Canadian rock icon Bif Naked (born Beth Torbert) is coming to Calgary for a screening of the documentary, Bif Naked, which Pollyanna Hardwicke-Brown directs. The documentary chronicles Bif’s life, celebrates her legendary music career, explores her traumatic past, showcases stories of her incredible resilience, and captures her kindness, compassion, and humour. This documentary is a must-watch, especially for Bif Naked fans.

Ahead of the March 2nd screening of the documentary, Q&A, and an acoustic performance at the Bella Concert Hall in Calgary, WHERE Calgary chatted with Bif about the movie.

“These screening shows are really special, and I am glad that we are coming back to Calgary because we didn’t get to see everybody,” Bif says. “We did our premiere of the documentary in Calgary, and I don’t even know how to describe it. It was so emotional and crazy. I had never seen a rough cut of my doc before the final version, so it was still super emotional. It was nuts just to see it in front of an audience.”

The news that a documentary was going to be made about her both excited and surprised Bif. “When I found out that anyone wanted to make a film about my life, I was floored, like I couldn’t believe that anyone wanted to make a film about me,” she reflects. “I’m an adopted kid, so I’m like, ‘Yeah, I get it. I was born in India, so I guess that’s interesting for people,’ and I’m a runaway, so I understand there’s that, and as a person who has survived different kinds of misadventures and abuse, I suppose that’s a story of interest for people and also my cancer story. All of those things, combined, I understood would make for an interesting story that people would be curious about. Also, I’ve been a performer since I was 18, so I get that’s part of why it would be interesting for an audience to see, but at the same time, I feel like everyone’s story is equally as interesting – everyone has their own story that is equally as valid and equally peppered with tragedies. I don’t think my story is any more important than anyone else’s. I believe everybody is worthy of a documentary. It just happened to be my turn.”

Bif is incredibly glad and thankful that director and writer Hardwicke-Brown was at the helm of the documentary. Hardwicke-Brown has been a longtime fan of Bif Naked. “For her to really honour my story, she is also really honouring my integrity and my authentic words,” Bif says. “No one else could have done it the way that she did. I view her as a guardian angel of not just my story but of my truth.”

One of the first things we learn about Bif in the documentary is that she never meant to be a singer and that she never sang as a child. She dreamed of being a ballerina, a comedian, or an actress. It wasn’t until she was 18 and drummer Brett Hopkins (Bif’s first husband, whom she would marry a year later) invited her to sing on stage with his band, Jungle Milk, that it all changed. This was the first time ever Bif sang on stage, and she instantly fell in love with it. “I remember it was a cover of Im Nin'alu by Ofra Haza,” Bif says. “It was just like WOW!! I can’t believe they are listening to me singing – it was amazing. It was the best thing that could have happened.”

The documentary bares it all and gets incredibly vulnerable and emotional, especially when Bif tells the story of when she was sexually assaulted at a party when she was in grade eight, when she talks about her battle with breast cancer, and when she recounts her experience with drug addiction. Bif has addressed these things before in her music and her memoir, I, Bificus, but sharing them in the documentary was much more difficult. “It’s easy to write about it in the memoir and to be able to talk about it even though I had been sharing many of those stories for years and years in my lyrics,” she says. “[In music] you can make things very poetic, dance around topics a bit, and not hide the true meaning of what you are trying to say, but you can make it a little more poetic. Even in a book, you don’t have to be there when the reader is reading it, but in a documentary, they can see your face, see your tears, or they can see the true essence of what you’re saying. They can feel what you're feeling and feel the weight of it.”

In the documentary, Bif says numerous times that having breast cancer actually saved her life. “It gave me a newfound purpose in a way and brought me into volunteering,” she reflects. “I never would have discovered that I was drawn to be in health care work had I not been a patient for so long, and I would never have discovered that I had a real passion for working in the hospital and that I had a real knack for working in palliative care and working in hospice care. I never would have known if I had not been asked to be there with some of my fellow patients who were not making it. I feel very privileged that I was able to go through my treatments with those other people… The rookies – the new chemo patients – many of these women are terrified, and all you want to do is make them feel better or reassure them somehow. Sometimes they go, ‘Oh, you’re Bif Naked.’ All you want to do is to make them feel better, and you have nothing else you can do, and you go, ‘Yeah, I’m Bif Naked,’ and they go, ‘Well, if you can do it, I can do it.’ You don’t have the heart to tell them it fucking sucks because it sucked for me too. You go, ‘Yeah, love yourself today,’ and they go, ‘Yeah,’ and all they want to hear is that they are going to be okay – I wish I could do everybody’s chemo for them. I wish I could. Maybe someday they will have that technology where I can sign up.”

The documentary also explores how many of Bif’s most iconic songs were created. One of her favourites that the documentary touches upon is the true story that inspired “Story Of My Life.” “It goes through the exact story when Mr. Davies, the cabbie, saved my buddy and me when we ran away from home,” she recalls. “This poor cabbie was stuck with us two snivelling idiots in the back of his cab, and these two pimps were trying to turn us out. We were like, ‘What are we going to do?’ We were really, truly in a jam. This adult just sucked it up and took a chance on saving our butts, and he did. He didn’t want anything from us; he didn’t want to take advantage of us in any way, shape, or form. He just wanted us to get home safe, and it is just remarkable to me that he saved our lives. He changed the course of my life by doing that. It was just a true selfless act.”

In addition to the documentary, Bif will perform an acoustic set of songs relevant to the documentary at these screenings. One of the songs she will play is “Spaceman,” one of her most well-known songs. “It really was a pivotal song and really propelled me as a young artist,” she explains. “It was basically a song that my manager, Peter [Karroll], forced me to write with him because I was writing with all my death metal boyfriends up until that very song. I was writing all these punk rock, hardcore, and death metal songs, and he was so frustrated with me as a manager. He sat there and strummed out the chords for ‘Spaceman’ and wouldn’t let me out of the room until I had written something that he felt was worthwhile. That was the exact song that I wrote. We tell the story in the film, and it was such a meaningful journey that we embarked upon from that point forward as a writer team – it came about so naturally. It’s not like he meant to insert himself in my creative process, but he just really had no choice because I was just so committed to being this little aggro screamo artist. It was kind of funny and tender. We perform that song for the audience in the theatre, and it is meaningful for everyone because they are taken along the journey with us.”

Bif is really looking forward to sharing the documentary with people at these upcoming screenings. “I love connecting with people and meeting with people,” she smiles. “I hope that [the documentary] makes people feel uplifted. I hope that it makes them happy when they watch it. It is my wish that it does give them hope in their own lives that dreams come true, because mine all did. They continue to come true every year as I get older… I feel like my biggest creative potential is still ahead of me. I look at women like Tina Turner, who didn’t start doing stadium tours until she was in her 50s, so that’s me. I’m in my 50s, I’m halfway there – the best is yet to come.”

Be sure to check Bif Naked’s official website to see if there is a screening near you.

 

Joseph Mastel