A documentary about Winnipeg’s weird love for Phantom Of The Paradise is in the works

Canada has a reputation for being rather dull, frankly. But like a lot of nice, seemingly completely normal neighbors, it’s actually into some weird shit behind closed doors. After all, it’s Canada that enjoys the violence of hockey, the strange comedy of SCTV, and, oddly enough, hosts one of the world’s only Phantom Of The Paradise fan conventions—Phantompalooza—every year, the latter of which is now the subject of a fan documentary.

According to Deadline, director Malcolm Ingram’s (Small Town Gay Bar, Continental) Phantom Of Winnipeg will look into the lives of devoted fans of Brian De Palma’s 1974 cult classic, many of whom weren’t even old enough to remember the film’s home video release, much less when it opened in theaters. The documentary will also talk with the filmmakers and get their reaction to the film’s following. (No word on whether DePalma himself will appear in the film.)

Phantom Of The Paradise was the other rock musical that graced the silver screen in the ’70s: Directed by Brian DePalma, the glam-rock take on Faust via Phantom Of The Opera featured music by Paul Williams, cult-film favorite Gerrit Graham as rock ‘n’ roller Beef, and plenty of patented DePalma split-screen camera techniques and voyeurism. The film bombed upon its initial release in the States, but in Winnipeg, it outsold Jaws. And while Rocky Horror’s cult following grew to a nationwide phenomenon from its roots in New York, the idiosyncratic following of Phantom remains centralized in the great white north.

No date has been set for the release of Phantom Of Winnipeg, which just went into production. But the producers of the film have launched an Indiegogo campaign to help finance the production; they‘ve raised a little less than one-tenth of their $50,000 goal, with 25 days left to go.