Punk rock icon and billboard topping multi-platinum selling artist, Beth Torbert, who goes by the stage name Bif Naked, has been one of the biggest names in Canadian music for the past three decades.

Now, a documentary that offers a deep, unfiltered look into her life, her struggles, her successes, and with previously unseen archival footage from her concerts internationally, is set to have its world premiere at the Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF).

Bif Naked is set to kick off the 2025 festival with a Spotlight+ screening, including a red carpet appearance from Bif along with a post-showing Q&A and musical performance.

Torbert said seeing herself on the silver screen felt like an extension of her entire career thus far.

“I feel like I’ve had the benefit of being a performing artist my whole adult life. So, I feel like I had that dress rehearsal in this way. Then, having all the albums lyrics that are primarily autobiographical, I’ve been accustomed to putting myself out there, on a limb in that way, emotionally,” she said.

“The documentary is a big leap of faith in that way. Watching the rough cut was maybe a little self conscious, certainly, but I feel enormously humbled that anyone would want to make a document about my life, and of course my career. But it’s exciting, and I’m terribly excited for everyone to see it.”

The film chronicles Torbert’s story as a child born in India, adopted by American missionaries, being raised in Winnipeg, and then carving a deep path through the punk scene. That’s all alongside being a cancer survivor, living through heartbreak, and finding international success through being herself.

She said that the documentary came about as a result of her long-time manager working with a team that wanted to make a feature film about her life based on her memoir, I, Bificus.

“Peter had been working with them, and he had talked about how many people had approached him over the years to do a documentary about the music, but particularly about my story of origin, being born in India and the adoption story more than anything else, and how my birth mom was Canadian,” said Torbert.

“What wound up happening was one of the most incredible documentary teams in the world is, of course, from Edmonton—Adam Scorgie and Score G Productions—and to have the opportunity to work with them has just been, you know, just a dream come true.”

That production, over three years in the making, came together with interviews with music journalism luminaries like George Stroumboulopoulos, along with Torbert’s bandmates, Doug Fury and Chiko Misomali, among others.

Nostalgic and emotional for fans of Bif Naked

Torbert said the result is set to give audiences a very real emotional journey when they get to see it for the first time at CIFF.

“There’s some scenes in the in the documentary that are nostalgic, and I hope it’s evocative in a way that people get a little bit wistful, or they get nostalgic, or they feel melancholy, or they feel happy,” she said.

“There is so much music stuff. There’s archival footage. I don’t know where they got it, and that’s the thing… we didn’t have cell phones on my first tours. We had no archival footage. None. Zero. We didn’t have digital photographs. We didn’t have computers on our first tours. I did my first 10 tours of Europe with nothing. We had nothing.”

Torbert said those original tours had disposable cameras, of which half were lost, and the handbills for shows were handmade.

“Nobody had anything. We lost all our stuff. We didn’t have anything. So it’s interesting how they were able to to piece some of that stuff together. There’s some old, beautiful photos and footage of—I don’t want to give stuff away—but there’s some old duets that I did,” she said.

“I have lots of laughs with my band mates. They had the same reaction when they saw some of this footage.”

There are also sad moments, too, she said, with parts of the film showing Torbert’s birth mother talking about her, and then the emotional struggles that she faced, such as heartbreak and fighting breast cancer.

“I don’t know how on earth that I will be able to not fidget, sitting within the audience and watching it on the screen. I don’t how I’m supposed to do that. I think I’ll have to sit at the very back and just emotionally eat popcorn constantly, constantly eating the popcorn, and try not to laugh through the funny parts I think are funny, or cry because there’s tear jerking parts for sure,” she said.

Don’t have to be a fan of Bif Naked’s music to be a fan of the documentary

Brenda Lieberman, CIFF’s Lead Programmer, said that programming Bif Naked at CIFF was something really exciting for fans of her music, or even just documentaries in general.

“If you’re a fan, you’ll go in and you’ll enjoy it completely. You’ll be able to geek out a bit and learn something and be part of something as a fan. But we always hope with our documentaries, and especially with this one kicking off the festival, that you don’t have to be a Bif Naked fan,” she said.

“You should be able to go in and also experience it, everything that’s in the documentary, and come away with maybe a new perspective.”

Lieberman said that CIFF has long had a music-on-screen portion of the festival, and that programming music documentaries and films has been a favourite thing for the CIFF team every year.

“I always wondered, is there going to be a period when we we can’t find, or struggle to find great music docs. Has everyone been covered? But there’s not. Brian [Owens] programmed it this year, and the diversity in the music selection is really amazing,” she said.

“There’s quieter ones or more popular ones. But if you’re a music lover, I think this section is a really great way to explore more of it.”

Bif Naked was directed by Pollyanna Hardwicke-Brown, and produced by Adam Scorgie, Yas Taalat, Gabriel Napora, and Shane Fennessey, along with executive producers Jhod Cardinal, Rod Gregory, Jim Wright, Christopher Tavlarides, Jimmy Lynn, and Jade Ansell.

Cinematography was by Chase Gardiner, who was the cinematographer on the 2023 CIFF short selection Suzy Makes Cupcakes.

Tickets for the Spotlight+ showing of Bif Naked on Sept. 18 at 6:30 p.m. at the Globe Cinema, are $35 each and can be purchased at www.ciffcalgary.ca.