Various - Cineflux VHS

Whatever you think about “dead media” being sold in record stores in 2026, there’s a hell of a lot more life in those that appear from some sort of DIY niche than the spluttering messes that are streaming services and big-money industry pursuits. Film, even moreso than music, seems to suffer from this affliction, with the kind of money and personnel going into making a movie considerably more prohibitive, before you even get to renting a theatre or dicing with distribution deals or even being at the mercy of rusted-on festival judging panels.

Organised by filmmaker Sean Burns as a screening arvo back in February and now as a commemorative VHS tape, Cineflux is an attempt to counter this and potentially establish some of the structures that he saw taking place around him in DIY music; ie. why can’t a bunch of filmmakers put on a ‘bill’ to screen their work in a public space?

While I haven’t had a chance to watch these films (as I don’t own a VHS player…), our in-store VHS connoisseur Cam raved to me about the copy he bought. I don’t really understand the technical aspects of these things, but Cam was explaining to me that this has been dubbed to an almost pro-level, with great fidelity and even at the proper VHS aspect ratio.

More importantly, he raved about the films. A collection of local Sydney-based shorts that avoided slick Australian cheesiness but also weren’t art-films either. Hope we get round 2 next year!

 ⁃ Mitch

Commemorative VHS from the 2026 Cineflux event at Leichhardt Town Hall, collecting short films from Australian underground and DIY filmmakers. Featuring films by: Sean Burns, David Robinson Smith, Julian Hamman, Jasper Martin, Jayden Rathsam Hua, Rory Pearson, Bryce Pemberton, Madeleine Pudy, Rachav Rampal, Alex Wright.