Management at the Pálás Cinema has confirmed it will shut-up shop for good next week, but not before screening a trio of films about the magic of cinema as protesters take to the streets.
A protest against the closure of the independent Pálás, which showcases local and international arthouse cinema, will take place on Merchants Road this Saturday, February 22, at 1pm. Protest organisers want Galway City Council, the Pálás’ landlord, to make the building available for arts and cultural activities.
A statement from the Light House Group, founded by Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe of Element Pictures, said that after seven years operating the Pálás, it will cease trading in Galway next Thursday, February 27.
In December last year, the company said it was incurring losses of €250,000 annually just to stay open. Rising costs, the impact of Covid and competition with commercial cinemas in Galway city were cited as contributory factors in the decision to close. The cinema employs seven full-time and seven part-time staff, and reportedly ran up losses of €619,000 last year.
Staff being made redundant in Galway have been offered relocation to jobs in the Light House Cinema in Dublin, but informed sources say none have taken up the offer.
The Pálás Cinema, designed by dePaor Architects, is built on the site of an old house donated to Galway city. It took 12 years to complete, helped along with €8.4m in public funding, famously derided by former Fianna Fáil TD Marc McSharry as “the most appalling waste and poor use of public funds,” as the building was ultimately run by a private company.
It is understood Element Pictures secured a 30-year, nominal lease from Galway City Council in 2018, and an exemption from paying commercial rates. The local authority is currently evaluating the building, and reports from an independent surveyor and insurance assessor are expected in the coming weeks.
In January, Councillor Níall McNelis (Lab ) tabled a motion that Galway City Council works with Element Pictures, the Department of Arts, Screen Ireland, and the Western Development Commission, and initiate conversations with University of Galway, Atlantic Technical University and Galway Roscommon Education & Training Board, to ensure operation of the Pálás as part of Galway’s responsibilities as a UNESCO City of Film. The motion has not yet been voted on, as the the Council's chief executive, Leonard Cleary, requested that councillors wait on forthcoming evaluation reports.
“We welcome all ideas and solutions,” Cleary told city councillors at their monthly plenary meeting last week.
“The city manager gave commitments that he would speak to all the groups looking to secure the Pálás, and the most important thing is that we try and save it as an arthouse cinema,” McNelis told the Advertiser.
Speaking in a personal capacity, William Fitzgerald, outgoing programmer at the Pálás, said he hopes Galway City Council ensures the Pálás building is used as a cultural amenity to support Galway's UNESCO Film designation.
"Our city trades so much on its status as an artistic and cultural hub, but it has no dedicated concert venue, no gallery, and no public event spaces, so it makes saving our independent cinema so much more important," he said.
This Saturday, February 22, Tsai Ming-liang’s wry and tender drama Goodbye Dragon Inn about a cavernous old picture palace in Taipei will be shown at the Pálás.
Next Tuesday, February 25, moviegoers may see John T Davis’ The Uncle Jack, a portrait of the filmmaker’s uncle Jack McBride Neill, the Ulster architect who designed many of Northern Ireland's most cherished cinemas.
Finally, on Thursday, February 27, Chacun Son Cinema (To Each His Own Cinema ), made to celebrate 60 years of the Cannes Film Festival, will be screened at the Pálás. This declaration of love to the big screen includes three-minute shorts from 33 of the world’s best directors paying tribute to the motion picture. Participating filmmakers include the Coen Brothers, Olivier Assayas, Ken Loach, David Lynch, Jane Campion, Wong Kar Wai, Wim Wenders and many more.
Other films playing in Pálás’s final week include the Oscar-nominated Brazilian film I’m Still Here from director Walter Salles, and September Says, the debut film from French actress Ariane Labed, based on the book by Daisy Johnson and produced by Element Pictures. Pálás’s David Lynch retrospective will also conclude, with the director’s opus Mulholland Drive being the last film to screen before the cinema closes on Thursday, February 27.
