The Lost City of Melbourne documents demolished ‘ghost cinemas’: achieving the impossible with Gus Berger

The Lost City of Melbourne presents a picture of the city as it once was, and what it could have been – including places that were nail factories by day; cinemas by night – before 'Whelan the Wrecker' changed it all.

Gus Berger is a Melbourne based filmmaker and owner of two cinema companies; the pop-up Blow Up Cinema, and Thornbury Picture House, a lively independent art-house venue.

The Lost City of Melbourne will screen to a sold-out session at RMIT’s Capitol cinema, a venue which was also once lost to time. After that it will show at various Melbourne cinemas such as The Sun, Thornbury Picture House, The Classic and The Lido.

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Silvi Vann-Wall is a Melbourne-based journalist, podcaster, critic and filmmaker who loves frogs and improv comedy. They were the ScreenHub Film Content Lead from 2022 to 2025. Twitter (X): @SilviReports / Bluesky: @silvi.bsky.social‬ / Website: silvireports.com