A Film School Reunion in Saskatchewan

This last week I was soaking up the nostalgia on a film school reunion tour around Saskatchewan with some of my closest friends. While we've all been back over the years, I don't think we've all been back at the same time since we were actually students.

With so many of us living out of province now, this Saskatchewan trip became the perfect excuse for us to all travel back to Saskatoon and Regina to hangout, reminisce, and go back to some of our old stomping grounds. I can't quite remember the last time I've consumed this much beer in a single week lol.

Amazingly everything always seems to fall back into place when revisiting old friends. The trip coincidentally lined up with move-in week at the University of Regina, which immediately triggered so many great memories of my years living in the dorms there.

If there was any more glaring reminder of just how much has changed since my days as a film student, my feature-length documentary was also playing at the 2024 Regina International Film Festival just days before I made it back. With the trip finalized long before I even knew the doc would pick up the 'official selection' here, it was another serendipitous bit of timing.

These moments always seem too few and far between, but what a great week. I'm glad we're still making memories all these years later.

Your Cinema Needs You: RIFFA Nomination

This feels like a full-circle moment. 

Last week the official selections for the 2024 Regina International Film Festival & Awards in Regina, Saskatchewan were announced and there was something particularly special in seeing the notifications about Your Cinema Needs You popping up in my inbox this time.

 

Since February 2024, the feature-length documentary about Canada's oldest, surviving, purpose-built movie theatre has been selected and screened at over 20 international film festivals in 11 countries. In what will likely be one of the last festivals of this tour at the end of August, the reason this selection hits differently is because not so long ago I was an ambitious, but clueless film student at the University of Regina. In fact, I launched "Editing Luke" while living in the dorms on campus at College West. 

If that bit of poetry and nostalgia isn't enough though, it also doesn't hurt that Your Cinema Needs You has picked up a nomination in the Best Documentary (Canadian long form) category at this year's festival - not that I needed much of an excuse for a reunion, but it's a great reason to celebrate all the same! I'd also like to shout out all of my film profs - "See? I wasn't sleeping in class, I was brainstorming for future moments like this!"

Autumn River Views in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

A few autumn visuals across the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Autumn in Wascana Centre in Regina, Saskatchewan

A few visuals from around Wascana Centre in Regina, Saskatchewan.

 

Great Sand Hills in Saskatchewan

A few visuals from the Great Sand Hills (sometimes called Great Sandhills), a 1900 sq. km natural area featuring massive sand dunes in southwestern Saskatchewan.

 

Haunted Homesteads on the Canadian Prairies

With a number of new travel shoots across Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba this autumn, I inadvertently kept spotting abandoned houses and homesteads all over the prairies. These are just a few of the "haunted" highlights found on numerous backroads across the Canadian Prairies.