Film aims to preserve history, future of Monarch Theatre
By KENDALL KING on December 8, 2022.
Medicine Hat-born filmmaker Luke Fandrich is releasing the trailer for his documentary about the city's Monarch Theatre, Your Cinema Needs You, on Dec. 23. The full film is set to be released in early 2023.--SUBMITTED PHOTOA Medicine Hat-born filmmaker’s documentary about the Monarch Theatre is set to be released early next year, but its trailer is premiering Dec. 21 to commemorate the theatre’s 111th anniversary.
Luke Fandrich – who is also known by his production company and brand’s name Editing Luke – became interested in the theatre’s history several years ago, and was especially fascinated by its claim of being Canada’s oldest cinema.
“The documentary was inspired by the claim that the Monarch Theatre is the oldest surviving cinema in Canada,” Fandrich told the News. “And so, I wanted to not only explore if there was any truth to that, but also chronicle how the cinema had evolved from the silent era into the theatre that it’s become today.”
Fandrich, who also produced and directed the 2019 documentary Clay, Creativity and the Comeback about Medicine Hat’s historic clay district, spent several months earlier this year researching the Monarch’s history and conversing with Hatters who have memories of it during its golden years.
With the film, titled Your Cinema Needs You, now in post-production, Fandrich is looking forward to its 2023 release, and is particularly excited to share it and its trailer with Hatters.
“I hope people realize what a unique place the Monarch actually is,” said Fandrich. “It’s not just an old movie theatre; it’s a place that goes all the way back to almost the dawn of the medium of film. And it’s in our own backyard.”
With the future of the theatre still hanging in the balance, Fandrich is curious to see if his film will have an impact on the debate surrounding it, or public interest in it.
“Places like the Monarch have slowly been disappearing over the last few decades, where people don’t even realize (their significance) anymore, because a lot of them were shut down and then abandoned and just sort of faded away,” said Fandrich. “And I think that reiterates the position the Monarch is in right now, where it’s just been sitting there for a year-and-a-half already and not a whole lot has been happening and we still really don’t know what the future of it is going to be.
“But right now we’re at this really interesting time where the cinema is still in working condition, it can still screen movies, it’s still there; so we still have time to do something. But if we don’t have people pushing (for something to be done), then people will just forget, and nothing will happen and we’re going to lose the theatre.”
The trailer for Your Cinema Needs You will be available to view Dec. 21 at editingluke.net and the Editing Luke Facebook page. The film’s official release date is yet to be announced.
