Luke Fandrich, founder of Editing Luke, expressed his gratitude following a successful film tour season of his documentary Your Cinema Needs You.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
It’s been nearly a year since a local filmmaker released a documentary on the evolution of movie theatres by exploring and uncovering the past of the Monarch Theatre ,which opened its doors just before Christmas in 1911, making it one of the oldest surviving cinemas in the country.
Luke Fandrich, founder of Editing Luke, premiered his film “Your Cinema Needs You” inside the Monarch Theatre on Dec. 30, 2023 after the Monarch 1911 Society bought and began restorations to the theatre earlier that year.
Due to the overwhelming response from the community, the film was shown 16 times at the Monarch Theatre in late 2023 and earlier this year, and that reception inspired Fandrich to begin an 10-month international film festival tour beyond the local movie maker’s dreams.
“This turned into a whole year of a festival run, and the premiere itself turned into a 16-show run just in Medicine Hat,” says Fandrich. “So yeah, to say that this exceeded expectation feels like an understatement, this whole year was unplanned.”
The film was screened at film festivals in more than 30 cities in 12 counties in 2024, including Germany, China, Sweden, Scotland, Japan and the U.S. Your Cinema Needs You received a total of 25 festival nominations and 14 wins, including eight in the category for best documentary.
Fandrich says his film has been able to connect with global audiences as it spotlights the history of cinemas and their role as a gathering place for communities since the first silent motion pictures were introduced.
“Every step of the way, it felt like a new surprise that these people relate to the Monarch Theatre in Medicine Hat, Alberta. Because it is like ‘this’ theatre in their city,” explains Fandrich. “That was the part that always felt so cool to me, here was this story that we thought people in Canada would appreciate, we had no idea that it was going to have this reach and that there were going to be all these fresh eyes finding the story.”
Fandrich says he aimed to submit his documentary into indie film festivals and tried to focus on communities that had historic cinemas and the struggles theatres have undergone over the decades.
“Theatres were springing up at the same time everywhere. And so that journey that the Monarch goes through, where sound is introduced and it competes with television and streaming, that’s a global story, it just happens to be against the backdrop of Medicine Hat.”
He highlights the film’s kickstart at the Berlin Indie Festival in February and explains it was picked up by the Stockholm City Film Festival in Sweden, as well as festivals in Toronto, Tokyo and Hong Kong before the first half of 2024 was even over.
Over the summer Your Cinema Needs You won Best Documentary at the Edinburgh Film Awards in Scotland and was nominated for Best Documentary at the International Film Festival in Regina, where Fandrich graduated from the University of Regina’s film school.
“It was neat to have it so close to home because it was in the running with all these other films from across Canada and around the world.”
The tour wrapped up with a screening at a film festival in Sydney, Australia.
“To have a location that just felt so far away from where we are, it kind of again created this new benchmark for feeling like we’ve really covered the globe here, over 30 cities, 12 different countries, 25 festival nominations, 14 award wins, for an indie documentary that’s an incredible list of achievements.”
Fandrich says the documentary should be released next month through TELUS Originals, and will be available online through its streaming service.
