This local documentary was so popular, it's screening again this October

After a sold-out screening in June, a documentary detailing a legendary Okanagan tale will hit the silver screen again in Kelowna.

'Eddy's Kingdom' tells the story of barber, entrepreneur, and hostage taker Eddy Haymour. The 2020 film recounts, from all sides, Haymour’s dream of developing Rattlesnake Island into a Middle Eastern-themed amusement park.

It will screen on Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. at the Rotary Centre for the Arts.

Ahead of the June screening, Kelowna10 spoke with director and writer Greg Crompton. The interview was condensed and shortened for clarity.

When did you first hear of Eddy’s story?

I grew up in Kelowna. My family would boat by Rattlesnake Island in the late 80s. My dad first told me about the story; this theme park on the island and all the things that happened with it. My dad was in real estate in Kelowna at the time, and he was asked to appraise the island by Eddy when he was trying to sell it. My dad said I don’t think I’m your guy to work with you on this. We heard about that and the story and then didn’t think much of it for years.

How did it go from knowing about it as a kid to pursuing it in a documentary?

We did a T.V. show called B.C. Was Awesome. When we were in the story sessions, I pitched this story from Kelowna that nobody knows too much about. We did a five-minute story on the Eddy Haymour story and Castle Haymour and the statue.

At the time, I was surprised to learn that Eddy was still alive. For that story, we only filmed with his daughter. Eddy was still in Edmonton at the time. We did that and the reaction to it, when we released it, everyone knew there was more to this story than five minutes. We pitched the documentary, and we got funding, and the rest is up on screen.

What was it like to work with Eddy intimately?

It was wild. To get funding we needed to get Eddy on board. It was a process of just chatting to him and talking it through with him. And he loves to tell his story. He lives for it. He was pretty open to it. It was more just presenting myself to him, and saying, ‘hey, we’re doing this documentary and it’s not just a puff piece on you. We are going to take you to task and hear all sides of the story here. And just so you are aware, that’s what were going to do.’

He was quite open to discussing everything, and he was open and understanding that I would ask him questions about his family life, and scenarios with his wife, and scenarios with government.

It was great to work with him in that way, and I think it made it a more in-depth documentary.

It is a weird story. Did you ever have any worries or concerns while making it?

Working with him and getting his side of the story was relatively easy. But he also said some things he had never told anybody. That was wild. I think the challenge with this documentary, or one of them, was the history. The action happened in the 70s and 80s. I’ve worked in a lot of historical documentary shorts, but for this it was how do we get this story and get all the facts and all the sides of the story from back them, but also make it current. How does it relate back to today? That was a concern of mine. I wanted to make it interesting to people who had never heard the story.

This needs to be a story about obsession. A guy trying to get justice in his eyes. There were lots of concerns on how to make it engaging, and get access to people who were against Eddy or disagreed with him.

Everyone has their strong held views. And my goal as a filmmaker, for me, was to be, ‘okay, this is what everybody thinks, and we are not just going to present one perspective. We are going to have these people disagreeing on screen.’

I wanted to be respectful of people’s time and perspective. But I couldn’t take their opinion and just present that. They had to play off each other. I’m happy with how it ended up.

Eddy, in the end, disagrees with some parts of the film, but he is still watching it.

Is there a message people can glean from the film?

Be careful what you wish for or what becomes your obsession. Eddy had this dream and it kind of took over his life. Unfortunately, his family came second to this dream. And then when he was kind of wronged, he went down this rabbit hole. Maybe try and temper your obsessions.

What’s it like to finally screen it in Kelowna?

It is going to be exciting to be screening this film that is based on an iconic story in the Okanagan Valley for the first time - and have Eddy’s daughter there and hopefully some people from the film show up - I think it is such an exciting moment as a filmmaker to present your work and to present the people connected to it. It’s a thrill to show local work to locals who know and really care about it.