On the 2 May 2008, Newcastle was dealt a great blow to the cultural backbone of the city. The Showcase City Cinemas closed its doors, leaving die-hard patrons and film buffs feeling like they’d been kicked right in the Maltesers.

The Showcase specialised in art-house and foreign language films, obscure cinematic treasures and the occasional documentary.  The small three-screen movie house was the last bastion of high cinema culture left in the city. And while they did show the occasional big Hollywood blockbuster to pay the rent and/or to get people in the cinema to see what was on offer, it remained art-house to its very core.

The owners, Theo and Margaret Goumas, didn’t close its doors because of the spectre of retirement, or because they were losing money. They were ordered to cease trading by the building’s owner, General Property Trust, after a fire safety inspection reported that an outer wall did not comply with safety regulations.  It’s amazing to think the residents of this fair city will be denied the culture they crave because of a mere wall that has been there since the refurbishment 11 years ago. You would think past fire safety checks would have found the problem with enough time for the owners to rectify the over sight. Now, Newcastle, like so many other towns and cities throughout the country, only receive its cinematic culture from the multiplexes, spoon-feeding everyone the same flashy, no-substance Hollywood formula. A curse on the wall, General Property Trust and the fire safety inspection!

News of this came to my attention on 2 May when I received a text message from a good friend of mine who had decided to go to a movie while her little boy was at school and found it closed. She was shocked and dismayed, she was ready to kill.

I travelled on a bus from my lunch date straight in to see for myself and I found many loyal patrons, film fans and friends of the owners, Theo and Margaret, in the lobby to mourn with them over the closure and loss to the city. There were tears and hugs all around; it was like a family member had died suddenly.

Before the refurbishment 11 years ago, the Showcase was a one-screen movie house called the Lyric. This modest little cinema gave me two of my greatest cinematic experiences, ones that helped shape the film-obsessed man I am today. Back in 1986, my Dad took me to see Go Bots: War of the Rock Lords and Transformers: The Movie (the old school animated film) featuring Orson Welles’ last film performance as the monster eating planet Unicron. The experience in front of that giant screen is the first I remember and I craved more from that point. Without that magic double feature I would no doubt be a bored accountant contemplating suicide.

The other is my first foray into art-house cinema. In 1994 I skipped school with friends and hit the movies. The film was Shallow Grave directed by Danny Doyle and I had never seen a film like this.   It had an edge and grittiness that was new to me, with its dark humour and violence. It opened my eyes to other non-Hollywood films, and I got hungry.

When it became the Showcase I went every week to see the strange, the sad, the unique, the up lifting and the alternative. It was my second home, it was my local. Every girlfriend I have had I’ve taken to the Showcase and we lost ourselves, hand in hand, in other worlds.

The Showcase, like the Lyric before it, recently gave me another first in my list of cinema experiences. Last year some friends and I when to see Pan’s Labyrinth.  There was laughter, uneasy wincing and tears. It was the most perfect cinematic experience I have ever had. It was perfect. I saw the film six more times at the Showcase City Cinemas and if I die tomorrow, the Gods of cinema will look favourably on me for that one.

You see, that movie house and me have got history. It gave us History with a capital H, culture, a wider view of the world and entertainment. It was our shrink, our marriage councillor, our motivator, our teacher and our friend.  And like so many others, I feel the loss. We all fear the cold rental outlets for our non-Hollywood films and frustrations as we receive blank stares from the staff behind the counter when we ask if they have the film that their MTV minds have never heard of.

With the Kensington Theatre closing in 2003 and The Regal in Birmingham Gardens closing not even 18 months ago, the Showcase was the last of the old school movie houses and art-house cinemas. Now, the only remaining movie screens in the city are at the Greater Union Tower Cinemas in King Street and the big multiplexes in Glendale and Charlestown . Many fans of foreign and art-house film were looking forward to the Travelling Sydney Film Festival that the Showcase was to be hosting in Newcastle. Picking up the slack for this event is the Tower Cinemas hosting it on the 24^th and 25^th of May. At least one of the operators of the big boy’s houses sees the importance of the Showcase and the films they put on.

One last thought for you film fans. In doing a little research for this, I found out that the responsibility for fire safety issues such as the wall in question is that of the building’s owners and not the poor lease holders like the Goumas’. Why, then were they ordered to close their doors, you ask? Well, it could have something to do with the General Property Trust’s $500 million shopping centre complex planned for the inner city which will house a cinema complex. The proposed site for this mega-development is the corner of Newcomen and King Streets – the same block where the building housing the Showcase now stands.

So what do you think closed the Showcase? Was it fate, bad luck, the fire safety regulations or the need for some people to make lots and lots of money? Hollywood has taught them well.

The showcase is having a farewell screening on 11 May at 1p.m. It will be the opera production La Fille du Regiment. It will be the last time those screens will flicker to life before the lights go out.