The closing of the long-running midnight showing of cult film classics at The Times Cinema, The Friday Night Freak Show, in 2006 came as disappointing news to local filmmaker Christian Kocinski.

Suddenly memories of all the weekend nights he'd spent there watching movies with his friends came rushing back. He sat down and started writing the script that would become "Sweetmint," his first feature film.

"In 2006 I read an article on Onmilwaukee.com that said the midnight movie was coming to an end, and I was trying to think about something to write and I thought, 'Boy that would be a great idea to tie in those memories from the midnight movie'," Kocinski said.

The movie, a love story centering on a group of friends who frequent the midnight movie at the fictional Sweetmint Theatre was shot in Milwaukee and Waukesha on a shoe string budget using volunteer actors.

Kocinski's movie debuts at the Oriental Theater Jan. 3 at 7 p.m.

Showing his movie about a movie theater in one of the most celebrated cinemas in the country is an opportunity the young filmmaker savors.

"It's a dream come true for me because I grew up at the Oriental Theatre just like I grew up at The Times ... so I am looking forward to that," Kocinski said.

Kocinski, who grew up shooting stop motion animations on his father's Super 8 camera said a movie theater has always held a special place to him.

"I also have a big love of music. There is something awesome about seeing a band live, and I have come to realize there is something really awesome about seeing a movie -- I say live, but not really live -- to seeing a movie on the big screen instead of on your TV at home," Kocinski said.

The Times helped fuel Kocinski's love of cinema and housed some of his most enduring memories.

"The Times being the revival house movie theater, they were playing movies every week. I saw 'A Clockwork Orange,' Pink Floyd's 'The Wall,' 'Surf Nazis Must Die' -- a bunch of really weird movies that I never would have seen before," said Kocinski, "

Kocinski, a Pius XI High School graduate, shot the film on weekends over a span of months while working his video production job in Waukesha.

"I could definitely write a thesis paper on all the mistakes I made,"said Kocinski. "It's a lot more difficult to get these volunteers in and sometimes they aren't as reliable because I am not paying them, but there are a lot of people out there who are willing to do it for the passion, though, which is nice."

Kocinski jazzed up the Modjeska Theatre on Historic Mitchell Street, where he shot some of the film, with a gorgeous computer-animated neon marquee that renders the theater unrecognizable.

"I sent the movie to my sister and she thought it was real. She asked me 'Where is that Theatre?'," laughed Kocinski. "They were nice enough to let me film there and it was a great place to film. It had the charm I was looking for."

After the showing at the Oriental Kocinski said he hopes to screen his film in other cities and submit it to film festivals across the world.