How NorthwestFEARFest's boss put his life into film
Guy Lavallee, the mind behind NorthwestFEARFest, might just be the busiest man in Edmonton film festivals.
The horror- and genre-film festival, which began its third edition on Oct. 16 at Metro Cinema, is the youngest of Lavallee's three festivals. He manages it alongside Rainbow Visions Film Festival, a queer cinematic affair established in 2015, and NorthwestFest, a long-running documentary showcase that will be known as the Northwest Film Festival when it returns in 2025.
On top of all that, Lavallee also programs two series for the Calgary International Film Festival and juggles a full-time job making local commercials for a national broadcaster. It's not an easy feat.
"To my wife, I probably quit each film festival two to three times a year — and then the next day, I'm fine," he told Taproot. "There are days that (I ask) 'Why? What am I doing?' But then there are days that it's so rewarding."
NorthwestFEARFest, a festival for movie buffs who enjoy their screens covered in creepies and crawlies, includes anniversary screenings of the slasher blueprint A Nightmare on Elm Street and the cult phenomenon Phantom of the Paradise, plus what Lavallee predicts to be an indie breakout hit: Dead Mail. That film premiered at SXSW this spring, just like last year's NorthwestFEARFest hit Late Night with the Devil, which went on to earn more than triple its US$3-million budget.
Those examples show growing breadth, Lavallee said.
"We're really reaching out to a much broader spectrum of Edmontonians now than if we were just doing a genre festival or a documentary festival or a queer film festival," he said. "It widens the scope of who we're programming films for, and to me, that's the purpose."
This year's lineup has a connection to Lavallee's childhood. He grew up with a dad who spent one day a week working at a cinema for "walking around money" in Winnipeg. That city has an inscrutable obsession with Phantom of the Paradise, directed by Brian De Palma of Carrie and Scarface fame. The film, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary as it closes the festival on Oct. 22, is one of the first movies Lavallee ever saw in a theatre.
"It was just the weirdest thing I'd ever seen, and I absolutely loved it and became obsessed with movies," he said. "Movies and music were always my two big things. That's all I was really interested in."
