The Calgary Underground Film Festival was founded in 2003. The festival focuses on independent films that are rarely screened in North American theaters. CUFF showcases films in various categories (feature, documentary, short and animation) and genres (sci-fi, fantasy, horror, thrillers, music-related films, and more). However, it is physically impossible to fit all noteworthy films into the festival program.
CUFF’s audience has always taken a special interest in documentary films, and people asked the team of the festival repeatedly to screen more documentaries, or to launch a documentary festival. The CUFF team went for the latter option. They continued to showcase the best documentaries during the main festival and also inaugurated a separate festival dedicated to non-fiction films that was named CUFF.Docs.
CUFF.Docs takes place half a year after the main festival, so CUFF is a spring festival and CUFF.Docs is an autumn festival. Its program features the best in non-fiction films, which have never been screened in Calgary before. The festival showcases about 10–12 feature-length documentaries and a variety of short films. The team of CUFF.Docs select films that vary in genre, style and subject in order to offer the viewers a rich and diverse program.
At CUFF.Docs, the quality of the content is what matters most. The festival isn’t a platform for making political statements or advocating for particular issues. Its main goal is to introduce the audience to a range of films that both challenge and confirm believes and make people think. CUFF.Docs strives to promote the art of documentary filmmaking and to support independent cinema.
Photo: calgaryundergroundfilm.org
