Shirkers (2018)

Shirkers (2018)

TV-14

netflix

Truth is stranger than fiction in this bizarre documentary that doubles as an ode to art and film

7.8

Movie

Singapore, UK
English
Documentary
2018
FEMALE DIRECTOR, SANDI TAN
Georges Cardona, Jasmine Ng, Jasmine Ng Kin Kia
96 min

What it's about

In 1992, teenager Sandi Tan shot Singapore's first indie road movie with her enigmatic American mentor Georges – who then vanished with all the footage. Twenty years later, the 16mm film is recovered, sending Tan, now a novelist in Los Angeles, on a personal odyssey in search of Georges' vanishing footprints.

The take

In the early 1990s, Singaporean teens Sandi, Jasmine, and Sophie set out to make the country’s first indie movie. Incredibly, in between college, day jobs, and very limited funding, they manage to do just that with the help of their wise but mysterious mentor, Georges. Shirkers, as the project came to be called, seemed primed to revolutionize the burgeoning Singaporean film industry. It was ambitious and bonkers, unlike anything the country has seen before, and it lovingly contained tributes to the makers' cinematic heroes (among them Wim Wenders and David Lynch). But before it could see the light of the day, before it could even be viewed and edited by the girls who conceptualized it, Shirkers’ raw footage was whisked away by Georges, who fled the country without a trace. 

The potentially pioneering film was never to be seen again—that is, until 20 years later when it resurfaces in near-mint condition (sadly, the audio could not be recovered). Fascinated by the journey of the lost film and mystified by Georges’ motives, Sandi decides to remake Shirkers as a documentary. The result is an artistic and personal interrogation into what made their small beloved film possible, how its loss affected the people behind it, and how this all led to Shirkers, the documentary, which is a testament to how art always prevails in the end. 

Comments

Add a comment

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

Comrades, Almost a Love Story (1996)

Almost Hong Kong natives become almost lovers in this heart stirring romance drama

8.2

How to Have Sex (2023)

A drunken summer vacation turns melancholy in this sober observation of teenage rites of passage

7.7

Betty Blue (1986)

Artistic frustration is only temporarily sated by love in this erotic, supposedly psychological, drama

6.5

Spermworld (2024)

People take family planning into their own hands in this fascinating look into sperm donation online

7.3

Amar Singh Chamkila (2024)

Imtiaz Ali remembers the Elvis of Punjab in this vibrant musical biopic

7.4

The Beauty Inside (2015)

A slightly impossible, but sweet, romance drama that believes in love despite changing faces

7.0

Falling in Love Like in Movies (2023)

A contemplative Indonesian romance film that rewrites and re-examines the genre’s conventions

8.4

Bray Wyatt: Becoming Immortal (2024)

WWE’s best effort to pay tribute to Windham “Bray Wyatt” Rotunda

8.5

Leave the World Behind (2023)

Shyamalan meets Black Mirror in this hugely entertaining, visually inventive apocalyptic thriller with a killer ending

8.2

Hail Satan? (2019)

Forget everything you think you know about the Satanic Temple

8.0

Curated by humans, not algorithms.

agmtw logo

© 2024 agoodmovietowatch, all rights reserved.