Christian Zyp interviews Coty Savard (producer) & Connor McNally (subtitle editor) about Gil Cardinal's film FOSTER CHILD: ohpikihâkan awâsis. It will screen as part of Dreamspeakers International Indigenous Film Festival on Saturday April 18th at 7PM at Landmark City Centre Cinemas. There will be a post-screening Q&A panel after the film with elders Jerry & Jo-Ann Saddleback hosted by Connor McNally and Coty Savard.

FOSTER CHILD: ohpikihâkan awâsis... An important figure in the history of Canadian Indigenous filmmaking, Gil Cardinal was born to a Métis mother but raised by a non-Indigenous foster family, and with this autobiographical documentary, he charts his efforts to find his biological mother and to understand why he was removed from her. Considered a milestone in documentary cinema, it addressed the country’s internal colonialism in a profoundly personal manner, winning a Special Jury Prize at Banff and multiple international awards. “Foster Child” is one of the great docs to come out of Canada and nobody, but Gil could have made it,” says writer and broadcaster Jesse Wente, the former Director of Canada’s Indigenous Screen Office. “Gil made it possible for us to think about putting our own stories on the screen, and that was something new and important.”

Listen to Lucas Anders interview with Jody Wilson (director/writer) about the film THE BEARDED GIRL. It screens as part of the Calgary Underground Film Festival on Monday April 20th at 6:30PM at the Globe Cinema. Jody WIlson and Jeff Gladstone (cast) will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A.

THE BEARDED GIRL... On the brink of inheriting the position of "The Bearded Woman" – matriarchal leader to an outcast community of circus performers – a young woman defies her overbearing mother and runs away instead. Free from the expectations and responsibilities at home, she seeks romance and adventure with the normies in a tiny farm town. In order to fit in, she reinvents herself with stories of a fabricated past, until the truth of who she is can no longer be concealed.

CUFF INFO & TIX: https://www.calgaryundergroundfilm.org/2026/bearded-girl/
INSTAGRAM: @thebeardedgirlmovie
@jodysays

Listen to Lucas Anders interview with Rino Mioc (director/writer/editor) about the film EARTH TO COLBY. It screens Saturday April 25th at 3:30 PM at the Globe Cinema as part of the Calgary Underground FIlm Festival. Rino Mioc and Stephanie Kvellestad as well as local cast & crew will be in attendance for a post screening Q&A.

EARTH TO COLBY... An aspiring vlogger discovers a notebook detailing hidden portals in her hometown, leading her on a journey to discover the city's supernatural history. After paranormal vlogger Colby vanishes, a documentary crew digs through her content and recovered footage to uncover the truth. What they find is her growing obsession with a strange coil-bound book and the escalating hauntings that followed. As Colby searches for a sign from her late father, friends and family reveal the chilling descent that led to her disappearance.

CUFF INFO & TIX: https://www.calgaryundergroundfilm.org/2026/earth-to-colby/
INSTAGRAM: @rino_mioc

Listen to Lucas Anders interview with Anthony Oberbeck (director/writer) about his film LITTLE DOORS screening as part of the Calgary Underground Film Festival. See it Saturday April 18th at 7:00 PM at the Globe Cinema in Calgary. Join Anthony Oberbeck, Megan Koester (cast), Eric Cotten (producer) and Miceal O'Donnell (producer) for a post-screening Q&A.

The feature directorial debut of Anthony Oberbeck (Dad & Stepdad, Reveries: The Mind Prison), LITTLE DOORS is a relentlessly deadpan comedy about loneliness, love, and the pain of human connection. In a strangely quiet, apocalyptic world, a lonely, reticent, and perpetually scowling woman is one day visited by an odd, but good-natured locksmith. They tumble awkwardly into their own strange, stilted version of a romance, and just as a real connection seems to be forming, the woman discovers a small wooden door on the side of her body. Oberbeck stars, with his wife Megan Koester, in a movie indebted stylistically to Aki Kaurismaki, Jim Jarmusch, and Yorgos Lanthimos, but moving very much with its own distinctly absurd logic and quietly thoughtful surrealism.

CUFF INFO & TIX: https://www.calgaryundergroundfilm.org/2026/little-doors/
INSATGRAM: @anthonyoberbeck

Lucas Anders interviews Nauzanin Knight (director) about her documentary THE FORBIDDEN UNIVERSITY. It is screening as part of Northwest Film Fest Saturday April 11th, 2026 st 2:30PM at Meto Cinema. Nauzanin Knight will be in attendance for a Q&A after the screening.

Amid the shadows of oppression in Iran, THE FORBIDDEN UNIVERSITY unveils a secret beacon of hope. Explore the clandestine world of the Bahá'í Institute for Higher Education, an informal underground university created by the Bahá’ís of Iran in a country where, for them, education is a crime. With poignant interviews and stunning rotoscoped animation (crafted by the Academy Award-winning studio behind The Perfect Storm and Blade Runner), this made-in-Edmonton doc shines a light on the courageous souls who dare to defy tyranny for the sake of education.

NWFF WEBSITE INFO & TIX: www.northwestfest.ca/2026/the-forbidden-university
FILM WEBSITE: www.theforbiddenuniversityfilm.com/team
INSTAGRAM: @nauzaninnknight

Christian Zyp interviews Pony Nicole Herauf (director/producer) about her debut feature film YOUNG FEMALE PLAYWRIGHT. See it as part of the Calgary Underground Film Festival on Wednesday April 22nd at 7:00PM at the Globe Cinema. Pony Nicole Herauf & Ellie Moon (screenwriter/actor) will in attendance for a post screening Q&A,

YOUNG FEMALE PLAYWRIGHT... 26-year-old Millie lands a career-making debut at Canada’s National Theatre, but the celebration quickly turns to scrutiny after a press release describes her play as a “deeply personal story.” Certain her dark family drama is a work of fiction, Millie is blindsided as those around her begin to read it as confession, especially her uncle Mark, a schoolteacher and recovered alcoholic. Through bright lights and dark comedy, the film interrogates who gets to tell which stories, what it costs a woman to be believed. YOUNG FEMALE PLAYWRIGHT is the debut feature from Calgary-born CUFF alum Director Pony Nicole Herauf (ART BABY, CUFF 2025).

CUFF TIX & INFO: www.calgaryundergroundfilm.org/2026/youn…aywright/
INSTAGRAM: @youngfemaleplawright
@ponynicoleherauf
@elliemooner

Christian Zyp interviews Alex Montilla (director/writer/editor) about his film FRIDAY THE 69TH. It's screening as part of the Calgary Underground Film Festival on Friday April 17th at 10PM at the Globe Cinema. Alex and Rob Zoppo (actor) will be in attendance for a post screening Q&A.

FRIDAY THE 69TH, the first-ever period piece feature shot entirely on an iPhone (probably...don't Google it), is a microbudget slasher-comedy paying tribute to the bottom-shelf horror films of the early ’80s. It follows a group of adult filmmakers in 1981 who aim to capitalize on the slasher trend by making their own independent ripoff about a group of spring breaking college coeds as they are terrorized by a mysterious killer beekeeper with a vendetta, leading to a series of gruesome and absurdly comedic events. Made for under $15,000 and featuring a scene shot on location at the original TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE house, FRIDAY THE 69TH embraces the charm of low-budget horror and DIY spirit of films like EL MARIACHI while delivering a bloody fun time for fans of cult cinema.

CUFF WEBSITE & TIX: www.calgaryundergroundfilm.org/2026/frid…the-69th/
FILM WEBSITE: fridaythe69th.com/
INSTAGRAM: @friday69film
@akmontilla

Christian Zyp interviews George Mihalka (director) about his film MY BLOODY VALENTINE for the 45th anniversary screening as part of the Calgary Underground Film Festival. See it Sunday April 19th at 4:15PM at the Globe Cinema as part of CUFF. George will be in attendance for the screening for a post-screening Q&A.

Cross your heart...and hope to die. Celebrate the 45th Anniversary of this cult Canadian slasher with the 4K uncut version of MY BLOODY VALENTINE! This 1981 Canadian slasher film was released in the wake of the popularity of the slasher genre that had overtaken the 1970s. Considered an example of the low-budget cult films reminiscent of popular slasher films such as Halloween (1978) and Friday the 13th(1980), the movie was filmed on location in Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia Canada.

CUFF WEBSITE & TIX: www.calgaryundergroundfilm.org/2026/my-b…iversary/