Jun 24, 2024
Monarch Theatre Restoration In Progress
Jun 2, 2024
Our Last Picture Show at the Monarch
May 29, 2024
One Last Run At The Monarch Theatre
May 20, 2024
Documentary Teaser: Finale Screenings
With the final shows of Your Cinema Needs You returning to the Monarch Theatre later this month, I decided to cut a new trailer for the documentary using some previously deleted scenes. You can purchase movie tickets for these screenings from May 30 to June 2 here.
May 17, 2024
Experience Medicine Hat: Monarch Documentary
May 14, 2024
Front Page News: Your Cinema Needs You
May 8, 2024
Finale Screenings of the Monarch Documentary
May 6, 2024
Monarch Theatre: Taking Her Back to 1941
May 5, 2024
Is the Documentary Coming Back to the Monarch?
Apr 30, 2024
Hometown Series at the Esplanade Gallery
If you find yourself in downtown Medicine Hat, Alberta over the next 5 months, have a look at the Tumbleweed Spaces that line the exterior of the Esplanade gallery.
Since 2012, I've sporadically shot thousands of images of Medicine Hat as part of a collection I've referred to as "the Hometown Series" and if you've followed me at any point in the last decade there's a good chance you've seen a part of it randomly pop up in your feed. The Hometown Series became so popular over lockdown that you may even have a print from it hanging in your home at this point.
As I described in my notes it's become a digital tapestry of my community, but in its simplest form, it's really just an excuse to look at the familiar in a less familiar way.
Of course, this exhibition wouldn't have happened without all of you and your support. It also wouldn't have happened without the amazing team at TREX Southeast who were the ones who nudged me to consider doing this and presented the opportunity a year ago.
It's amazing what time and a little creative energy can turn into. Thank you all for the push and for continuing to share the ride!
Apr 3, 2024
New Art Installation: Coming Soon!
Mar 21, 2024
Monarch Documentary: Spring Film Festival Run
Feb 20, 2024
Your Cinema Needs You: End of the Premiere Run
On February 17, 2024, the 11th screening of "Your Cinema Needs You" took place at the Monarch Theatre in Medicine Hat, Alberta. Amazingly, all 11 of the premiere screenings of this feature-length documentary were sold-out shows, meaning the entire premiere run of "Your Cinema Needs You" became a sold-out event that welcomed just shy of 4400 people back through the doors of the cinema at the centre of this story.
The big question now is what's next? I have still been receiving messages asking if the documentary will return to the Monarch Theatre at some point, and the short answer is, yes, we will likely try to have this run in the Monarch Theatre again later this year. It's difficult to make any firm predictions right now as the next step of this release is a spring film festival run. The submission process has been an ongoing effort since the beginning of the month, and hopefully there will be some updates to share in the weeks ahead.
As for the promised wide-release or the potential for a streaming option, this has been further delayed by the festival run. The strategy for where something plays, the rules of eligibility, etc. vary dramatically between film festivals, but the main criteria is that (generally speaking) a film can not have been released publicly elsewhere before certain dates or in certain regions to be eligible for official selection.
Is the film festival run necessary? Not exactly, it is a bit of a "prestige tour", however it does provide additional press and further promotional opportunities to showcase the work. Because this production lasted several years there is a concerted effort now to feel like the film is given its due. The success and record attendance of the premiere run at the Monarch Theatre has also suggested this is an avenue worth exploring.
So much time and energy went into finally making the premiere screenings happen that these next steps are really just the beginning of a new chapter. It's the reason why I'm not immediately stepping into another project or treating the end of the premiere run as the conclusion of this experience. There's still several stages of the release ahead, and not only does that take time, but with this project in particular, it feels like there are more opportunities to consider.
Naturally, there will continue to be a lot of questions about what's next for the Monarch Theatre, how the documentary could play into that, and where else the documentary ends up now that the main goal of having it reopen the Monarch Theatre has actually been realized. I don't have easy answers for any of this yet, but I am excited to see this play out and want to savour this experience now that it feels the public response has been so overwhelmingly positive.
In short, thank you to everyone who has already been a part of this and who made the premiere run of "Your Cinema Needs You" such an incredible success. There is still more of this story ahead, still lots of unknows, but I can't wait to share what happens next.
Feb 12, 2024
Monarch Theatre and the "Cinderella Bag"
In making the Monarch Theatre documentary, Your Cinema Needs You, there were obviously a lot of random things that I found that didn't make the final cut. There were also some entertaining cross promotions that unsurprisingly went out of fashion relatively quickly.
One such promotion that I found particularly funny was this one from 1957.
A local dry-cleaner was advertising the re-release of Disney's Cinderella and asked children to wear their "costume bags" to the cinema - essentially encouraging children to put dry-cleaner's bags over their heads to dress-up for the show. Shockingly, I couldn't find any examples of this "costume bag" promo ever running again, but just imagine how funny it would've been to see that theatre full of saran-wrapped children.
Feb 10, 2024
Last Chance to Catch Documentary at Monarch Theatre
My thanks to the Medicine Hat News for their coverage of the final screenings of Your Cinema Needs You at the Monarch Theatre. Tickets for the February shows are available here.
Jan 28, 2024
Documentary's Success Pushing Need For More Shows
What was originally envisioned as a single premiere night grew into 11 screenings, the last 4 of which will take place at 7 PM on February 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th. Any way you slice it, the success of this debut has created a new chapter in the history books for the Monarch Theatre, and has setup the introduction of Canada's oldest, surviving, purpose-built movie theatre for a national audience as the details for the wide release are organized for later this year.
I just wanted to once again express my thanks and heartfelt gratitude for all of the support you've shown me, my crew, this film, and the Monarch Theatre over the last few weeks. This feels like an ending and a new beginning all at once, and I'm excited to see what happens next.
Please join us for these final shows (in what I'm referring to as "the encore of the encore screenings") in the very building where it all unfolded. Full details and tickets here.