Photographing the Rise Up Hot Air Balloon Festival

Over this past weekend I had the pleasure of utilizing my media pass and photographing the Rise Up Hot Air Balloon Festival in Medicine Hat, Alberta for the 4th year in a row. Featuring a variety of launches, flights, glows, and a handful of custom "googly eyed" memes, my content this year reached over 300K people on the Editing Luke socials in just the first 4 days of the festival. 

The Rise Up Hot Air Balloon Festival is a vibrant, free, and family-friendly event held annually in Medicine Hat, Alberta. Launched by Willy and Cindy Taillon in collaboration with the nonprofit Our Collective Journey, the festival aims to uplift spirits and promote mental wellness through the awe-inspiring spectacle of hot air balloons soaring over the city.

Scheduled on May 22–25, 2025, the festival featured nearly 30 balloons from around North America and involved morning and evening flights, weather permitting. A highlight was the mesmerizing Balloon Glow event at Kin Coulee Park on the Friday night, where tethered balloons illuminated the night sky creating a magical experience for the attendees.

Tipi Village in Medicine Hat, Alberta

A few visuals from a tipi village near the Saamis Tepee in Medicine Hat, Alberta.

 

Online Release of Your Cinema Needs You

The wait is finally over! After 15 months since the premiere that reopened the Monarch Theatre and the extended international film festival tour that followed, Your Cinema Needs You is online and available to screen Canada-wide right now. Click here.

Fred Moody "Hometown Series" Painting

I want to extend my thanks to artist Fred Moody who took inspiration from one of my "Hometown Series" images of Medicine Hat, Alberta last year and asked me if he could paint it. I'm always appreciate of these requests and only ask that artists share an update of their work if they happen to follow through on the idea. Fred took it a step further and surprised me by mailing the completed framed canvas painting as a gift for my personal collection.

As someone who doesn't have much of my own work on my walls, this painting by Fred Moody is a really unique highlight. I love his interpretation, I'm humbled by the gift, and I just think this makes a really cool story for one of my gallery walls. Thank you, Fred! This is amazing.

The original image featuring the Saamis Teepee.

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Hat

The new year is off to great start! Fresh snow, lots of new shoots in this winter scenery, and a viral Star Wars inspired edit that did particularly well on the Editing Luke Instagram.

The heavy snowfall in Medicine Hat, Alberta over the weekend lead to this new image looking down 6th Avenue reaching over 100K people in just 48 hours. To push it just a little bit further I created "The Empire Strikes Hat", a quick Star Wars edit featuring AT-AT walkers that leveraged the popularity of the original post into another bit of shareable content.

 

Newsmaker of the Year: Luke Fandrich

I'm grateful, humbled, and very surprised. 

Yesterday, the Medicine Hat News announced in a full front page spread that I, Luke Fandrich was their 2024 Newsmaker of the Year - recognizing the success of my documentary, Your Cinema Needs You about the Monarch Theatre in Medicine Hat, Alberta. 

I only got the heads up a couple weeks ago that my name was being thrown around about this, but when we ran those first premiere shows of the documentary at the Monarch one year ago I really had no idea what 2024 had in store or just how far this film would end up going. 

I want to thank this community for their involvement throughout so much of this journey. 

Telling this story - in this way - would've been impossible without so many of you reaching out, sharing your experiences, and supporting the project from the very beginning. I can't downplay what a significant detour my year took, and the doors that opened, because of how well those premiere shows did. 

I want to thank the team at the Medicine Hat News for their coverage throughout the course of production of the documentary and for this recognition. Seeing this announcement was an amazing way to both cap off and kick off a year. Thank you!

Monarch Theatre Turns 113 Years Old

On this day 113 years ago, on December 21, 1911, Canada's (now) oldest, surviving, purpose-built movie theatre opened its doors to the public and screened its first films that very night.

The story of the Monarch Theatre in Medicine Hat, Alberta has largely flown under the radar for over a century, but I happen to think a documentary about this place would be a cool watch. Might even win an award or two.

Monarch Documentary Wins 14 Festival Awards

Without being able to properly respond to each individual message this week, let me just say thank you one last time to everyone who made this experience unforgettable. Thank you to the cast and crew, to all the audiences and supporters, to the producing team, festival organizers, promoters, and on and on and on. I'm incredibly proud of what we all achieved.

With the international film festival tour for my documentary Your Cinema Needs You concluding this month it's finally hitting just how much happened this year. More here.

A special shout out to the Monarch Theatre and to everyone in Medicine Hat, Alberta too. If we weren't already feeling the hometown love throughout all of this, the documentary was once again a front page story this week. It's been an ending right out of a Christmas special.

New irons are in the fire for 2025. Stay tuned.

International Film Festival Tour Concludes

It's finally over! After 10 months, the international film festival tour for my feature documentary, "Your Cinema Needs You" has finally come to an end! So, how'd we do? 

Over the course of this year the story of Canada's oldest, surviving, purpose-built cinema (the Monarch Theatre located in Medicine Hat, Alberta) was officially selected and screened at film festivals in more than 30 cities in 12 countries. 

The icing on the cake is that during this time we also picked up 25 festival nominations and 14 wins (including 8 in categories for best documentary)! 

I can't say thank you enough to all of the cast and crew who made this possible. Also, thank you to everyone in Medicine Hat who came out to one of the 16 premiere shows at the Monarch Theatre earlier this year. Without that initial reception I never would've pursued such an ambitious (and long) festival run. 

Details about what's next and where you can finally see the documentary are soon to come. I just wanted to say thank you again! A project like this wouldn't have been possible without the support you've shown. Original post here.

Next Steps, Milestones, and the Documentary

In the process of working on an update for tomorrow, it hit me that it was exactly one year ago that we finalized plans for the premiere screenings of "Your Cinema Needs You" and set the gears in motion to finally reopen the Monarch Theatre. 

This was meant to mark the end of the documentary. It wasn't. 

Who knew it would kick off a new series of side quests that (incredibly) would last another year. The 3 night premiere, which felt ambitious at the time, turned into a 16 show run with thousands turning out to see the debut (the encore of the encore of the encore). 

Not bad start for an indie doc.

And then the film festival run began. 

More news tomorrow about what's next.