Concrete Playground

Those crazy cultural experiments that we term 'artist run initiatives' seem to be Sydney's flavour of the month. But with 501 turning legal and Red Rattler playing the game right from the start, where can we turn for the truly marginal? I'm talking artists like Lucas Abela, a musician who plays amplified pieces of broken glass, or the Marrickville Jelly Wrestling Federation.

Alas, Lanfranchi's — that pinnacle of artistic endeavor — has left the building. The infamous space on the second story of an inner city warehouse was forced, like many others, to close its doors due to development interests. Luckily for us, filmmaker Richard Baron took initiative just in time and documented the last sixty days of Lanfranchi's existence.

What was initially intended to be a short film has transformed into an hour long extravaganza, splicing together Baron's footage with archival footage captured by punters. The film's debut also involves a QandA with Baron, David Harris (co-founder of Lanfranchi's) and Phoebe Torzillo (a long-term resident of the space). The whole shebang will be hosted by Jaimie Leonarder of Mu-Meson Archives.

In Baron's words, "I thought it would be undervaluing the legacy of the space if its memory were confined only to those who had experienced Lanfranchi's first hand." While the film itself is an invaluable addition to Sydney's cultural history, I have a feeling that its screening has the potential to start things all over again.