An inspired labor of love for zine-making teens Sandi Tan, Jasmine Ng and Sophie Siddique, Shirkers was a Singapore-made 1992 cult classic—or it would have been, had the 16mm footage not been stolen by their enigmatic American collaborator Georges Cardona, who disappeared. More than two decades later, Tan, now a novelist in L.A., returns to the country of her youth and to the memories of a man who both enabled and thwarted her dreams. Magically, too, she returns to the film itself, revived in a way she never could have imagined. Shirkers (USA, 96 mins, 2018) made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018, where Sandi Tan received the World Cinema Documentary Directing Award.

About the series:
Making Cinema Matter in Baltimore is a FREE artist-led workshop and screening series featuring distinguished visiting filmmakers who connect their films and filmmaking to social, creative, or cultural issues in Baltimore. This project is presented in partnership with Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Johns Hopkins University, Maryland Film Festival/Stavros Niarchos Foundation Parkway Theatre, and the Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.