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The main reason artist and entrepreneur Nat Cheney began Sydney’s Best Worst Movie Club, a monthly gathering of bad-film appreciators in the inner west, was to enjoy the history of cinema’s greatest monstrosities communally.
What she didn’t expect was it quickly inspiring a social club.
The Best Worst Movie Club is a place where fans of epically awful movies can meet and enjoy classic film fare.Credit: James Brickwood
“It started when I showed a friend one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen,” Cheney says. “That is Troll 2. The acting is awful, the special effects are so bad they’re great, and the funny thing is there’s no Troll 1. There’s also no trolls in the film.”
Cheney and her friend loved watching the movie together so much, other friends asked to join in. Word spread and in 2023 a monthly club was born – originally in the Blue Mountains and then, four months ago, in Sydney as well.
Housed in Cheney’s artist-run creative community hub Nauti Studios, running in Glebe and Hazelbrook, the club now hosts 20 to 30 people, from ages 18 to 50-plus, at each session. At every screening Cheney watches new friendships form.
“I think people have become less social and are less confident in being social these days,” she says. “Add to that how going out to traditional cinemas and theatres is really expensive.
“People come to enjoy these terrible films, stay afterwards and discuss it, and then just keep on chatting. It’s really sweet.”
Sydney’s Best Worst Movie Club is one of several small arts clubs and artist-run events springing up in unconventional, often tiny spaces across the city and in regional areas.
In the inner west of Sydney, underground film club Pink Flamingo Cinema shows rare and obscure films in a Marrickville art studios warehouse; The Social Glue of Sydney runs fortnightly communal collage-making sessions in Alexandria; and Curiously West Film Club offers a fortnightly space for western Sydney filmmakers to watch films and develop networks together at Powerhouse Youth Theatre in Fairfield.
Buoyed by artists seeking to expand their practice, and punters looking for low-cost entertainment and ways to socialise locally, small arts events are filling the gap.
One of the performers at We Three bar’s monthly poetry and spoken-word club. Credit: Edwina Pickles
Catherine Gibson Roy, who co-runs We Three, a bar in Marrickville, holds a monthly poetry and spoken-word club in the venue’s upstairs Radish Lounge space.
“We’re getting regular audiences; some are artists but many are people keen to just see live performance,” she says. “It’s a small, relaxed space, it’s a Sunday afternoon and it’s casual and really supportive. It’s a true community thing.”
Actor Drew Fairley has run the How Do You Do Club, a monthly live arts “micro-club” held in his Mittagong living room, since 2024. Amid framed paintings, retro lamps and luxuriant pot plants, comedians such as Chris Ryan and Jackie Loeb, and singers Alice Terry and Christa Hughes have played to audiences of 30, all seated on couches or dining chairs.
“People are definitely craving the arts but in more intimate, in-person settings,” he says. “It’s great for artists to sharpen their tools in a small, warm environment but it also lets audiences be up-close to acts. It’s a welcoming space.”
It’s also price-friendly. Because most of these events are not in established arts venues they’re either free or people who attend chip in to pay basic costs. There’s no membership required, they’re usually organised via social media, and people bring their own snacks.
They’re also pulling in locals keen for live performing arts events near home. Fairley assumed the How Do You Do Club, which next hosts Hollywood costume designer and illustrator Gypsy Taylor (Our Flag Means Death, the Chronicles of Narnia films, Poker Face), would appeal mostly to visiting Sydney friends but Southern Highlands residents are now the majority in the audience.
“I think conventional theatres can be temples of money and power,” he says. “This is just a weird little thing in the country but I want to make it somewhere that’s inviting and comfortable and bespoke.
“I want to reward people for stepping out to see the arts.”
Small arts gatherings and clubs to check out
Sydney’s Best Worst Movie Club
Housed in Nauti Studios, a creative workspace and community hub in Glebe, this monthly club screens famously bad films for enjoyment, followed by a debrief session. The club also runs a separate so-good-they’re-bad movie program in the Blue Mountains. Next movie night: October 21, nautistudios.com.au
Christa Hughes performs at the How Do You Do Club in the Southern Highlands in August. Credit: Drew Fairley
How Do You Do Club
A bespoke performance and arts venue in the Southern Highlands, the How Do You Do Club hosts singers, theatre performers, artists and comedians in a lushly decorated Victorian-era front room in Mittagong. Next Up: Life drawing with Hollywood costume designer Gypsy Taylor, October 12, @the.how.do.you.you.club
Camelart Club
Weekly life drawing sketch sessions, accompanied by musicians playing jazz, blues, funk or cabaret, plus access to drinks and food, $15, Camelot Lounge, Marrickville, camelotlounge.com
Pink Flamingo Cinema
An underground film club showing rare, cult and art queer films. Next up, comedy horror Crimewave (1985), directed by Sam Raimi, October 15, pinkflamingocinema.com
Curiously West Film Club
A collaboration between CuriousWorks, a western Sydney community arts and cultural development organisation, and Powerhouse Youth Theatre Fairfield, this fortnightly club brings together local filmmakers to network, watch and review films, and develop filmmaking skills. curiousworks.com.au
The Social Glue of Sydney
A studio-based, leaderless communal collage practice focussing on art-making and providing a space to do so. Sessions are three hours long, held at a communal table and divided between social time and dedicated art-making. Held every second Wednesday evening and second Saturday afternoon at Alexandria Town Hall, thesocialglueofsydney.com.au
We Three Poetry and Spoken Word
Held at 2.30pm on the third Sunday of every month at We Three bar and lounge in Marrickville, this is an open-mic event for poetry and spoken word. Get there by 2.30pm to register for open mic. We Three, 329 Illawarra Road, Marrickville, threebar.com.au/whats-on
Tiles
An artist-run art gallery and artist studios in a former mini-market shop. Art is shown amid the kaleidoscopic remnants of wall tiling from past occupants. Current exhibition: Halfway, featuring work by ceramicist Tegan Emerson, painter Melissa Nguyen and beading artist Camille Laddawan, 24 Victoria Street, Lewisham, @tiles.lewisham (open Saturday and Sunday, 12-4pm).
Club Sup
Founded in 2021 by Sophie McIntyre, Club Sup encourages strangers to make new friends at regular book-swap meet-ups and pub and restaurant dinners around communal tables. Running in Sydney, Perth, Canberra, Brisbane (and the UK), each event is led by a dedicated host. Club Sup also has a 40+ Lunch Club. Next Sydney Supper Club: October 16, 6.30pm, clubsup.com.au
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