The Oldest Surviving Cinema in Stockholm, Sweden

After a year of film festival screenings for my documentary, Your Cinema Needs You, including two of which that took place in Sweden, I made a point of visiting the oldest still-operating movie theatre remaining in Stockholm. This is the Zita, a small, but beautiful art house cinema that first opened in 1913. What can I say? All of the research about old cinemas that went into the production now has me actively searching them out on my travel shoots.

 

Meatballs, Vikings, and Scandinavian Shoots

This incredible Scandi adventure through Sweden, Denmark, and Norway wrapped up back in Stockholm where it all began. I've barely scratched the surface of sharing what we fit into these weeks away, but that's always the case when you're busy having fun.

I will share what brought us here in the first place soon though - there's a bit more to that story than just the usual travel shoots. In the meantime, for our final night, we all enjoyed Swedish meatballs with lingonberries and whipped potatoes. You really can't have a more fitting Scandinavian send-off than an upscale version of what they serve at IKEA. 

I found the perfect hat for only 99 krona (that's about $13 CAD) to go along with a suitcase full of random Scandinavian souvenirs. In short, the perfect ending to an unforgettable experience. Lots more to come in the weeks ahead as I finally get some time to review everything I've captured.

Official Selections & A Best Director Nomination

Today happens to be my birthday, and while this would be reason enough to celebrate on any other year, this birthday already feels different because some incredibly positive news about my documentary on the Monarch Theatre has started rolling in over the last few weeks. 

With the spring film festival season only just beginning, notifications of the very first official selections for "Your Cinema Needs You" started showing up in my inbox a couple weeks ago. Previews of the documentary this month brought the story about Canada's oldest surviving cinema to Lisbon, Los Angeles, Dresden, Stockholm, Chicago, and Berlin. If that wasn't enough, I just found out this week that, "Your Cinema Needs You" was shortlisted for two Best Documentary awards, and received a festival nomination for Best Director in the feature documentary category. My chances of winning are slim, but still, a pleasure to be nominated and all that jazz.

On my birthday last year (and for much of 2023) I was deep in post-production and I posted frequently about if this movie was ever going to be finished, if I was going to get the ending I'd been holding out for, if the premiere would actually happen, and if the Monarch Theatre would finally reopen. Honestly, it would've saved me so much stress if I could've predicted that any of this would've worked out quite so well. 

I have a feeling that this is the beginning of a lot more exciting stories to share this year, so let me just say thank you again! Thank you to everyone who was involved in making this, who supported this multi-year project, who contributed to it, who attended the screenings, etc. etc. It's so awesome to see this through so many fresh eyes and to even have to opportunity to share this experience with you. 

What a great day to have cake in the house lol.