Twenty-five years of moviemaking have made Mayfair Theatre co-owner — and family man — Lee Demarbre part of Ottawa’s entertainment landscape. Writer Nate Smith takes us behind the scenes
Ottawa-based filmmaker Lee Demarbre behind the camera. Photo Courtesy Lee Demarbre
The past quarter century has made Lee Demarbre a fixture in the Canadian film industry.
It’s not because he’s the co-owner of Ottawa’s oldest active movie theatre. Nor because he consistently chooses eclectic — a mix of first- and second-run mainstream movies alongside independent, international and classic — yet well-received films as the Mayfair Theatre’s longtime programmer.
While Demarbre may not be a household name like Scorsese, Spielberg or Christopher Nolan, he has his own loyal following as an independent filmmaker.
This year marks 25 years since Demarbre began making movies, and he’s just as passionate about it now as when he first began.
The key to keeping the love? “The filmmaking experience has to be fun for me, not necessarily a big success financially,” he says.
As a child, Demarbre’s love of film was nurtured by his mother, who brought him to the movies almost every Sunday. On the marquee were innovative and highly regarded films of the late 1970s and 80s — “Airplane!,” “Alien,” “Jaws,” and different kinds of musicals, comedies, and zombie movies, which influenced Demarbre’s own work.
While attending Carleton University’s film studies program in the late 80s, Demarbre had found an alternative to mainstream films. Inspired by independent filmmakers like American cult film favourite John Waters (“Hairspray,” “Serial Mom” and “Cecil B. Demented”) and the “Godfather of Gore” Herschell Gordon Lewis to produce his own movies in the same vein, Demarbre learned to shoot a film on 16mm celluloid. He joined the Independent Filmmakers Cooperative of Ottawa. Within six months, Demarbre had created a series of short films on 16mm with his Bolex camera.
Since then, Demarbre has gone on to direct (and in some cases, edit) 10 feature films covering a variety of genres.
He said that each of his films tackle a different aspect of his inspirations. Through applying his own spin to the works, Demarbre has embraced the spirit of independent Canadian cinema.
After the Mayfair Theatre was threatened with closure in the fall of 2008, the city and its residents stepped in to save the beloved cinema. The building was declared a heritage site, protecting it from demolition, and a group in the community formed the Friends of the Mayfair Theatre.
In 2008, the City of Ottawa declared the Mayfair Theatre building as a heritage site under the Ontario Heritage Act. Photo Credit Petr Maur
The single-screen Mayfair Theatre is known for its popular screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Photo credit Petr Maur
Around this time, Demarbre, along with filmmaker Ian Driscoll, film conservator Paul Gordon and film scholar John Yemen took over the theatre. Following renovation efforts, they relaunched it in 2009 as a repertory cinema.
Today, Demarbre continues to act as the Mayfair’s programmer while co-owning with his wife Cheryl Demarbre, Driscoll and Josh Stafford. As programmer, he aims to create a diverse lineup of films that appeals to the community. Scheduling showtimes, planning special events, and hosting screenings take up much of his time, but he never misses an opportunity to connect with the Mayfair’s audiences and support local filmmakers.
Or his own family. Demarbre, a father to two adult children, “took a very serious role entertaining the kids as they were growing up,” says Cheryl, “by showing them lots of films and getting them to help with his filmmaking and other film-related passions.”
That love of film was shared with all. “A conversation on a dog walk can become a 20-minute affair, especially when a movie is involved,” Cheryl adds. “He is passionate, to say the least. It is also quite mesmerizing to witness his creativity when he gets in filmmaker mode.”
Along with his family and the Mayfair, a priority is work on his own creative projects, which have taken him all over the world. He’s travelled to Germany, Italy, France, Ireland, London and Mexico, where he filmed the documentary “Vampiro: Angel, Devil, Hero.” Movie work isn’t always linear — a 30-day break from “Vampiro” was used to film “The Dead Sleep Easy” in Guadalajara.
These projects have allowed Demarbre to work in unique settings, embrace diverse cultures and immerse himself in stories that influenced his creative approach.
Despite his work internationally, Demarbre has rooted much of his work in Canada, where he filmed “Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter” and “Enter the Drag Dragon.” A spinoff to the latter is currently in the works.
That doesn’t mean that the team at the Mayfair hasn’t seen its share of challenges. The ever-growing popularity of streaming services and the multiplex at nearby Lansdowne Park “should have been the nail in the coffin,” says Demarbre, but “we’re surviving that somehow.”
“What makes the Mayfair stand out is the eclectic programming, its longevity and history,” says Mayfair Theatre manager Andrew Lapointe.
Demarbre emphasizes that the cinema experience is different from watching films at home. The communal experience when watching a movie, he says, and taking in the atmosphere “is unlike any other.”
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Image Courtesy of the Mayfair Theatre