A Tribute To The Projector: A Walk Down Memory Lane
Three months after its closure, co-founder Karen Tan reflects on The Projector’s decade of cinema and cultural experimentation.
It began life as the Golden Theatre – Singapore’s largest cinema when it opened in 1973 – and was transformed 11 years ago by Karen Tan, Sharon Tan and Blaise Trigg‑Smith into The Projector. A bold, indie institution residing in Golden Mile Tower, it challenged the rules of movie‑going and became the beating heart of the city’s alternative film scene.
To survive though, The Projector had to be more than just a cinema – and so it evolved into a space for creative risk‑taking, subculture and community. Living up to its tag line, “Not Your Average Cinema”, it rewrote what a film venue could be. Three months on from its unexpected closure this August, co‑founder Karen reflects on more than a decade of cinematic rebellion, cultural experimentation and what it meant to build – and lose – a space like no other.
Before The Projector moved in, was the vintage cinema Golden Theatre. Pictured above is the venue’s biggest hall, the 230‑seater Green Room, in its original state before The Projector team gave it a facelift and reupholstered the seats.
The story of The Projector started in 2014, when business partners Karen Tan, Sharon Tan and Blaise Trigg‑Smith took over the vintage cinema Golden Theatre with the hope of turning it into Singapore’s first indie cinema. Says Karen: “The Projector was always meant to be more than just a cinema with great food and film, or passive entertainment. What we set out to create was an inclusive, chaotic, messy ‘third space’ where people could be themselves: a platform for freedom of expression, and to hold space for curiosity and discourse, and to somehow architect it to be financially viable. We wanted it to be around long enough to make a meaningful impact. Sounds like a rather tall order now, come to think of it!”
Here are snapshots of some of the good folks who powered The Projector across the years, including Karen and her sister Sharon (pictured in the top left photo, on the left and right respectively), who co‑founded the cinema with her but left in 2019.
“I’m grateful that we had an extremely passionate and resourceful team that believed in what we were creating and would stop at nothing to get problems solved or projects done,” says Karen. “We sometimes got mistaken for a non‑profit or passion project – as opposed to what was supposed to be a profit‑making business – because we were ‘cool’ or ‘indie’. Beneath the glitz and glamour of the premieres, talks and parties we held were leaky roofs, complex event execution, detailed planning for film festivals, technical malfunctions, equipment capex, and a ton of financial modelling and forecasting – all underpinned by a team whose members poured everything they had into it.”
The founders of The Projector foresaw the need to go beyond screening films in order to survive in the long run. This kick-started the indie cinema’s evolution into a platform for all kinds of creative expression as well as events — cultural and otherwise (yes, one could rent the space for private use too). Pictures above on the left, for example, is the Singapore ambient music wunderkind Kin Leonn at one of his earliest performances, staged at the Blue Room at The Projector.
With its DIY spirit and diverse programming that championed the arts and emerging talents, The Projector ultimately became beloved as a place where diverse communities in Singapore could mingle, have fun and feel absolutely at home. Says Karen: “What I never imagined was the strength and loyalty of our audience and community. Their support carried us through the toughest periods, including the Covid‑19 pandemic and beyond. Some die‑hard patrons came to the cinema more than a hundred times in a year and knew our team members by name! We’re deeply grateful for our community’s support over the years – we would not be here, having done everything we did, without them.”
Clockwise from top left: Staffers setting up Projector X: Picturehouse, The Projector’s pop‑up outpost at The Cathay that opened in 2022 when the chance to expand and take over what was one of Singapore’s most iconic cinema locations came up; a scene from a rumbustious screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which became The Projector’s signature – and always packed out – Halloween event annually; a dreamy night‑time look at The Great Escape, the now‑defunct rooftop bar that was located in the same building as The Projector, and was a regular collaborator of the cinema as well as hang for both its patrons and staff; and a party by The Glory Hoes, a collective that organises queer film experiences and events, in the foyer of The Projector.
The Projector shut down in August this year, but will remain in the hearts of many not only for its authentic sense of community, but also for the way it inculcated a curiosity and love for film unlike any traditional cinema, streaming service or social media platform. Take how its second hall, which featured red seats and opened in 2014, was cheekily named Redrum – not only a play on how the term “red room” is pronounced, but also a reference to the wordplay made famous in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980).
To inaugurate it, the team behind The Projector ran a screening (pictured above) of – what else – the iconic psychological thriller starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall. Needless to say, it sold out, with guests even having to spill onto the floor (and loving it). Says Karen: “It was extremely rewarding when people shared that they grew up at The Projector, or how they had first discovered a foreign film or director, or learnt that they actually enjoy documentaries, through us! We also had a significant number of students in our customer base and I hope that they’ll continue to support all sorts of films throughout their lives.
This article first appeared in Volume 4 of F ZINE.