ALFF Creator Talk: Modern Whore

This event took place on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026 at 12:00 pmYukon Theatre | Cinema 2

Writer and performer Andrea Werhun, director Nicole Bazuin, and producer Lauren Grant discuss adapting Werhun’s memoir into an acclaimed hybrid documentary that premiered at TIFF. Together, they explore collaboration, authorship, sex worker representation, and pushing formal and cultural boundaries in contemporary Canadian cinema.

Nicole Bazuin is an award-winning Toronto filmmaker and artist. She directed the short films Thriving: A Dissociated Reverie, which premiered at Sundance and was named to TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten list for 2023, Modern Whore, which premiered at SXSW, and the CBC Short Doc Last Night at the Strip Club. She co-created and directed the series This Art Works! for CBC Arts and Climate Talks With Kids for The Image Centre. Nicole co-created and photographed the book Modern Whore: A Memoir (Penguin Random House Canada) with writer Andrea Werhun. Exhibitions include: Art Gallery of Ontario, Luminato, and Nuit Blanche. Modern Whore is her first feature film.

Lauren Grant: Clique Pictures is a vibrant film and television production company that focuses on working with female creative talent in front and behind the camera. Owned by award-winning filmmaker Lauren Grant, the company is based in Toronto, Canada. Modern Whore by Nicole Bazuin and Andrea Werhun with executive producer Sean Baker is her latest production. The film premiered at TIFF and has been awarded two Best Feature Documentary Awards (Silverwave & CUFF), one Jury Award (CUFF Docs) and a special mention for the TIDES award from VIFF. Known for her producing work, her films include Sugar Daddy, The Retreat, Riot Girls, Wet Bum, Picture Day, as well as the documentaries Wilfred Buck, On the Line, Metamorphosis, and Traceable. Lauren served as Executive Producer on The Sticky for Amazon. Her directorial debut short film Things We Feel but Do Not Say screened at festivals in North America before premiering on CBC. Her latest short film Erase & Rewind won the Golden Sheaf Mental Health award at the Yorkton Film Festival. Her feature screenplay Afterwards was named to the WScripted Cannes Screenplay List in 2024 under head juror Vanessa Kirby. She won a Canadian Screen Award for the short documentary Take a Walk on the Wildside and a Genie award for Savage. The Hollywood Reporter named Lauren one of 15 Talents to Watch, and she is an alumna of ACE Producers, Rotterdam Lab, Berlinale Talent Campus, and TIFF Studio. She’s currently completing her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia.

Andrea Werhun is a writer, performer, and producer based in Toronto. She is the author & co-creator of Modern Whore: A Memoir with filmmaker Nicole Bazuin. Andrea is the subject, performer, and producer of the award-winning short films Modern Whore and the CBC short doc, Last Night at the Strip Club. Andrea was a script consultant on Sean Baker's acclaimed, Oscar-winning film, Anora. She also consulted and played a lead role in Sook-Yin Lee's Paying for It, which premiered at TIFF 2024. Her writing can be found in the Opinion section of the Globe & Mail and her Substack, Public Figure.