Classic Film Series: Sandi Tan's "Shirkers"

While still a teen in 1992, Sandi Tan made one of Singapore’s first indie feature films, SHIRKERS, under the mentorship of a shady American teacher who vanished with the film stock before it could be finished and released. Her same-titled 2018 documentary reflects on her shattered creative dreams, and explains what happened when the footage was unexpectedly returned two decades later. Released as a Netflix original, the film received a Directing Award at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. The New Yorker called it “vastly imaginative and ambitious…. gloriously, gleefully idiosyncratic, a blend of punk energy and local documentation.” Cosponsored by UAlbany’s Center for International Education & Global Strategy and Intensive English Language Program. Classic Film Series