The Projector closed down. So what?

It was a darkish day that despatched shockwaves throughout the extra artistically inclined amongst my social circle. Indie cinema The Projector introduced its closure with speedy impact on Tuesday (Aug 19). To name the announcement sudden could be like saying that the Causeway had “a little bit of a queue” on Nationwide Day weekend. 

If there have been indicators that The Projector had been in dire straits, they definitely hid them nicely. As just lately as final month, the cinema introduced it will transfer screenings again to its authentic outlet in Golden Mile Tower, after spending a stint at Orchard Cineleisure. Their very own Instagram web page was nonetheless selling occasions had been lined up all the best way till Sept 2025. 

So when The Projector introduced their speedy liquidation and closure, it was as if thousands and thousands of voices abruptly cried out in terror and had been abruptly silenced.

However to the typical Singaporean, this complete episode is simply the invisible hand of the free market understanding, proper? Merely put, if sufficient individuals spent their cash there usually sufficient, The Projector wouldn’t have to shut down.

Projector closure shouldn’t have been a shock

In hindsight, the closure shouldn’t be a shock. Greater cinema gamers had been falling left and proper for some time now. Fellow indie cinema Filmgarde and WE Cinemas shuttered in 2024, whereas veteran Cathay Cineplexes’ well-documented troubles noticed them shut 4 retailers within the final two years.

The Projector was imagined to be totally different from these guys. They had been imagined to be irreverent. Bulletproof. A wildcard amid the rising corportisation on this planet at the moment. By carving out a distinct segment for themselves, they had been imagined to be the little engine that would. 

As an alternative of chasing after the mass market, The Projector screened arthouse movies, native and worldwide. Auteurs like Wong Kar Wai had been often celebrated with month-long marathons and introspectives. Native and regional movies shunned by conventional cineplexes had been welcomed. There was at all times an area for you, and also you. 

Maybe that’s the true great thing about The Projector. Their seats had been a long time previous and uncomfortable for something greater than a 5-minute laze. The tickets weren’t notably low cost both, costing upwards of S$15 a pop. Even the film snacks had been zhuzhed up, that includes popcorn with a cinnamon dusting that all of us knew existed simply to pad up the revenue margin. 

Greater than only a cinema 

And but, The Projector was greater than only a place than screened motion pictures. I watched women and men clad in spandex wrestle themselves onto a skinny mat in the course of a eating space. Crowds cheered on the digital camera because it panned throughout a B-roll of the Golden Gate Bridge. Performers discovered a protected house which enthusiastically welcomed not solely drag reveals, but additionally drag workshops. The Projector really lived as much as its tagline of “not your common cinema.”

All that to say that Singapore isn’t simply shedding one other cinema. We’re shedding an experimental sandbox the place something is feasible, which is why The Projector’s absence will probably be deeply felt. 

However possibly that’s simply the pure order of issues. Possibly The Projector is the best we wanted to point out us, at the least for 11 years, that there’s a spot for the mavericks in staid, cookie-cutter Singapore. Possibly as an emblem, it could possibly be eternal. 

Featured Picture Credit score: Michele Q through Yelp/ T Toki through Google Maps