Twilight Talks 2024, Season 2, Session 2 | Not the Last Picture Show: The Lost City of Melbourne

Gus Berger’s film The Lost City of Melbourne documents some of the many grand theatres, cinemas and buildings across ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ which were obliterated at the whim of shifting – and short-lived – tastes. 

Drawing on archival footage and photographs from the National Film and Sound Archive and the State Library of Victoria, as well as interviews with historians and experts, the film traverses lost pockets of the city which were sacrificed to the altar of the ‘modern’ from the 1950’s to 1970’s.  

The Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute is delighted to be screening the documentary The Lost City of Melbourne with a live conversation with director and producer Gus Berger. Berger is also owner-operator of the Thornbury Picture House, and the pop-up Blow-Up Cinemas. 

The film will be screened in the beautifully restored Minerva Theatre, which debuted the invention of the cinematograph for Ballarat audiences in 1896 and functioned as a cinema for much of the 20th century. 

All funds raised from the screening will support the work we do to keep our grand 1860’s building open to the public, and to continue our purpose to serve the community of Ballarat as intended from our inception 165 years ago. We continue to operate as an independently-run, not-for-profit organisation, one of the last remaining of 1,200 mechanics’ institutes across the state.