Local filmmaker showing documentary Wednesday at Medalta
By MO CRANKER on September 16, 2019.
NEWS FILE PHOTO Local videographer Luke Fandrich shoots a bit of video outside of Medalta. Fandrich recently finished a documentary on the Historical Clay District and that documentary is now on YouTube.
mcranker@medicinehatnews.com@MHNmocranker
A local filmmaker put together a documentary on the Historical Clay District and it has a showing this week at Medalta.
Luke Fandrich, also known as Editing Luke, is a photographer and filmmaker in the city and worked with Telus to put together Clay, Creativity and the Comeback. He says it is exciting to see the documentary finished and ready for the big screen.
“The documentary really is about what happened when Medalta closed down in the mid 1950s,” he said. “It starts around the 1970s when James Marshall and Jack Forbes got together and got the ball rolling on how to save the buildings of Medalta.
“It eventually grew to include other factories in the clay district as part of that and the documentary aims to tell that story and capture it by talking to a number of key individuals who were there.”
Fandrich, 35, is a born-and-raised Hatter and spent five months working on the documentary. He says the documentary covers around 45 years of history and brings the audience to about 2012.
“It runs for about 75 minutes and it brings us to the Medalta we know today,” said Fandrich. “Today’s Medalta hasn’t even been around for 10 years and it’s already become a huge attraction in the city – it’s right there with the Saamis Teepee.”
Fandrich says Telus reached out in April and this documentary has been his main focus since then.
“Telus was motivated to get something made and I had a lot of fun working on this,” he said. “I’m also the narrator in the documentary and I spoke with a number of key people from Medalta’s history.
“I think there’s a lot to learn here about a really important part of Medicine Hat’s history.”
The showing will take place Wednesday at Medalta at 6 p.m. and there is free admission.
“Anyone who wants to see this is welcome to,” he said.
