Footscray's historic Trocadero Arcade is about to become an immersive cinema playground thanks to CineRedux: Footscray Reimagined hitting the suburb early this year.
CineRedux: Footscray Reimagined is a community-centred film and media project that’s secured funding through Maribyrnong Council’s Love Your West Grants Program. Based around the iconic Trocadero Arcade and Five Walls Gallery, the project will transform these heritage spaces into hubs of immersive art, projections and live performances.
Footscray’s theatre history runs deep, and CineRedux: Footscray Reimagined isn’t letting that story fade into obscurity. Alongside the immersive installations, the project includes guided walking tours that’ll take participants through the suburb’s heritage theatres while unpacking its rich cultural past. It’s part film festival, part history lesson, part art experience; all rolled into one ambitious activation.
CineRedux: Footscray Reimagined
- Where: Trocadero Arcade and Five Walls Gallery, Footscray
- When: February to June 2026
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Five Walls Gallery has long been a creative anchor in Footscray, but the pairing with the atmospheric Trocadero Arcade adds a whole new dimension to what CineRedux: Footscray Reimagined can achieve. These aren’t sterile white-cube gallery spaces; they’re locations with character, grit and stories embedded in their walls.
Immersive projections and live performances will bring the spaces to life in ways that static exhibitions simply can’t. CineRedux: Footscray Reimagined is banking on the power of moving images and sound to create experiences that stick with people long after they’ve left the arcade.
Walking tours through Footscray’s heritage theatres will give locals and visitors alike a chance to see the suburb through a different lens. These aren’t just buildings that used to screen films – they’re cultural landmarks that tell the story of how Footscray has evolved, changed and persisted through decades of transformation.
CineRedux: Footscray Reimagined scored up to $10,000 through the Place-Based Initiatives stream of the grants program, which focuses on imaginative uses of public space and neighbourhood precincts.
It’s one of 15 projects sharing $115,500 in total funding, all designed to energise Maribyrnong’s streets and spaces between February and June.
For more information, head here.
