a Force Four Entertainment/National Film Board/CBC Newsworld doc about disabilities and family health; and Michael Kot’s Shipbreakers, which offers a glimpse into a maritime graveyard in India, produced by Toronto’s Storyline Entertainment and the NFB.

All but two of the Canadian docs at VIFF 2004 will screen in Canadian Images. The exceptions are Toronto-based Cheuk Kwan’s Chinese Restaurants: On the Islands, which examines the Chinese diaspora through an examination of Chinese restaurants, and Gary Marcuse’s Arktisk: The Russian Dream that Failed, both of which will screen in NF.

‘Everyone agrees that docs are stronger than they’ve ever been,’ says Franey of the medium’s growth over the last two years. ‘We didn’t used to draw flies to documentaries. Throughout the ’80s, even the best documentaries were poison for box office, and then in the ’90s things changed.’

Franey says the role of documentaries in the festival has changed so much over the past two years that the traditional narrative/non-narrative film classifications may be getting a little outdated.

‘I think the boundaries that we’re drawing [between fiction and non-fiction films] are falling apart a little bit,’ says Franey. ‘Each year I wonder whether it wouldn’t be time to just fold the non-fiction films in with the fiction films.’

The NFB will present its 13th annual Best Documentary feature award, decided by a jury consisting of Newsday critic John Anderson, Film Forum director Karen Cooper, and Rob Nelson, programmer for Minnesota’s Get Real: The City Pages Documentary Film Festival.