The Thousands

In a gallery context, video art can be a hard sell. Your knees get sore, or you get a little bored, or there’s too many people standing in your way and you can’t see the ‘art’ – annoying!

Luckily, Cinema Alley takes the aggravations of viewing video art within the ‘white box’ and tosses them out. Instead you get cinema-style seating, under the stars in a chill Chinatown laneway – and it’s all free. They’ll even sell you great food and refreshing adult beverages beforehand, particularly handy if you’ve come straight from work.

Since 1996, 4A has been Sydney’s little Asian Aussie battler, injecting a bit of contemporary Asian art into the Gem City via their ongoing Haymarket gallery and events like this. This year’s Cinema Alley ups the ante on previous outings by not just screening new Asian and Australian video works, but doubling-up via a 2-channel system, kinda like Andy Warhol’s ‘Chelsea Girls’ but without the annoyingly long segment where Nico cuts her fringe.

When it’s hot like this, you want to do everything outside: eat, drink cocktails, look at art, and watch movies. Cinema Alley ticks all the above boxes, and makes you feel like a culture vulture whilst celebrating Chinese New Year, instead of just a fireworks-loving drunk.