What Does The Projector's New Home At Cineleisure Mean For Cinephiles And Our City?

A new cinema paradiso is here.

The freshly reupholstered Yangtze hall with its pretty pink and purple seats is one of the three halls that The Projector oversees at Golden Village X The Projector in Cineleisure. (And yes, every one of these rooms are named after iconic theatres in Singapore – the other two are Majestic and Roxy.) Credit: Lawrence Teo

By Keng Yang Shuen, 26 Dec 2023

On November 28, one of the most unprecedented ventures in the local entertainment landscape opened at Cineleisure: Golden Village X The Projector, or GV X TP for short. Besides being mammoth in size (specifically, 41,000sq ft covering six cinema halls and more), it’s monumental in how it’s a tie-up between essentially a David and Goliath of cinema. After all, compared to Golden Village – Singapore’s largest cinema chain founded in the early ’90s – The Projector remains best known as the independently run, indie film-focused picture house that’s captured the heart of the creative community here with not just its programming, but also its resilience and support for the arts. We speak with its co-founder Karen Tan and general manager Prashant Somosundram on what this new space means for The Projector, cinema-going and possibly Orchard Road.

Disclaimer: The photos in this story were shot weeks before opening day

When The Projector started out in 2014, streaming services such as Netflix were not yet available in Singapore. Now there’s an overabundance of streaming choices. Is having a good roster of films enough for movie theatres to survive these days?

Karen Tan (KT): “It’s not just streaming services such Netflix, Amazon Prime and HBO. There are also social media channels such as TikTok, Instagram, Lemonade, X… What we’re up against is a fight for people’s time. With that, the big question is: What can we offer that these digital platforms can’t? For us, the answer is face-to-face experience with other human beings. As an independent cinema, we’re not just providing you with film. We’re also providing you with a great night out with friends or an experience watching something that's interactive and maybe thought-provoking. It always comes back to building community in what I hope is an authentic way.”

the projector cineleisure — The beloved local indie cinema The Projector recently revealed its most ambitious venture to date: a joint partnership with Golden Village that occupies the fifth and sixth floors of Cineleisure, with it running three of the six cinema halls on site, alongside a restaurant and multiple live event spaces. Helping to oversee this first‐of‐its‐kind endeavour are The Projector’s general manager Prashant Somosundram (left) and co‐founder Karen Tan.
Lawrence Teo

The Projector is celebrating its ninth anniversary in January 2024. What do you think accounts for your longevity?

Prashant Somosundram (PS): “Fundamentally, it’s our audience that supports us even though we have had our imperfections. The Projector wasn’t a complete product from the onset. We evolved along the way and developed with very little resources. Yet we have had an audience that’s been willing to grow with us throughout this whole process. Besides that, we have a great team of staff who are very passionate and who each bring their own quirks into the brand. We find this quite exciting as they help to push our boundaries. Then there are the industry partners that we work with that have been willing to take risks with us. We are not very conventional in the way we curate content yet they’ve been giving us that room to do things and that has allowed us to be different from other cinemas.”

KT: “I think generally, our approach has always been to be pretty creative and adaptable, and to remain relevant to the zeitgeist and conversation. We try to do things in a different way, depending on the space that we inhabit each time. It’s about placemaking not in isolation, but together with our community and supporters. Hopefully we’ll convert more people along the way.”

No Spoilers Bar transforms into a live music venue on weekend nights
Lawrence Teo

Prashant, you mentioned that The Projector has taken risks through its soon-to-be nine years of existence and that your industry partners have done so with you. Can you elaborate more on this?

PS: “While some of what we do may appear to be risky, it’s always done with a lot of consultation and engagement with the powers that be. You know, sometimes people expect us to push a lot more boundaries, but I think it’s also about being measured and figuring out where and when we can push boundaries. Whatever you see as a final product from us actually has gone through a very rigorous journey before they see the light of day. And I think that considered approach accounts for a lot of our longevity. Ultimately, we are a commercial entity and we have mouths to feed. We always try to stay engaged with the bigger ecosystem that we’re a part of – continuously talking to people whether it’s the authorities or our audiences – in order to try to create new experiences. Without this tension, I doubt we’d grow too.”

Having become a key player in Singapore’s creative and cultural landscape, how would you say our culture has changed since the pandemic?

PS: “A lot of businesses are still paying the debt left over from Covid-19, but it’s interesting to see how we are getting back on our feet. I’m quite optimistic about the scene. In fact on some days, there are just too many things happening (on the cultural calendar). I think the challenge for us at The Projector is to grow and reach out to more types of audiences so that it’s not just the people in the arts who have to decide which of the many events to attend. We are all richer by trying to grow our audience because this means that Singapore can sustain multiple creative events on any one night.”

When the independent cinema SCALA was demolished in Bangkok in November 2021 – 54 years after being founded – there was an uproar. What roles do you think such places play in shaping the identity of a city?

KT: “At some point, it seemed like only a matter of time that The Projector would close as Golden Mile Tower (where the original branch of The Projector was set up and continues to reside) constantly puts itself up for en bloc sale. The past eight years has thus been us soldiering on with the sword of Damocles hanging over our heads. This new Cineleisure project however has given us a sense of certainty about going forward. (The Projector holds a five year lease with the option of renewing for another five.) We feel pretty strongly that an independent cinema like The Projector has a major role to play in shaping the character of a city because it’s a platform not just for cinema but for all sorts of art, social interest and non-profit groups.

For example, we’ve had everyone from punk communities to arthouse geeks, mental health groups and animal welfare activists, even people from the rock climbing scene hold events on site… It’s interesting to have vastly different groups identify with the same physical space yet feel equally at home. I think we kind of function as a community centre that people actually want and we provide an irreverent voice in what is perhaps an overtly polished city.”

Is there anything you feel ought to be more present in Singapore’s creative landscape?

KT: “For me, it’s more affordable spaces that are more centrally located. This way we can be more creative and experimental with the work that we do as opposed to always having to think about whether we can sell enough tickets and all that jazz. Planning for spaces that come at a discounted rate for creatives and small, independent businesses – especially in the heart of the city – would be a huge thing because that helps to add character and diversity to the city centre.

Such spaces do exist, but they are typically located on the fringes or in obscure industrial estates, which makes it more difficult for the creatives and small businesses to draw people to their locations consistently. We’re not exactly answering your question directly, but if we could make a wish, it would be for discounted rents for creative small businesses to exist closer to the heart of the city because that’s how we can grow a healthy creative ecosystem.”

Now tell me more about what people can look forward to at The Projector’s new Cineleisure space?

PS: “Cineleisure will be the largest venue that we’ve ever operated. We’ve always had a maximum of three screens over at Golden Mile Tower, but now we have three extra screens at Cineleisure (Golden Village runs the other three on site) and having those will allow us to do a bit more experimental film programming that may not have been commercially viable before – the additional screens give us that flexibility.

We’re also trying to up our F&B game so for the first time, we’ll have a dine-in restaurant as well as a couple of live event spaces so what you’re going to get here is a very interesting mix of live events, F&B and films. This Cineleisure project has been jointly developed with Golden Village and to our knowledge, such a collaboration between two cinema operators has never happened before. We are both finding our way around and trying to create opportunities for each other so that it will be a mutually beneficial experience for both our audiences.”

KT: “We're pretty excited about the fact that we’ve got a huge variety of different physical spaces in this place, allowing us to play host and home to an even greater variety of communities and events. We’re also pretty conscious of the fact that this project is located in the Orchard area and will thus give us a lot more access to audiences that perhaps previously didn’t even know we existed or are not familiar with our content. In return, we hope to bring our vibe and community to Cineleisure and give it a new lease of life.”

This story first appeared in the Dec 2023 This Great City Edition of FEMALE