Your Cinema Needs You in Australia

Your Cinema Needs You has picked up its final film festival selection and is off to Australia! This selection marks the 12th country the documentary has traveled to this year and will conclude the limited release / international film festival tour that kicked off in February 2024.

International Film Festival Tour Expands to 25+ Cities

"Hey, what's been happening with the Monarch Theatre documentary and when can we see it?" I've probably been asked this question more than any other this year. With the last festival schedules now being finalized, here's a brief (and overdue) update about the international film festival tour for "Your Cinema Needs You" directed by Luke Fandrich.

Needless to say, there have been no shortage of surprises throughout this entire experience. Since the premiere run ended back in February 2024, "Your Cinema Needs You" has been on an ambitious international film festival tour which quickly surpassed expectations for what this release would look like.

In the last 8 months, the indie doc about Canada's oldest cinema has gone on to screen in over 25 cities across 11 countries. From Los Angeles to Montreal to Berlin to Istanbul to Tokyo, the movie continued to pick up official selections in new venues that further pushed the release down the road as we built momentum.

These were all really good problems to have.

Where are we now? The notifications about final festival selections for 2024 are expected in the next few weeks. Regardless of the outcomes, this will see the festival run conclude this December and should fast-track public viewing options soon after. This means the long-teased wide release is finally on the horizon.

I'll get into more of the behind the scenes about this entire chapter in a future post.

Once again, thank you for the continued interest, patience, and support through all of this. I wouldn't have even pursued this detour had all the premiere shows in the Monarch Theatre not been such a huge success. It's been a life-changing ride.

More details to come.

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.

 

Searching For Hollywood's Oldest Cinema

With the film festival tour for my documentary, "Your Cinema Needs You" and some of my travel shoots overlapping this year, I've made a point of searching out old cinemas in a lot of the different places that I've been going.

In Los Angeles, a city full of incredible theatres, I thought it would be interesting to find the oldest cinema in Hollywood. This lead me down a bit of rabbit hole.

For starters, until Hollywood was incorporated into Los Angeles in 1910, the town had regulations specifying no theatres. Once incorporated, this changed quickly. The first cinema built in Hollywood in 1910 was called the Idyl Hour, which was later renamed the Iris Theatre, however the location changed several times in just a few short years. A very familiar story.

With only a few images and an old fire map to go on, the theatre would've been located on prime real estate on Hollywood Boulevard. Unfortunately, when I went to see what was there today this is what I found - an empty lot with a direct view of the Hollywood sign.

The cinema had been defunct since the 1920s and the name moved again, but I was curious if the building had been repurposed or modified. What makes this location special is just how many incredible cinemas are still in the area.

Grauman's Chinese Theatre (now the TCL Chinese Theatre) is just a few blocks away and in addition to still hosting movie premieres to this day, it's endured as one of the most famous movie palaces in the world. Quite the contrast from where the Iris began over a century ago.

Each of these detours makes me further appreciate what was uncovered in making the documentary about Medicine Hat's Monarch Theatre. It's a fascination about how much has changed, what's been left to find, and that through it all that little cinema back in Medicine Hat has survived when so many others didn't.

Inside Hollywood's Iconic Chinese Theatre

The iconic TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, California attracts plenty of attention along Hollywood Boulevard, however the interior of this movie palace is even more impressive. With painted murals and embellished Chinese decor, the lobby of Grauman's Chinese Theatre is completed with classic movie memorabilia and programs from some of the Hollywood premieres that have been hosted at this landmark over nearly a century.

Another Best Documentary Win For the Monarch Movie

This crazy ride continues to exceed expectations.

I'm once again humbled to share that my documentary, Your Cinema Needs You has picked up a few more selections and awards on its ongoing international film festival tour this summer.

Last month the feature-length film was awarded Best Documentary in the feature-length category at the 2024 Edinburgh Film Awards, it made its way to Istanbul, Turkey for a selected screening, and just this week received its 12th Best Documentary nomination after being selected at the Detroit Independent Film Festival.

Amid this good news, I was reminded that it was exactly one year ago that we formally announced the completion of the film. I never imagined that I'd still be talking about this documentary a year later with the wide release not having happened yet, but here we are.

The long-delayed and surprise success of the premiere shows at the Monarch, followed by the (now) 7-month film festival tour, essentially turned this run into an entirely new project for 2024. It really has been an incredible journey to see this story spread, and I can't express how thrilled I am that so many others have latched onto this doc in recognition of the grassroots power of indie cinema, and quite literally in this case, the importance of indie cinemas like the Monarch Theatre.

Thank you all so much for all the support over this last year.

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!"

Hometown Series & Documentary on CKUA Radio

This morning my interview with Grant Stovel on Alberta Morning went live on CKUA Radio. 

We had a great chat about my Hometown Series currently on display in the Tumbleweed Project Space at the Esplanade in downtown Medicine Hat, and about my documentary on the Monarch Theatre, Your Cinema Needs You. You can listen to the interview embedded below. My thanks again to Grant Stovel and CKUA for reaching out and highlighting these projects.   

 

CKUA Radio · Luke Fandrich on Alberta Morning

Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway

A few visuals from Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway, one of the premiere ride attractions at Disney's Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.