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 rapid impact on Tuesday (Aug 19). To name the announcement sudden can 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 properly. As just lately as final month, the cinema introduced it might 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 way in which till Sept 2025. 

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

However to the typical Singaporean, this complete episode is simply the invisible hand of the free market figuring out, proper? Merely put, if sufficient folks spent their cash there typically 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. Larger 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 shops within the final two years.

The Projector was imagined to be completely different from these guys. They had been imagined to be irreverent. Bulletproof. A wildcard amid the growing 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 might. 

As a substitute 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 all the time an area for you, and also you. 

Maybe that’s the true fantastic thing about The Projector. Their seats had been a long time outdated and uncomfortable for something greater than a 5-minute laze. The tickets weren’t significantly 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 films. I watched women and men clad in spandex wrestle themselves onto a skinny mat in the midst of a eating space. Crowds cheered on the digicam 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 in addition drag workshops. The Projector actually 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 shall be deeply felt. 

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

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