Netflix viewing on October 30th. I heard about this film while listening to an Unpopular Opinions podcast when I was in San Diego. The host seemed to be interested in it and I decided, "what the hey."
The film is directed by Sandi Tan and it's her story about growing up a little different in Singapore. In 1992, Tan along with her friends Jasmine Ng and Sophie Siddique decided to make a film with the help of Georges Cardona, created the film Shirkers. Shirkers was written by Tan and it was Singapore's first indie road movie. Tan, Ng and Siddique knew nothing about film making but they were creative and they hustled. Cardona,who worked on 1988's Slumber Party Massacre directed the film and was set to edit it as well.
The girls went on the study abroad for college. They gradually grew apart but Tan still kept in touch with Cardona, anxiously getting updates about the editing. Eventually, Cardona went dark and the girls finished college. They would all go into the arts in different ways with Tan becoming a novelist. As the years go by, Tan learns that Cardona was not all he led her to believe and eventually he died in 2002. Then in 2012, Cardona's ex-wife gets a hold of tan to tell her that she's got dozens of undeveloped 16mm film cans of her movie. The audio tracks were lost to time but Tan decided to digitize the film and created the documentary.
Tan grew up as a bit of a misfit in Singapore. Jasmine was a bit of a misfit as well and the two became fast friends. The film is a walk down memory lane for Tan who went on to have a nice career but always seemed haunted by the loss of the film and she felt betrayed by Cardona whom she looked upon as a mentor. Shirkers was her obsession and she had to let it go and she carried that sense of loss with her for 20 years before it came back into her life.
Very interesting film. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 100% rating. It may not be for everyone but it's worth watching.
