Modern Whore is a hybrid documentary that reimagines popular depictions of sex work through the lived experiences of writer, performer, and sex worker, Andrea Werhun. Based on the subject’s 2018 memoir and an expansion of the director’s 2020 short film, both of the same name, Modern Whore follows Andrea as she grapples with social stigma and reclaims her narrative in a series of funny, heartbreaking, and surprising stories.
Join director Nicole Bazuin and producer/subject Andrea Werhun for a special post-screening discussion on Friday, May 22.
Nicole Bazuin and Andrea Werhun will be joined by producer Lauren Grant for a discussion after the Saturday, May 30 screening.
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.
Andrea Werhun is a writer, performer, and producer based in
Toronto. She is the author and co-creator of
Modern Whore: A
Memoir
(Strange Light/Penguin Random House Canada) with
filmmaker Nicole Bazuin. In 2024, Andrea consulted on Sean
Baker’s acclaimed film
Anora
and Sook-Yin Lee’s
Paying for
It, in which she also played a lead role. Andrea cowrote, produced, and performed in
Thriving: A Dissociated Reverie, which
enjoyed its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and
was named to TIFF Canada’s Top Ten 2023. Andrea is a regular
contributor to The Globe & Mail and CBC Radio, and wrote a
feature memoir essay for the June 2025 issue of Toronto Life.
Lauren Grant is an award-winning producer, and the owner of
Clique Pictures, a production company that focuses on working with female creative talent in front and behind the camera.
She produced the feature films
Sugar Daddy, The Retreat, Riot
Girls, Wet Bum, Picture Day, and the documentaries
Wilfred
Buck
and
Metamorphosis. Lauren executive produced
The
Sticky
for Amazon. 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.
Copies of Andrea Werhun's book, Modern Whore: A Memoir will be available for purchase at the screenings, courtesy of Another Story Bookshop. Andrea Werhun will be available to sign books.
TICKETS (+HST)
General: $15
Members: $10, $8, FREE