Shirkers
A vibrant documentary memoir transforms the recovery of a stolen teenage film into a playful, searching meditation on authorship, friendship, and making peace with the past.
Overview
A nostalgic journey into the past reveals lost dreams and forgotten stories.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Brisk
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- None
- witty
- playful
- melancholic
- creative inspiration
- reflective evening
What critics said
Critics broadly regard the film as a universally acclaimed, inventive and affecting documentary that turns a personal creative disappointment into a vivid meditation on creativity and memory.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Tan's search for the missing 16mm footage becomes the documentary's central investigative structure.
The disappearance of Georges Cardona and the footage shapes Tan's adult reckoning with lost opportunity.
The film explicitly moves among 16mm, digital, Hi8, Super8, slides, animation, and handwritten letters.
The story begins with teenage filmmaking in Singapore and follows Tan's adult search from Los Angeles across two continents.
Films like Shirkers, and why
Dawson City: Frozen Time
personal documentary investigation shaped by recovered footage, artistic ambition, and intimate reckoning with the past
The Mystery of Picasso
archival reconstruction of a lost artistic project using experimental media and a reflective autobiographical voice
Stories We Tell
essayistic documentary about memory, creative identity, and the emotional afterlife of unfinished work
The Beaches of Agnès
female-led creative memoir combining archival materials, friendship, and a playful yet melancholic investigation
Movie Details
- Director
- Sandi Tan
- Release Date
- 2018-01-21
- Runtime
- 97 min
- Rating
- 7.2 / 10 (139)
Cast
- Sandi Tan
- Sophia Siddique Harvey
- Georges Cardona
- Philip Cheah
- Jasmine Ng Kin Kia
- Stephen Tyler
Where to watch in United States
- Streaming
- Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
Streaming options come from TMDB and change over time.
Common questions
- What is Shirkers about?
- A vibrant documentary memoir transforms the recovery of a stolen teenage film into a playful, searching meditation on authorship, friendship, and making peace with the past.
- What is Shirkers like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Shirkers as brisk, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is Shirkers violent?
- No — Ember's analysis finds no violence in Shirkers.
- What did critics think of Shirkers?
- Critics broadly regard the film as a universally acclaimed, inventive and affecting documentary that turns a personal creative disappointment into a vivid meditation on creativity and memory.
- Which films are like Shirkers?
- Films with a similar feel include Dawson City: Frozen Time, The Mystery of Picasso, Stories We Tell, and The Beaches of Agnès.
- How long is Shirkers?
- Shirkers runs 97 minutes.
- Where can I watch Shirkers?
- In United States, Shirkers streams on Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads.
