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Sandi Tan's 'Shirkers' tells bizarre story of lost-and-found film tribute to '90s Singapore

A young Sandi Tan in “Shirkers”. (Photo: Netflix)
A young Sandi Tan in “Shirkers”. (Photo: Netflix)

Where does one begin describing the strangeness of the triumph-over-the-odds story that film-maker Sandi Tan attempts to tell in her Sundance award-winning documentary Shirkers?

In 1992, Singapore-born Tan, then a 19-year-old aspiring auteur, rounded up two of her schoolmates, Jasmine Ng and Sophie Siddique, to make a ragtag indie feature-length flick in a country with a nascent filmmaking scene. The teenagers spent their combined savings and two months shooting in more than a hundred locations around Singapore. Tan’s French New Wave-inspired script for that original Shirkers (which her current documentary is named after) was about a serial killer named “S”, played by Tan herself, who goes on a murderous road trip around the island.

At the heart of Tan’s fantastical work was a deep desire to document everything she loved about Singapore in one film, she told Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore in an interview ahead of Shirkers’ release on Netflix on Friday (26 October).

Then disaster struck: Before they could edit the film, the girls’ eccentric film teacher-mentor, American Georges Cardona, who was also the director, made off back to the United States with all 70 reels of their raw 16mm footage without their knowing.

Sandi Tan’s enigmatic film teacher, Georges Cardona, who absconded with all the footage of “Shirkers” after filming. (Photo: Netflix)
Sandi Tan’s enigmatic film teacher, Georges Cardona, who absconded with all the footage of “Shirkers” after filming. (Photo: Netflix)

Their masterpiece never got to see the light of day – that is, until the film canisters were sent back to Tan in pristine condition by Cardona’s wife when he died 20 years later. Shocked at first, Tan then set out to investigate the story behind her stolen dream – a journey that is documented in the new Shirkers, which combines the 1992 footage with interviews that attempt to elucidate Cardona’s betrayal.

Strange as that story may be, Shirkers struck a chord with viewers when it premiered at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in January, where Tan won Best Director in the World Cinema Documentary category. Streaming giant Netflix quickly acquired it for an exclusive global release.

Tan has two other short films to her name – Moveable Feast and Gourmet Baby – as well as a novel The Black Isle. When asked whether she considers herself more a writer or film-maker, she says that her passion for now is in making films.

Sandi Tan set out to investigate the story behind her stolen dream, a journey that is documented in “Shirkers”. (Photo: Stefan Khoo Studio for Netflix)
Sandi Tan set out to investigate the story behind her stolen dream, a journey that is documented in “Shirkers”. (Photo: Stefan Khoo Studio for Netflix)

Although a deeply personal film, there is also something universal in Shirkers’ surreal tale of an artist triumphing over setbacks that a global audience can identify with, says Tan, who is now a US citizen based in Los Angeles.

“It’s a compelling story,” said Tan of her empowering journey to reclaim the achievement that she once thought was lost in a “black hole” in her life. “From the premiere, we could tell that people were moved. It’s about youthful endeavours, banding together to do something that was impossible.”

Tan says that her driving motivation for making the original Shirkers was to capture locations and colourful characters that represented “all the best of Singapore, as I saw it” while paying tribute to her favourite films such as mob movies, the “Terminator” series and Tim Burton’s works.

“I saw all these places that I loved so much and I wanted to capture them all before they vanished,” said Tan. “All these beautiful things that people were taking for granted, that I wanted to put all in one place in a way that we could show all the grown-ups who weren’t paying attention to the small beauties around them.”

The 16mm film canisters from ‘Shirkers’ that disappeared for 20 years. (Photo: Netflix)
The 16mm film canisters from ‘Shirkers’ that disappeared for 20 years. (Photo: Netflix)

For Tan, these locations worthy of preserving on film included the “sleepy neighbourhoods” of Katong and Siglap, mannequin shops in Outram Park, and ’50s apartments in Labrador Park that would later be torn down. She speaks fondly of Tay Buan Guan Supermarket in Katong, one of Singapore’s first supermarkets, which was eventually closed in 2000.

Filming Shirkers in 1992 was a “monumental achievement” for the three friends, said Tan. The teenagers had to cast adults, including 100 extras, and cajole free equipment from companies as well as free labour from friends. When the fruit of their labour – their footage – was all taken away from them by Cardona, it was very traumatic for them to have all the proof of their hard work disappear, said Tan.

“If you work in the film industry in the US, it’s not uncommon to meet a mentor who both enables and thwarts your dreams,” said Tan. “People find it cathartic to have this story told.”

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