Calgary Underground Film Festival: Films and Events Announced

The Calgary Underground Film Festival (CUFF) is Western Canada’s largest genre film festival which showcases everything from horror and sci-fi to indie comedies and music and fan docs. 

Cult favourite John Waters will be in attendance for one night only, with his new live spoken word show Devil's Advocate, followed by a 30th Anniversary screening of his film Serial Mom.

Ten Alberta films and special events will be showcased, including the episodic short-form series Department of Paranormal Affairs from Calgary director Michael Peterson. Also screening will be the Canadian horror-comedy Mother Father Sister Brother Frank from Caden Douglas, who grew up in Calgary, as well as The Last Video Store, a love letter to the era of the video store from Albertan-born filmmakers Cody Kennedy and Tim Rutherford (aka House of Heathens).

Also on the Canadian front: Chris Nash's unconventional wilderness slasher film, In A Violent Nature, will also screen, coming off its success at Sundance. Caitlin Cronenberg's filmmaking debut, Humane, a dystopian thriller where ecological collapse makes world leaders take extreme measures to reduce the earth’s population, will also screen.

 

 

Music is a big focus of this year’s festival, with five music documentaries, including docs about feminist icon Peaches (Teaches Peaches), Ukrainian immigrant and punk legend Eugene Hütz (Scream of My Blood: A Gogol Bordello Story), and the seminal band Redd Kross, following the screening of Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story.

 

On Wednesday, April 17, the day before the festival officially starts, CUFF will host Calgary’s flagship National Canadian Film Day event, a free 35mm presentation of the 1981 Alberta supernatural slasher Canuxploitation classic Ghostkeeper, with cast & crew in attendance for this special reunion screening.