ASLU 078: Creative Canadian Lia Rinaldo - Getting Small to Go Big
Editor’s Note: Some links in this article may be affiliate links. Full disclosure is located at the end of the article.
As Managing Director of Devour! The Food Film Fest, Lia Rinaldo and her team have grown a small, niche film festival in Wolfville, N.S into the largest film festival in the world related to all things culinary! She had to get small to go big and this week she shares her story with us. We talk about niching down, curating the work of other creatives, grass roots marketing, applying for grants and, of course, pivoting in a pandemic!
This episode is part of our ongoing series profiling creative Canadian women - their journeys and some of the their most impactful business lessons and tips.
With a 30-year career in the film industry and a passion for food culture, Lia Rinaldo knew she’d found a perfect combination in Devour! The Food Film Fest. Her career in the movie industry started when she was a bright-eyed teenager at Wormwoods Dog & Monkey Cinema, moving onto the Atlantic Film Festival before making her way to a second career as a freelance food and travel writer for Eat North, Halifax Curated Magazine, Occasions Magazine, North American Traveller amongst other publications. Lia currently serves on the national jury for Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants.
Lia has been honoured with the Tourism Industry Association of Nova Scotia Crystal Tourism Award of Excellence Ambassador Award, the Taste of Nova Scotia Gary MacDonald Culinary Ambassador Award, Canadian Treasures Award for Innovation in Hospitality by The George Brown Centre for Culinary Arts, the Progress Women of Excellence Award in Arts & Culture. She has also twice been named to the Chronicle Herald Arts & Life Honour Roll.
Fueled by her love for food and film, Lia, as Managing Director, has utilized her talent for festival coordination to help make Devour! the largest film festival in the world dedicated to all things culinary. 2021 marks the 11th anniversary of Devour!, which runs from October 19-24 at its home in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. This year’s festival will be opened by Tomson Highway and centres on the theme of Global Indigenous Cinema and Cuisine.
Devour! will be an expanded hybrid version with in person events and screenings as well as streaming passes for digital screenings. You can learn all about this year’s programming and purchase tickets here. (Additional tickets may be released on October 4th depending on Nova Scotia’s Covid-19 situation)
If you just want the links to the resources mentioned in this episode, scroll down to the bottom.
Listen To the Episode
Here’s a direct link to the episode. You can also listen via the player below or on your favourite podcast app (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Stitcher, and more). Just search for And She Looked Up!
get small to go big
In This Episode We Talk About
In this episode we talk about:
Lia’s early days in the film industry and with the Atlantic Film Festival
the genesis of Devour! and how Lia and her business partner Michael Howell grew the festival to where it is today (the biggest culinary film festival in the world)
how the idea of niching down into the seemingly small world of culinary film allowed her and Michael to go big by diving deep with expanded programming and experiences as well as growing lasting and meaningful relationships
why they have kept the festival in the small town of Wolfville for over a decade and have no intentions of changing that
how she takes on the challenging task of curating the work of other creatives each year to build the Devour! program
the importance of grass roots marketing to the success of the festival (and how landing Anthony Bourdain as a speaker changed the course of the festival forever)
applying for government grants at all levels in Canada
Mentioned in this episode
Support the Podcast
Wondering how you can support the podcast? Here are some great ways you can support the podcast!
subscribe or follow the podcast on your favourite podcast app
follow us on your favorite social media platform:
Sign up for our newsletter (see below)
Purchase your set of And She Looked Up motivational stickers made just for female creative entrepreneurs!
We’re On YouTube!
You can now listen to the podcast on YouTube! We’re in the process of uploading our entire archive onto YouTube, one episode a day, so you can listen there. We should be caught up by the time Season 3 launches. Then new episodes will be available every Friday!