Singapore’s only independent cinema sustained by online screenings, merchandise sales, and hope amid coronavirus lockdown
- The Projector is more than a cinema – it is a home of alternative culture in Singapore. The coronavirus lockdown is testing the ingenuity of the team behind it
- Screenings on social media will help sustain it, but the crowdfunded project will need to turn to the community again for support and has opened an online shop
Since opening its doors in 2015, The Projector – Singapore’s only independent cinema – has become a pillar of the city state’s independent arts scene. The retrofitted cinema in Golden Mile Tower, a commercial and residential complex on Beach Road near Kampong Glam, retains a nostalgic look, from old-fashioned wood-and-metal seats to bespoke film posters.
In its first incarnation as the Golden Theatre in 1973, The Projector was once the biggest cinema in both Singapore and Malaysia. With three screens and 550 seats it is nothing like the country’s ubiquitous modern multiplexes, but it’s much more than a place to watch movies – it’s a home for alternative culture and a singular piece of local history.
The Projector offers an elusive cultural experience in Singapore: independent programming and curation that includes everything from recorded operas and critically acclaimed foreign films to niche documentaries and experimental films that you will not find in a mainstream theatre chain.
Amid the coronavirus outbreak, it has become hard for The Projector to survive, much less thrive, especially as the government announced an additional month of its “circuit breaker” lockdown on April 21. The theatre has been shut since March 28, when cinemas nationwide were closed by government order.
“January 2020 was our best-performing month in our five-year history,” said founder Karen Tan by email, but noted that management had also anticipated some form of shutdown. “It came a bit sooner than expected, but thankfully we already had the online merchandising initiative almost ready to launch. Our team worked overnight to put it online immediately, and it’s been doing well so far.”