Shirkers (2018) [Documentary Review]

Shirkers; or, The Curse of an Unfinished Motion Picture

     In the summer of 1992, my friends and I shot a road movie on the streets of Singapore that was to become a kind of urban legend. That movie was called Shirkers, a word which means “running away, avoiding responsibility, escape.” […] The film was a time capsule of a Singapore that was both real and imaginary. Back then, the thing I wanted more than anything was to make a movie. But I never imagined it would end this way.

Release Info

Directed by: Sandi Tan Starring: Sandi Tan, Jasmine Ng, Sophia Siddique Harvey, Georges Cardona

Language: English Runtime: 96 min

I guess that I should start this review with a memeable phrase like “I don’t always review documentaries but when I do, they’re about Asian films”. Shirkers fits this pattern perfectly because it is a detailed outline of a story how three friends, together with their film teacher, decided to make an independent road movie that… by a bizarre twist of fate (mentor disappearing with the footage) never got to see the light of day.

 

The documentary was directed and written by Sandi Tan, a film critic and writer who is also the story’s main heroine. She drives the narrative on the basis of interviews with her friends, Jasmine Ng and Sophia Siddique Harvey, crewmembers of Shirkers movie, and people connected with the elusive figure of the film teacher, Georges Cardona. The interviews cross-cut with some fancy animations (letters, photographs, and art designs) and, most importantly, the stolen footage from Shirkers movie.

 

This is how the observant viewer is informed that the footage was, in fact, retrieved, but the 25-year-long wait leading up to this rediscovery is the most interesting aspect of the documentary. All confessions from behind the scenes of Shirkers are, actually, quite gripping. From the very first clip of the original movie, one can see that the little indie film was made with some thought to it. The most obvious influence which came to my mind right off the bat was David Lynch and, a couple of minutes later into the documentary, Sandi admits that she got ahold of Blue Velvet (1986) on VHS through her cousin in America…

 

The original clips show not only a premise of a decent motion picture, but they also serve as a time capsule preserving the image of Singapore from the 1990s. Urban spaces mixed so seamlessly with colourful nature that the country almost appeared as the ideal location for any type of movie. Unfortunately, Shirkers (even though complete in the form of film reels) was scarred forever by the removal of its sound recordings.

 

The only thing that left me a bit jarred was the way in which the character of Georges Cardona was framed within this story. He is turned into a romantic, yet vain, almost Heathcliff-like anti-hero. In my opinion, he was simply a skilled a-hole (and a major troll) who envied the creativity of other people. However, it has to be acknowledged that he had a certain degree of understanding (even a talent of sorts) in terms of movie making. If only he could direct his efforts into fruitful collaborations he established with his colleagues, instead of throwing them at the very bottom of a bin.

 

Sandi Tan herself seems not to be a very crystal clear protagonist, at least to me. All she wanted to do was to make a movie, the ultimate dream of every aspiring cinema lover; nevertheless, what was the cost of her struggle? The second half of Shirkers documentary presents Sandi coming to terms with the bitter past, revisiting her friends, and exploring the mysterious existence of Georges Cardona.

 

Recommendations

I recommend this documentary to anyone. It is a great story and I strongly hope that the original Shirkers movie will be released someday in one way or the other. The documentary is easily available on Netflix, so you can check it out there. However, I would like to point out that I was in no way paid in the dark alley by Netflix to write this review. I stumbled across Shirkers after watching a different documentary called Filmworker, about the creative life of Leon Vitali, and I recommend it to every cinema buff as well.

Overall score: 8/10