Where Tarkovsky meets Spider-man: Arthouse cinema The Projector turns 10
SINGAPORE – Indie cinema The Projector, stomping ground of hipsters and bankers alike, marked 10 years in business on Jan 25 with 340 people lobbing spoons at the big screen.
Flying cutlery, toilet paper and water guns are tradition at the theatre’s riotous interactive screenings, which in its early years also included uncooked rice – before staff “got smart” about clean-up.
These, along with music gigs, comedy, drag and even Web 3 nights make up the thousands of events that have turned the picture house into a motley cultural agora.
Since its fringe beginnings at Golden Mile Tower, a 1970s building better known for its Thai discos, it has opened a second permanent branch at Cineleisure, Orchard.
From having to bang on doors for the licensing rights to screen films – including some five long years e-mailing zeitgeisty production house A24 – it now takes regular distributor pitches and exclusive deals.
Staff has tripled from below 10 to near 30.
Its success is in part due to a resolute philosophy of what long-time staff designer Mirza Jaffar calls “agnostic” hosting.
One night, a punk band performed while an LGBT-themed film played in the next room. Afterward, the two sets, sullen and flamboyant, mingled at the foyer, said Mr Mirza.
“We get a kick out of that juxtaposition,” co-founder and chief executive Karen Tan told The Straits Times.
In 2014, the 44-year-old former investment banker had seen in the dusty halls of the old Golden Mile Tower cineplex a chance to recreate the voltaic energy of Shoreditch, London – a site of “unexpected community” she had frequented while working in Britain.
She had by then already built a career out of turning neglected older spaces into stylish new ones. The refurbishment moved quickly and in 2015, The Projector opened as a two-hall vintage cinema.
Over the years, guests have ranged from migrant workers and returning corporate clients, to indie singer Ichiko Aoba, “before she blew up” and the graffiti artist Futura, who autographed a chair.
That kind of winking broadmindedness studs its film programming too, where Tarkovsky sits with Spider-man.
Programmer of nine years Walter Navarro admitted that the team who made The Projector’s reputation on left-field cinema like Taxi Tehran and a Stanley Kubrick retrospective never expected to bring in Marvel movies.
The Projector’s founder Karen Tan (centre) with designer Mirza Jaffar (right) and programmer Walter Navarro (left) at the Majestic cinema at Golden Village X The Projector at Cineleisure on Jan 23.ST PHOTO: SHINTARO TAY
But he batted away charges of them selling out, to the clamorous agreement of his team.
“We do both”; “There’s no difference between Spider-Man and Tarkovsky. Fun is fun.”; “It’s not really that serious right?” went the chorus.
Frankly, it is a commercial need.
Mr Navarro said: “When we had only two screens, it felt like a low-stakes project, we could afford to be very picky. Now there’s more salary and rent to pay.”
The Projector’s tie-up with Golden Village at the polished Orchard road shopping belt followed successful pop-ups at Clarke Quay and the Cathay building.
Today, it sometimes screens 15 films a day, a leap from the one or two it played daily when it hired its first employee, projectionist Azman Salim.
Many still associate The Projector with its Golden Mile flagship: the louche charm of its stiff plastic chairs and retro fixtures – relics of the 20th century Golden Theatre – the adjacent open-air carpark, so conducive to casual soirees, and toilet walls plastered with arthouse film posters.
Other things have stayed the same, like the clip of “Turkish Luke Skywalker” menacing any who dare whip out their phones in the theatre – Mr Navarro’s handiwork, played before every movie.
The format of its whirlwind first screening, a double bill of two local short films with a panel discussion after, is also still typical at The Projector.
Friend of local artists
That inaugural showcase of Kirsten Tan’s Dahdi and Tan Shijie’s Not Working Today set the tone for the next 10 years, said Ms Tan, whose team continue to champion lesser-known Singaporean talent.
With no way of publicising it, they had put the word out on Facebook. A co-founder said that if more than 50 people showed up, she would “eat her hat”.
Easily 300 people came, spilling out of seats and standing on steps to create the guerilla communal energy that Ms Tan had first dreamt of. Novelist Amanda Lee Koe had “run around” collecting donations – not ticket fees – in a clear plastic box.
Said Ms Tan: “We were really built by a lot of people.”
For years, its box office was jerry-rigged from scrap, a computer on a cart, until a contractor “took pity” on the team and made them a permanent one.
That might be why patrons are unusually invested. Mr Mirza said: “I know of no other cinema in Singapore where the audience constantly suggests (“no, demand,” Mr Navarro quipped) what we should screen.”
Theirs is an exasperated affection but when push comes to shove, they insist on keeping the personal touches unique to The Projector’s communications, like the printed monthly catalogue with hand-drawn illustrations that have become an audience collectible.
This is a cost that adds up.
At 10, The Projector has survived more than a few existential threats: Covid-19, when it had to close for several months, and the spectre of an en-bloc sale of Golden Mile Tower that Ms Tan said looks more assured than before.
But it remains a fight to keep its head above water.
Budget cuts have been an annual affair since the pandemic, said Ms Tan, a blight the industry has yet to recover from, and one analysts say only those with the deepest pockets will outlast.
“Just to be candid, the last couple years we’ve seen a decrease in ticket sales numbers,” said Mr Navarro.
The shrinking appetite for independent cinema, inflation, streaming and the avalanche of social media content vying for attention, are all knives to the neck of movie-going, he added.
Jumping through hoops for quality film
It scarcely helps that the Projector has to negotiate for state approval to show boundary-testing – but often popular – films, vital to its revenue.
Yorgos Lanthimo’s 2023 Oscar-nominated hit Poor Things was initially green-lit for just four screenings last year but vociferous audience demand prompted the Infocomm Media Development Authority to permit four more. All eight sold out.
“It was a lot of back and forth but a limited run is better than none,” said Ms Tan.
Dialect films, like those by Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar Wai, can also usually be shown only under the banner of a film festival, the effect of an “archaic policy” not faced by streaming competitors, she added.
Mr Mirza said: “If Singaporeans knew how many hoops we have to jump through, they would care more.The environment has evolved, guidelines need to, too.
“If I can’t have chocolate, Netflix can’t either.”
Though The Projector has been profitable for the better part of the decade, Ms Tan declined to comment on its current books, saying only that the last year had been “very, very challenging”.
So, what next? Ms Tan said the small outfit will stay limber, with “wacky” ideas like screening films with the lights on so crafters can work as they watch.
Of the crisis facing cinemas, she is gingerly confident: “We stand in good stead because we create more of an experience around movie-going.
“But as a small company, we’re always vulnerable.”
Take it from their regulars. At the after-party on Jan 25, Projector fan since 2018 Jane Long, was wistful for the golden ritual of “watching a movie, drinking, partying at the carpark then eating mookata at Siam Square”.
The 29-year-old product manager who attended the theatre’s Palestinian film festival said: “It’s a rare part of Singapore, a nuanced place for resistance.
“But it’s not really about resistance, it’s about being in the same space as people who believe in the same things you do, even if you can’t talk about it.”
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