There are burgers. And then there is the Lebanese mushroom burger.

Its “secret sauce” is the subject of so many legends that it can only be topped by the legend of The Burger Baron, the non-franchise franchise that is the subject of Edmonton director-writer-producer Omar Mouallem’s first documentary feature, The Lebanese Burger Mafia.

The financing strategy for the Back Road Productions film — which makes its world premiere at the Hot Docs festival on Wednesday (May 3) — might also become something of legend.

Mouallem tells Playback Daily the doc was crowdfunded in 2021 with an initial goal of raising $75,000. But the day the crowdfunding campaign launched, Mouallem got a call from Edmonton’s Kyle Johnson, owner of KAJ Investments and a professional poker player who also happens to be a cinephile. He offered to bankroll the film for a return on investment if it was successful. It was also supported by more than 200 crowdfunders.

“And just like that we reached our goal. But we continued to raise more money, which was necessary because it went a little bit over budget,” says Mouallem.

In the end, the total production budget came out to $180,000.

“Pretty-low budget,” says Mouallem. “You look at some of the documentaries today and they are made for a couple of million dollars and they are very slick. But this is a road movie, and so the run-and-gun improvised style works for it.”

Johnson ended up becoming an executive producer on the project. Overseeing production were Back Road’s Dylan Rhys Howard and executive producer Blake McWilliam.

The film is a Burger Baron origin story — there are quite a few, as the doc reveals — but it’s also a story about its Irish-American founder. It’s about identity and hope for Lebanese immigrants who made Alberta home in the 1970s and owned and operated a vast majority of these restaurants, each on their own terms and even their own set of menus. And it is also a story of the cult of the Baron mushroom burger, a constant on all menus.

“The film has its sobering moments, but it’s also a comedy,” says Mouallem.

The Lebanese Burger Mafia is based on Mouallem’s short doc The Last Baron, which premiered on CBC Gem in 2021.

“There was so much more to this story than I imagined and that could be told in that short period of time. So I knew that it had potential to be a 90-minute film,” says Mouallem.

The short gained traction through press coverage and word of mouth ahead of its premiere, and the audience interest compelled Mouallem to pursue the feature-length version.

“We used that opportunity [before the premiere] to launch a crowdfunding campaign and we threw a pre-screening party to continue to raise money for it.”

Once there were more than 50 completely independent Burger Barons, each with their own version of the logo and, in some cases, variations of the Baron name. Some even sold Chinese food.

Now, there are 26 Burger Barons left in Alberta and one in British Columbia, according to Mouallem. The film documented 20 locations in Alberta.

Production started in 2021. It came with its share of obstacles, including COVID restrictions, working with remote crews to get interviews from California, overcoming internet issues and directing over WhatsApp calls and chat for the Lebanon interviews. In some instances, DOPs in Lebanon would send Mouallem pictures of their viewfinders so he could make a decision on a shot.

There were other kinds of challenges too.

“One of the biggest challenges was repeatedly telling the owners that we couldn’t accept a free lunch because it would compromise our journalistic standards… which is true… but it’s also true that there’s simply a limit on the number of mushroom burgers you can eat in a day or a month. I think Omar has crossed that limit more than once, but that just shows his level of dedication to the story,” Howard says.

The Lebanese Burger Mafia will make its hometown premiere at the Metro Cinema in Edmonton, where it will close the NorthwestFest.

Cairo-based MAD Solutions recently acquired distribution rights to the film for the Middle East/North African region, and at the moment it also has its worldwide rights. The deal was brokered by Montreal-based Film Associates International on behalf of the production.

Photo courtesy Back Road Productions, pictured: Burger Baron superfan Brian Knight