Shirkers

About

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Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary

Embodying the creative spirit of the early ’90s, super-cinephile and VHS bootlegger Sandi Tan and her friends found inspiration in American independent film. Eventually, they knew it was time to make a film of their own. In her home country of Singapore, Sandi pens a thriller about a teenage assassin and enlisted her friends, Jasmine and Sophie—think the Coen sisters—and the mysterious mentor Georges to film it. Shirkers became one of the few films in the country to be shot guerilla style, coloring the newly independent nation with a playful, hyper-real aesthetic. Then one day, Georges disappeared with all the 16mm footage.

Sandi embarks on a personal, singular journey into her creative life, unpacks the urban legend of Shirkers, and connects the clues embedded in the film to unravel the mystery of who her friend Georges Cardona really was.

A retro-inspired, ardently analogue experiment in self-discovery and filmmaking, Shirkers becomes a portrait of what it means to be independent, defy patriarchy, and find your tribe—only to realize that they were with you all along.

Sun. 1/21, 11:30 a.m., Egyptian, PC
Mon. 1/22, 10:00 p.m., Redstone 2, PC
Tue. 1/23, 9:45 p.m., Broadway 3, SLC
Thu. 1/25, 8:30 a.m., Egyptian, PC
Fri. 1/26, 3:15 p.m., Holiday 2, PC

YEAR 2017

CATEGORY World Doc

COUNTRY U.S.A.

RUN TIME 96 min

COMPANY Shirkers LLC

WEBSITE www.shirkersfilm.com

EMAIL shirkersfilm@gmail.com

PHONE (603) 498-6621

Credits

Director
Producers
Written By
Editors
Consulting Editor
Director Of Photography
Original Score
Sound Design
Color Grading

Artist Bio

Sandi Tan

Sandi published a zine called The Exploding Cat at 16 and became the film critic at Singapore’s largest newspaper at 22, then threw everything away to attend film school at Columbia University. Her short films have played at over 100 festivals, including the New York Film Festival and Clermont-Ferrand. She also wrote the doorstop/novel The Black Isle. She was a 2016 Sundance Documentary Fellow and 2017 Sundance Creative Producing Fellow. She lives in Pasadena, California.