What to Watch at CUFF.Docs Documentary Film Festival 2025
Photo courtesy of CUFF.Docs Documentary Film Festival.
CUFF.Docs Documentary Film Festival is returning to the Globe Cinema later this month to showcase the best in non-fiction films. Presented by the Calgary Underground Film Festival, their documentary festival is a beacon during the cold November months. Join REVERIE at the Globe Cinema this month, and read more about what films were excited to see.
MODERN WHORE, directed by Nicole Bazuin
Smartly composed, tongue-in-cheek, yet ultimately completely serious; Modern Whore is a modern documentary.
There is a sense of comfort in this project, an element one imagines is necessary for a documentary covering a subject as serious as this (despite the personality in the way it's written) if it wants to be successful. It is. Werhun and Bazuin's familiarity lends itself to many satisfying visual flourishes, bordering on magical realism.
It's worth noting that Werhun isn't just talented at embodying and bringing to life what she put to paper approximately six years prior, she's got the campy acting chops to do it justice the way an actor with a long professional resume might. Simply put: She has star power. The campiness is a license to 1. Talk about and depict serious subjects, 2. Be extremely stylized when deemed necessary (or it's fun enough it's worth doing anyway), and 3. Make the audience expect a bit of humour to make the so-called medicine go down. — Alex Southey
NOW! MORE! YES!, directed by Max Hey
For those looking for a comedic slice of life documentary, along the lines of the 1999 classic American Movie, look no further than Now! More! Yes!. The documentary follows TW Hansen, a legally blind used car salesman, as director Max Hey follows Hansen over a period of three years, which culminates in Hansen drunkenly buying an ambulance with his boss’ credit card. How that ends up happening, and how American Movie’s own Mark Borchardt himself finds his way into the story, I cannot wait to find out. If the film is half as fun as saying the exclamation mark-laden title out loud, then we are in for a treat. Added bonus: the director Max Hey will be in attendance for the CUFF.DOCS screening, in what I am sure will be a rollicking and fun Q&A. — Ben Goodman
THE PYTHON HUNT, directed by Xander Robin
Since the dawn of this decade, there hasn’t been a more exciting name in documentary filmmaking than Lance Oppenheim. Beginning with 2020’s Some Kind of Heaven, to 2024’s Spermworld to most recently his 2024 HBO documentary series, Ren Faire, Oppenheim makes documentaries with the tone of Errol Morris and a deliberate, beautiful cinematic style that looks better than 90% of major studio scripted films today. With The Python Hunt, Oppenheim is simply a producer, but it is a return to the Florida landscape of Some Kind of Heaven, as it documents a group of amateur hunters who participate in a contest to kill pythons in the Everglades. A SXSW 2025 Special Jury Prize winning doc, this has been of top interest to me all year and I can’t wait to see director Xander Robin (who previously directed the underrated HBO travel series, Chillin’ Island, with Despot and Lil Yachty) and producer Lance Oppenheim’s latest triumph as part of CUFF.DOCS. — Ben Goodman
CUFF.Docs Documentary Film Festival runs from November 19 to 23, 2025. Tickets are on sale now at calgaryundergroundfilm.org.