Title Reveal: Your Cinema Needs You

Title reveal / teaser poster: I'm happy to finally share that my upcoming feature length documentary on the Monarch Theatre is called Your Cinema Needs You.

Spanning the 110+ year history of a single screen cinema, Your Cinema Needs You is an exploration of "what might just be" the oldest surviving movie theatre in all of Canada.

From its origins to its reinventions to the numerous other cinemas it outlasted along the way, Your Cinema Needs You takes place against the backdrop of the Monarch's uncertain future and looks at why the cinema experience, in general, is still worth saving. 

Release date TBD. Late 2022.

50th Anniversary Castle in Magic Kingdom

A few visuals of the 50th anniversary decorations on Cinderella's Castle in the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

OUE Skyspace & Skyslide in Los Angeles, California

OUE Skyspace, and its star attraction the Skyslide, was a relatively short-lived observation deck in downtown Los Angeles, California. Opened in 2016 in the iconic U.S. Bank Tower (formerly the Library Tower), OUE Skyspace closed at the start of the pandemic and never reopened.

OUE Skyspace offered an open air observation deck inside one of California's tallest and most recognizable towers in the Los Angeles skyline. The Skyslide, a clear slide out the side of the building, also provided a nice gimmick to attract tourists. Although truthfully, riding the Skyslide was so brief that you couldn't even take in the view while doing it.

When the U.S. Bank Tower sold in late 2020, the new owners decided that they would not reopen the observation deck and would instead convert the space back into commercial real estate. While the potential for this attraction seemed underutilized given that downtown LA isn't exactly where tourists spend much of their time, it's difficult to judge how popular OUE Skyspace really was.

Since I first saw Independence Day as a kid I'd thought about how cool it would be to visit the top of the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles. So, while I'm sad to see OUE Skyspace go, I am glad that (purely by coincidence) I made it just in time to experience the view.