2018 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Sandi Tan’s Shirkers

Forget about Chris Smith’s Jim Carrey / Man on the Moon rescued footage docu, we have a true detective treasure hunt that knows no geographic bounds to watch out for on the horizon. A recent 2016 Sundance Documentary Film Program Fellow and recipient of some post-production coin from Sundance, the Singapore born Sandi Tan saw her short films shore up at fests such as NYFF, and Clermont-Ferrand and then made the Cinereach backed Shirkers her first feature quest. Teaming with Cinematographer Iris Ng (Stories We Tell), Tan is also an author having published a couple of years back.
Gist: In 1992, an enigmatic American named Georges shot Singapore’s first indie film with a group of female teenage film-buffs, then absconded with all the footage. Nearly twenty years later, his widow uncovers the 16mm cans in New Orleans—and ships them to the film’s screenwriter-actress, who embarks on a new voyage to Singapore, Cambridge, New Orleans, and into the past.
Production Co./Producers: Sandi Tan, Jessica Levin (Day Night Day Night).
Prediction: U.S. Documentary Film Comp.
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. TBD (domestic). TBD (international)
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Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).
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