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Downloaded from
YTS.MX
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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX
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[film roll clicks]
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[Sandi Tan]
When I was 18, a long time ago now,
5
00:00:47,088 --> 00:00:52,302
I had the idea that you found freedom
by building worlds inside your head.
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00:01:00,101 --> 00:01:03,438
That you had to go backwards
in order to go forwards.
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00:01:09,527 --> 00:01:13,823
That little kids
had the answers to everything.
8
00:01:14,407 --> 00:01:16,409
[insects chirping]
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00:01:18,328 --> 00:01:21,039
[Sandi]
When I was 18, I had so many ideas,
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00:01:21,623 --> 00:01:24,751
I hardly slept at all.
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00:01:46,815 --> 00:01:48,817
In the summer of 1992,
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00:01:48,900 --> 00:01:52,278
my friends and I shot a road movie
on the streets of Singapore...
13
00:01:53,029 --> 00:01:56,574
that was to become a kind of urban legend.
14
00:01:58,118 --> 00:02:00,328
That movie was called Shirkers,
15
00:02:01,788 --> 00:02:04,290
a word which means "running away,
16
00:02:05,291 --> 00:02:07,043
avoiding responsibility,
17
00:02:08,461 --> 00:02:09,379
escape."
18
00:02:13,675 --> 00:02:16,636
I wrote the script and played the heroine,
19
00:02:16,719 --> 00:02:19,472
a 16-year-old killer named S.
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00:02:19,973 --> 00:02:21,975
[owl hooting]
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00:02:37,574 --> 00:02:39,993
[Sandi] Nobody was making movies
like that in Singapore.
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00:02:40,577 --> 00:02:42,078
So, we were pioneers.
23
00:02:44,330 --> 00:02:45,999
[dog barking, panting]
24
00:02:47,417 --> 00:02:50,378
The film was a time capsule of a Singapore
25
00:02:50,461 --> 00:02:53,673
that was both real and imaginary.
26
00:03:11,232 --> 00:03:15,653
Back then, the thing I wanted
more than anything was to make a movie.
27
00:03:16,738 --> 00:03:20,700
But I never imagined
it would end this way.
28
00:03:20,783 --> 00:03:22,577
[eerie song playing]
29
00:03:30,752 --> 00:03:32,170
[music stops]
30
00:03:42,263 --> 00:03:47,101
Twenty-five years later, I find myself
on a strange backward journey,
31
00:03:47,602 --> 00:03:50,188
replaying the past for clues.
32
00:03:52,690 --> 00:03:55,735
[man] Okay, I listened to your tape
that you did in your room.
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00:03:55,818 --> 00:03:58,446
I loved it. I like being your best friend.
34
00:03:59,239 --> 00:04:00,406
You're my best friend.
35
00:04:02,325 --> 00:04:05,703
I like knowing that you're around.
36
00:04:05,787 --> 00:04:07,497
I like knowing that we're connected,
37
00:04:08,581 --> 00:04:09,958
that we're partners in crime.
38
00:04:11,251 --> 00:04:13,294
Make me another tape, please.
39
00:04:13,962 --> 00:04:14,963
I miss you.
40
00:04:23,471 --> 00:04:25,556
[Sandi] I learned to stop thinking
about that time...
41
00:04:27,517 --> 00:04:29,143
to pretend it never happened...
42
00:04:30,728 --> 00:04:33,022
which was, of course, impossible.
43
00:04:36,567 --> 00:04:38,987
Shirkers became a secret history,
44
00:04:40,571 --> 00:04:42,115
shared by a small group of us.
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00:04:44,158 --> 00:04:45,785
And it would haunt us
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00:04:45,868 --> 00:04:47,287
and bond us
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00:04:47,370 --> 00:04:48,579
and tear us apart.
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00:05:13,146 --> 00:05:15,148
-[Sandi] Whenever you're ready.
-Now.
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00:05:16,566 --> 00:05:19,527
[Sandi] Jasmine and I were enemies
before we were friends.
50
00:05:19,610 --> 00:05:23,239
You thought I was an enemy, but I don't
know if I thought you were an enemy.
51
00:05:23,906 --> 00:05:25,158
Uh, yeah.
52
00:05:25,742 --> 00:05:28,286
We stayed enemies until we were 14.
53
00:05:32,749 --> 00:05:34,792
When we were growing up in the 1980s...
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00:05:37,503 --> 00:05:41,424
the state and the family
were constantly in your face.
55
00:05:41,507 --> 00:05:43,343
[cheering]
56
00:05:43,426 --> 00:05:45,970
[typewriter keys clacking, ding]
57
00:05:46,054 --> 00:05:49,599
Singapore was so uptight,
its government even banned chewing gum.
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00:05:50,391 --> 00:05:53,478
If Americans believe they are exceptional,
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00:05:53,561 --> 00:05:54,812
let me tell you,
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00:05:54,896 --> 00:05:57,732
Singaporeans know we are exceptional.
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00:05:58,441 --> 00:06:01,361
A sweaty little island in 1965,
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00:06:01,444 --> 00:06:05,281
Singapore became one of the richest
countries in the world by the year 2000.
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00:06:05,365 --> 00:06:07,492
[fireworks whistle, pop]
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00:06:09,535 --> 00:06:11,788
When Jasmine and I were 14,
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00:06:11,871 --> 00:06:16,000
we discovered unusual movies
and unpopular music.
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00:06:16,084 --> 00:06:18,086
[playing off-key]
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00:06:20,630 --> 00:06:24,175
[Sandi]
And as weirdos, we became best friends.
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00:06:24,967 --> 00:06:27,261
We came from very different backgrounds...
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00:06:28,096 --> 00:06:29,639
but we were thick as thieves.
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00:06:32,683 --> 00:06:35,061
My family was intense.
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00:06:40,608 --> 00:06:44,070
My parents' marriage was collapsing
even before I was born,
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00:06:44,821 --> 00:06:47,949
and so I was raised by my grandparents.
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00:06:50,201 --> 00:06:53,913
When it rained, our front lawn
looked like chocolate milk.
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00:06:56,541 --> 00:07:00,628
In 1981, my grandfather insisted
on having these pictures taken...
75
00:07:01,963 --> 00:07:05,133
because his beloved house
was about to be torn down.
76
00:07:09,137 --> 00:07:13,516
In 1985, the house was replaced
by this condo.
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00:07:17,311 --> 00:07:21,399
It still flooded,
but it was no longer chocolate milk.
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00:07:23,443 --> 00:07:25,319
I was always expected to shine.
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00:07:26,154 --> 00:07:27,363
Which was exhausting.
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00:07:28,614 --> 00:07:30,074
I needed a way out.
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00:07:31,534 --> 00:07:33,786
So, of course, I liked Jasmine's family.
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00:07:34,412 --> 00:07:36,539
They were warm and undemanding
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00:07:36,622 --> 00:07:40,126
and didn't care if we built
crazy shrines in Jasmine's room.
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00:07:41,836 --> 00:07:43,504
We had the God of Theater...
85
00:07:44,547 --> 00:07:46,799
and the Goddess of Scriptwriting.
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00:07:46,883 --> 00:07:48,050
[typewriter clacking]
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00:07:48,509 --> 00:07:50,470
[plane whooshing by sound]
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00:07:53,598 --> 00:07:56,434
We showed up at school
dressed up as nurses.
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00:07:56,517 --> 00:07:57,602
[school bell ringing]
90
00:07:57,685 --> 00:08:01,314
And I challenged the authorities
at the Film Society.
91
00:08:01,397 --> 00:08:04,942
[man] Dear Sandi: We will certainly try
to acquire the films you've requested.
92
00:08:05,526 --> 00:08:07,612
[Sandi]
I desperately wanted to make movies.
93
00:08:09,197 --> 00:08:13,826
I gave imaginary interviews
as imaginary filmmakers.
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00:08:14,619 --> 00:08:18,331
Hi, I would like to share
with you my movie
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00:08:18,414 --> 00:08:23,419
Magic Fire Brain,
which, uh, is completely original.
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00:08:23,503 --> 00:08:25,796
There were lots of crowd scenes.
97
00:08:27,673 --> 00:08:30,468
I read American Film
and Film Comment religiously.
98
00:08:31,719 --> 00:08:36,098
But it was impossible to see these movies
unless I got very creative.
99
00:08:37,767 --> 00:08:41,646
I established
a clandestine videotaping syndicate
100
00:08:41,729 --> 00:08:43,481
with my cousin Vicki in Florida...
101
00:08:44,649 --> 00:08:47,151
just so I could watch Blue Velvet.
102
00:08:52,990 --> 00:08:56,744
Jasmine and I devoured
what people around us ignored.
103
00:09:01,207 --> 00:09:03,334
We started writing for BigO,
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00:09:03,417 --> 00:09:07,255
Singapore's underground rock zine,
when we were 14.
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00:09:08,548 --> 00:09:12,885
BigO was run by Philip Cheah,
in all his poker-faced glory,
106
00:09:12,969 --> 00:09:16,681
and he would make us tapes
of Patti Smith and The Velvet Underground
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00:09:16,764 --> 00:09:20,601
and quiz us on them
before he would let us join their club.
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00:09:21,269 --> 00:09:25,898
In Singapore, you had very strict
censorship across music and film.
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00:09:25,982 --> 00:09:29,360
A lot of the great classic albums
were still banned.
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00:09:29,443 --> 00:09:33,823
We saw the revolution that took place
in the UK and in the US,
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00:09:33,906 --> 00:09:36,576
and we wondered whether
that could actually happen here.
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00:09:37,577 --> 00:09:40,580
[Sandi]
We created elaborate collages for BigO,
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00:09:41,581 --> 00:09:43,040
which they all hated.
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00:09:44,667 --> 00:09:46,794
I think we were way too punk for them.
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00:09:48,421 --> 00:09:50,756
They were a lame boy's club anyway.
116
00:09:52,300 --> 00:09:54,635
So it was always us...
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00:09:55,386 --> 00:09:56,929
against the world.
118
00:09:58,514 --> 00:10:03,060
Our greatest achievement was publishing
our own zine, The Exploding Cat...
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00:10:03,978 --> 00:10:06,564
on the photocopier
at the National Library.
120
00:10:08,232 --> 00:10:13,112
Exploding Cat was our attempt
to catalog everything that angered us,
121
00:10:13,195 --> 00:10:14,363
that made us laugh.
122
00:10:26,459 --> 00:10:28,419
The Cat became its own thing.
123
00:10:29,128 --> 00:10:32,840
We received letters
from New York, London...
124
00:10:33,883 --> 00:10:36,010
Paris, Jerusalem,
125
00:10:36,719 --> 00:10:39,263
even prisons in three different states.
126
00:10:41,307 --> 00:10:42,516
Above all...
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00:10:44,352 --> 00:10:46,395
it was a catalog of us.
128
00:10:47,605 --> 00:10:48,481
Me,
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00:10:49,231 --> 00:10:50,775
my friends,
130
00:10:53,069 --> 00:10:55,446
our tiny island in the center
of the world,
131
00:10:56,155 --> 00:10:57,573
charting our own destiny...
132
00:10:58,824 --> 00:11:01,118
in 1989.
133
00:11:03,454 --> 00:11:05,748
[girl] The next story is chapter 39.
134
00:11:05,831 --> 00:11:08,125
[Sandi] Hang on, just one more thing.
135
00:11:08,209 --> 00:11:11,629
Back in those days, I was obsessed
with The Catcher in the Rye...
136
00:11:12,213 --> 00:11:15,091
and Salinger's idea of saving children.
137
00:11:16,467 --> 00:11:19,387
So I trained my baby cousins
to never grow up.
138
00:11:20,012 --> 00:11:22,264
[boy speaking gibberish]
139
00:11:22,348 --> 00:11:23,933
...people talk. [laughs]
140
00:11:24,016 --> 00:11:26,018
-[Sandi] Wen...
-Yes.
141
00:11:26,477 --> 00:11:27,478
Say something.
142
00:11:28,229 --> 00:11:29,438
[girl] I'm going to color.
143
00:11:30,314 --> 00:11:32,525
[girl humming]
144
00:11:37,530 --> 00:11:40,783
[Sandi] Or if they had to grow up,
to grow up different.
145
00:11:43,285 --> 00:11:45,121
[girl laughing]
146
00:11:48,999 --> 00:11:51,585
[Sandi]
"Hysterical" was superior to "ordinary."
147
00:11:53,254 --> 00:11:54,505
[girl] I hate you.
148
00:11:54,588 --> 00:11:57,299
[Sandi] Even "depressed"
was superior to "ordinary."
149
00:11:57,383 --> 00:12:00,302
[boy hums fanfare] You no good mangy mutt!
150
00:12:00,386 --> 00:12:01,554
You're stupid.
151
00:12:09,437 --> 00:12:13,733
A long time ago, in early '91,
we took the filmmaking class,
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00:12:13,858 --> 00:12:17,194
probably the first filmmaking class
available here.
153
00:12:18,904 --> 00:12:21,532
In this classroom
and the adjoining classroom as well.
154
00:12:22,241 --> 00:12:24,952
So there was a whole bunch of us, you, me,
155
00:12:25,035 --> 00:12:28,289
a whole strange assortment of persons.
156
00:12:29,206 --> 00:12:35,463
[Sandi] Our teacher was Georges Cardona,
a man of unplaceable age and origin.
157
00:12:36,589 --> 00:12:39,049
[Georges Cardona] I think we ought
to make a film about the guy
158
00:12:39,133 --> 00:12:41,552
who measures the visibility in Singapore.
159
00:12:41,635 --> 00:12:42,762
[woman laughs]
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00:12:42,845 --> 00:12:46,599
He projected himself
to be an American filmmaker,
161
00:12:47,641 --> 00:12:52,563
and was there to teach us,
impressionable 18, 19 year-olds,
162
00:12:52,646 --> 00:12:54,231
about film production in Singapore.
163
00:12:54,607 --> 00:12:56,567
[Sandi] We met Sophie at the class.
164
00:12:57,109 --> 00:13:00,488
She was so nice and stable
and trustworthy.
165
00:13:00,571 --> 00:13:02,782
I wasn't sure
she would make a good friend.
166
00:13:04,033 --> 00:13:06,076
Georges brought the three of us,
167
00:13:06,160 --> 00:13:09,955
Sophie, Jasmine and me
into his inner circle.
168
00:13:10,039 --> 00:13:12,082
Cecilia runs a video bordello.
169
00:13:12,625 --> 00:13:15,419
My impression of Georges, uh,
170
00:13:15,503 --> 00:13:19,048
first and foremost,
was his eyes, very metallic.
171
00:13:19,131 --> 00:13:21,342
It was almost ice, icy blue.
172
00:13:21,801 --> 00:13:25,846
He spoke in a very slow,
calm, measured tones.
173
00:13:26,972 --> 00:13:30,226
And I just remember, even at that point,
174
00:13:30,309 --> 00:13:32,394
this kind of dissonance, you know,
175
00:13:32,478 --> 00:13:34,522
the eyes seemed so cold
176
00:13:34,605 --> 00:13:36,565
but his demeanor seemed so warm.
177
00:13:37,858 --> 00:13:40,319
And he had this ability
178
00:13:40,402 --> 00:13:42,488
that when he spoke to you,
179
00:13:42,571 --> 00:13:46,659
you felt that you were his sole focus.
180
00:13:48,035 --> 00:13:51,121
[Sandi] Georges was like no other adult
I knew in Singapore.
181
00:13:53,332 --> 00:13:56,627
He liked to just sit
and watch the light change.
182
00:13:59,672 --> 00:14:03,008
He took us to shoot
colorful Hindu festivals
183
00:14:03,092 --> 00:14:06,345
that my family
would have found frightening.
184
00:14:06,428 --> 00:14:08,806
[Hindu fast-paced music playing]
185
00:14:17,189 --> 00:14:20,526
[Sandi] He talked about movies
the way I wanted to talk about movies.
186
00:14:23,988 --> 00:14:25,948
He loved the French New Wave.
187
00:14:26,031 --> 00:14:28,033
[man speaking French]
188
00:14:28,742 --> 00:14:30,911
And soon, so did I.
189
00:14:37,835 --> 00:14:40,546
When the film class ended
at nine or ten at night...
190
00:14:41,839 --> 00:14:44,008
we would drive around
the island with Georges.
191
00:14:46,844 --> 00:14:51,515
We kept him out late, even though
we knew he had a wife and a baby
192
00:14:51,599 --> 00:14:52,975
waiting for him at home.
193
00:14:53,475 --> 00:14:55,769
-[Georges] And I barked.
-[girl laughs]
194
00:14:55,853 --> 00:14:57,855
[crickets chirping]
195
00:14:59,023 --> 00:15:00,649
[Georges] Can you hear the crickets?
196
00:15:02,359 --> 00:15:03,861
[Sandi] We went looking for ideas.
197
00:15:05,237 --> 00:15:07,197
We went looking for wild dogs.
198
00:15:07,531 --> 00:15:08,449
[Sandi] Bang!
199
00:15:08,532 --> 00:15:10,659
[Georges laughs] Were you rolling?
200
00:15:10,743 --> 00:15:11,702
[Sandi] Yeah.
201
00:15:13,370 --> 00:15:15,706
[Jasmine] Sandi,
I didn't know you were into this.
202
00:15:17,541 --> 00:15:20,502
Oh, stop it! I'm not in the mood tonight.
203
00:15:20,586 --> 00:15:22,212
[Sandi] Nice soundtrack.
204
00:15:22,296 --> 00:15:23,631
[laughing]
205
00:15:23,714 --> 00:15:24,632
Hurry up.
206
00:15:24,715 --> 00:15:27,051
[Georges] We're speaking loudly.
207
00:15:28,761 --> 00:15:33,474
And all the lovers are sort of aggravated
with us and they have cleared the area.
208
00:15:41,941 --> 00:15:45,194
[Sandi] He was my first friend
who was a grown man.
209
00:15:50,366 --> 00:15:51,367
He picked us.
210
00:15:52,326 --> 00:15:55,412
But he let us feel like we picked him.
211
00:16:06,632 --> 00:16:09,093
Those night drives bled into my dreams.
212
00:16:10,052 --> 00:16:12,262
Of course I wanted to make a road movie.
213
00:16:15,516 --> 00:16:20,521
Instead, I went away
to a strange, cold place.
214
00:16:21,146 --> 00:16:21,981
England.
215
00:16:35,995 --> 00:16:37,788
I thought I would find my tribe.
216
00:16:38,998 --> 00:16:40,374
But I had left them.
217
00:16:42,543 --> 00:16:43,794
Jasmine went to New York...
218
00:16:44,920 --> 00:16:46,046
Sophie went to LA...
219
00:16:47,548 --> 00:16:50,259
And Georges stayed in Singapore.
220
00:16:51,927 --> 00:16:53,512
I felt so stranded.
221
00:16:54,054 --> 00:16:55,681
I poured all of myself...
222
00:16:56,390 --> 00:16:58,017
into letters to Georges...
223
00:16:58,392 --> 00:16:59,852
[pen scratching]
224
00:16:59,935 --> 00:17:00,978
and Jasmine.
225
00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:17,619
Georges didn't write letters or emails.
226
00:17:18,704 --> 00:17:20,497
On very rare occasions,
227
00:17:20,831 --> 00:17:23,500
he sent me tape recordings of his voice.
228
00:17:26,295 --> 00:17:27,588
[Georges] What are you doing now?
229
00:17:28,672 --> 00:17:29,548
Um...
230
00:17:30,299 --> 00:17:32,217
Thinking of going to the US in Easter.
231
00:17:33,719 --> 00:17:36,221
And renting a car,
then traveling through the US...
232
00:17:38,807 --> 00:17:41,685
for all the way from New Orleans
to Arkansas.
233
00:17:41,769 --> 00:17:43,687
[Sandi]
He invited Jasmine and me to join him.
234
00:17:44,688 --> 00:17:49,276
There were few things that excited me more
than the idea of an American road trip.
235
00:17:49,735 --> 00:17:53,947
I thought, "Fuck the French New Wave,
we're going to live our own movie."
236
00:17:54,031 --> 00:17:57,034
[man speaking French]
Sandi Tan, the only child
237
00:17:57,117 --> 00:18:00,370
of a toothbrush salesman
and a worker in a mortuary.
238
00:18:00,454 --> 00:18:02,581
Sandi was parentless from age two.
239
00:18:02,664 --> 00:18:04,708
Jasmine Ng, the eldest daughter
240
00:18:04,792 --> 00:18:08,545
of a mafia kingpin
in Singapore's Chinatown,
241
00:18:08,629 --> 00:18:11,965
and a feeble-minded housewife.
242
00:18:12,049 --> 00:18:16,512
Georges Cardona is 89 years old and mute.
243
00:18:16,595 --> 00:18:18,388
No other info available.
244
00:18:20,390 --> 00:18:21,934
[Sandi] Jasmine didn't see it that way.
245
00:18:22,810 --> 00:18:24,978
In the end, only I went.
246
00:18:30,943 --> 00:18:33,278
I flew to Los Angeles to meet Georges.
247
00:18:34,279 --> 00:18:38,951
He and I drove to San Francisco,
taking the slowest, most scenic roads.
248
00:18:42,454 --> 00:18:44,665
Even back then I knew how it looked.
249
00:18:45,374 --> 00:18:49,086
I was on the road with a married man
more than twice my age.
250
00:18:50,712 --> 00:18:52,798
So I didn't tell anyone.
251
00:18:55,592 --> 00:18:57,136
He gave me signals,
252
00:18:58,637 --> 00:19:01,640
strange signals, late night conversations
253
00:19:01,723 --> 00:19:04,518
where he told me
people thought we were lovers.
254
00:19:06,019 --> 00:19:09,773
And then one night,
he invited me to touch his belly.
255
00:19:13,485 --> 00:19:15,237
I just ignored him.
256
00:19:21,785 --> 00:19:24,079
It disturbed me to even think about it.
257
00:19:25,372 --> 00:19:27,791
And we both pretended it never happened.
258
00:19:34,173 --> 00:19:37,050
Then we drove to New Orleans
where he grew up.
259
00:19:47,102 --> 00:19:52,900
Georges was showing me the South,
with its moss and bugs and ghost stories.
260
00:19:54,860 --> 00:19:58,947
This was the place where he had
transformed himself into an artist.
261
00:20:07,706 --> 00:20:09,750
He told me how when he was 12,
262
00:20:09,833 --> 00:20:13,795
he watched his older brother bleed
to death on their mother's lap.
263
00:20:15,547 --> 00:20:19,343
He told me how when Jayne Mansfield
was killed in a car accident...
264
00:20:20,302 --> 00:20:24,181
her decapitated head rolled over
to where he was in his car.
265
00:20:27,184 --> 00:20:31,813
He told me he was the inspiration
for James Spader's character
266
00:20:31,897 --> 00:20:34,191
in Sex, Lies, and Videotape.
267
00:20:35,359 --> 00:20:37,653
[woman]
Something to take my mind off this trip.
268
00:20:38,445 --> 00:20:39,655
So I was just...
269
00:20:40,530 --> 00:20:41,448
I just...
270
00:20:42,783 --> 00:20:44,368
I just did it on the plane.
271
00:20:45,244 --> 00:20:47,704
[Sandi]
Whether his stories were actually true
272
00:20:47,788 --> 00:20:49,831
seemed beside the point.
273
00:20:50,874 --> 00:20:52,501
I loved his storytelling,
274
00:20:53,293 --> 00:20:56,838
and how his stories made time
and place and truth
275
00:20:56,922 --> 00:20:58,423
absolutely porous.
276
00:20:58,715 --> 00:21:00,592
[Georges]
...the dominant member of the party...
277
00:21:00,676 --> 00:21:03,220
[Sandi] I was suddenly staring
at a puddle of blood
278
00:21:03,303 --> 00:21:05,055
in a living room in the '60s.
279
00:21:05,722 --> 00:21:08,892
I was two degrees away
from Jayne Mansfield's head,
280
00:21:10,018 --> 00:21:12,312
three degrees from Steven Soderbergh.
281
00:21:15,399 --> 00:21:18,902
That road trip was significant
for another reason.
282
00:21:20,404 --> 00:21:23,073
I chose Georges as my new best friend.
283
00:21:30,330 --> 00:21:32,582
We talked about making a movie together...
284
00:21:33,625 --> 00:21:34,668
a road movie.
285
00:21:40,132 --> 00:21:43,885
I went back to school and immediately
threw everything into a script.
286
00:21:43,969 --> 00:21:45,887
[keyboard clacking]
287
00:21:47,431 --> 00:21:49,391
[faxing noise]
288
00:21:54,104 --> 00:21:58,317
"S tells her best friend TB
she can save the world when it ends.
289
00:21:58,400 --> 00:22:01,862
Her tools are games, toys,
and her imagination.
290
00:22:02,404 --> 00:22:04,990
She saves the world
in small numbers, starting with..."
291
00:22:05,073 --> 00:22:08,577
In my vision of the world,
there are movers,
292
00:22:08,660 --> 00:22:09,995
there are shakers,
293
00:22:10,078 --> 00:22:11,496
and there are shirkers.
294
00:22:13,832 --> 00:22:15,667
Georges sent me a fax.
295
00:22:23,050 --> 00:22:24,259
It started out with...
296
00:22:26,553 --> 00:22:29,806
the mysteriously-named lead character S.
297
00:22:29,890 --> 00:22:31,600
I wonder what that stands for.
298
00:22:32,934 --> 00:22:35,729
[Sandi] My idea was to do a road movie
in a country
299
00:22:35,812 --> 00:22:38,023
you can drive across in 40 minutes.
300
00:22:39,149 --> 00:22:41,860
We follow this cryptic character,
she goes around Singapore.
301
00:22:42,944 --> 00:22:44,696
She might have been the Grim Reaper,
302
00:22:44,780 --> 00:22:49,034
just picking off these characters
and taking them on this afterlife journey.
303
00:22:49,659 --> 00:22:51,953
Because Sandi had an obsession
with Bergman.
304
00:22:53,872 --> 00:22:56,750
[Sandi] I don't have-- I hated Bergman.
305
00:22:56,833 --> 00:23:00,587
But anyway, go on. Can we start
and you describe the plot?
306
00:23:01,296 --> 00:23:05,634
You as the screenwriter,
this was not a three-act structure.
307
00:23:06,468 --> 00:23:07,469
[Sandi] How could we...?
308
00:23:07,552 --> 00:23:10,430
It's only something that 19-year-olds
could've just said,
309
00:23:10,514 --> 00:23:11,932
"Let's go do it. Why not?"
310
00:23:12,808 --> 00:23:14,935
[Sandi] I finished the script in June,
311
00:23:15,018 --> 00:23:17,145
and we had to start shooting in July
312
00:23:17,229 --> 00:23:20,941
before the school term began
for Jasmine and Sophie.
313
00:23:22,734 --> 00:23:24,945
It was less than two and a half months.
314
00:23:25,028 --> 00:23:26,071
[Sandi] Pre-production.
315
00:23:27,197 --> 00:23:31,284
No, pre-production and shoot for a feature
316
00:23:31,368 --> 00:23:34,079
while most of us
were still working day jobs.
317
00:23:35,163 --> 00:23:37,541
Like I said, you were the only one
who was not working.
318
00:23:42,254 --> 00:23:44,631
I remember, um,
319
00:23:45,006 --> 00:23:48,635
that you were
the sort of "chief ideologue" of the trio.
320
00:23:48,718 --> 00:23:50,178
Sophie was the gopher.
321
00:23:50,262 --> 00:23:51,263
Jasmine...
322
00:23:52,639 --> 00:23:54,349
was the technical person,
323
00:23:54,433 --> 00:23:58,061
I think, who was, you know,
always fussing with this and that.
324
00:24:01,148 --> 00:24:03,066
[Sandi] We eventually broke
into two camps,
325
00:24:03,900 --> 00:24:07,446
Jasmine and Sophie, who thought we should
wait a year and do it next summer...
326
00:24:09,364 --> 00:24:12,492
versus me and Georges
who just wanted to get the film made.
327
00:24:12,951 --> 00:24:15,370
[man singing]
328
00:24:15,495 --> 00:24:19,791
[Sandi] One of Georges' favorite films
was Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo...
329
00:24:21,042 --> 00:24:23,170
in which the mad Klaus Kinski
330
00:24:23,253 --> 00:24:26,256
commands an army of Amazonian natives
331
00:24:26,339 --> 00:24:29,092
to pull a ship over a mountain for him.
332
00:24:32,387 --> 00:24:34,890
This is one of Georges'
guiding inspirations.
333
00:24:37,017 --> 00:24:39,311
And it became mine too.
334
00:24:40,645 --> 00:24:43,899
[Jasmine] You've always been a very
determined and quite ambitious person.
335
00:24:45,942 --> 00:24:48,570
You just wanted it done at any cost,
336
00:24:49,362 --> 00:24:51,448
and you were willing to just burn things
337
00:24:51,531 --> 00:24:53,658
just so that you could make your own film.
338
00:24:54,993 --> 00:24:57,078
[Sandi] Well, okay,
339
00:24:57,162 --> 00:24:59,623
but after years
of plotting to make a film,
340
00:24:59,706 --> 00:25:02,375
I couldn't just
let this opportunity slip by.
341
00:25:05,086 --> 00:25:07,380
It wasn't as if Jasmine was an expert.
342
00:25:10,383 --> 00:25:14,095
She designed this audition flyer
in her unique style.
343
00:25:17,974 --> 00:25:21,186
Of course nobody could read it
so nobody showed up.
344
00:25:22,604 --> 00:25:26,525
She was furious when we got someone
more conventional to try again.
345
00:25:27,943 --> 00:25:29,694
She thought we were selling out.
346
00:25:31,571 --> 00:25:32,781
[Jasmine] Don't worry about it.
347
00:25:32,864 --> 00:25:36,201
It's just gonna be like informal
improvisational kind of exercise.
348
00:25:37,327 --> 00:25:38,662
My left side, my right side.
349
00:25:38,745 --> 00:25:39,663
[Jasmine] Yeah, right.
350
00:25:40,163 --> 00:25:41,957
Hold up your number.
351
00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:44,876
[Sandi] The auditions were run
by Sophie and Jasmine.
352
00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:48,380
[Sophie] Basically, the main character
of the film is 16 years old.
353
00:25:48,463 --> 00:25:52,175
Hey. Wow. Let me have a closer look.
354
00:25:55,804 --> 00:25:58,515
[Jasmine] Okay, can you just imagine
you're in the car right now...
355
00:25:59,057 --> 00:26:02,477
and you're going around, you're knocking
all these old women down and-- You know?
356
00:26:02,561 --> 00:26:04,396
[ululates]
357
00:26:05,814 --> 00:26:06,648
[Jasmine] Okay.
358
00:26:06,731 --> 00:26:08,525
-Yeah.
-[Jasmine] That's all right.
359
00:26:10,819 --> 00:26:13,947
[Sandi]
Georges was nowhere to be seen or heard.
360
00:26:15,740 --> 00:26:17,117
Except here.
361
00:26:24,583 --> 00:26:27,127
And so I was the screenwriter,
362
00:26:27,210 --> 00:26:28,962
Sophie was the producer,
363
00:26:29,045 --> 00:26:31,089
Jasmine would be the editor...
364
00:26:33,216 --> 00:26:35,552
and Georges was the director.
365
00:26:39,889 --> 00:26:42,601
Sophie, as our 19-year-old producer,
366
00:26:42,684 --> 00:26:47,188
wrote letters in the voice
of an experienced executive producer.
367
00:26:50,859 --> 00:26:55,030
I secured a meeting
with a high-profile person,
368
00:26:55,113 --> 00:26:59,159
and it took me a lot of time and courage,
369
00:26:59,242 --> 00:27:02,287
and before the person arrived,
Georges said to me,
370
00:27:03,204 --> 00:27:05,165
"Okay, now you go into the kitchen.
371
00:27:05,749 --> 00:27:07,167
I'm gonna take the meeting."
372
00:27:07,792 --> 00:27:10,170
That was a very difficult moment for me.
373
00:27:10,253 --> 00:27:11,755
I didn't believe in Georges.
374
00:27:12,589 --> 00:27:14,966
I did not believe in Georges,
but I believed in the film.
375
00:27:15,967 --> 00:27:18,178
Do I yell at Georges
376
00:27:18,261 --> 00:27:20,972
or is it better for me
to remain in the kitchen
377
00:27:21,056 --> 00:27:24,059
and have him secure the deal
so the film could move forward?
378
00:27:24,726 --> 00:27:26,603
And I chose the film.
379
00:27:27,354 --> 00:27:29,648
[Sandi] We were trying
to mount a feature film
380
00:27:29,731 --> 00:27:32,150
on the scantest of practical knowledge.
381
00:27:33,693 --> 00:27:36,946
We had a production assistant
who was 14 years old.
382
00:27:38,657 --> 00:27:42,577
Georges talked Ronnie,
a 30-year-old first time DP
383
00:27:42,661 --> 00:27:44,913
into shooting the film for us.
384
00:27:45,163 --> 00:27:47,791
I got involved as a sound man,
385
00:27:47,916 --> 00:27:51,586
and I volunteered to do the storyboarding.
386
00:27:52,962 --> 00:27:55,090
I have no clue what Shirkers is about.
387
00:27:55,840 --> 00:27:58,510
-Can I say that? Would that offend you?
-[Sandi] No, no, no.
388
00:27:59,636 --> 00:28:03,973
My grandmother played my grandmother
and my baby cousin played my baby cousin.
389
00:28:06,059 --> 00:28:08,978
Her furry little arms
had their own little story.
390
00:28:12,232 --> 00:28:17,987
Oh, I thought, "Oh, great, they're looking
for a nurse, and I'm one."
391
00:28:18,613 --> 00:28:22,534
I've always wanted to see
what acting is all about, you know?
392
00:28:22,617 --> 00:28:23,702
[school bell rings]
393
00:28:23,785 --> 00:28:26,329
[Sandi] I talked Philip
into playing the crossing guard...
394
00:28:27,122 --> 00:28:29,999
because that's essentially
what he was to me.
395
00:28:31,376 --> 00:28:36,089
When I first heard about the Shirkers
project, I thought, it's about time.
396
00:28:36,172 --> 00:28:40,510
The only sort of independent feature films
that were shot in Singapore
397
00:28:40,593 --> 00:28:44,097
were like the legendary
They Call Her Cleopatra Wong.
398
00:28:47,225 --> 00:28:48,852
[grunting]
399
00:29:00,739 --> 00:29:04,576
[Sophie] There was very little
domestic filmmaking activity, right?
400
00:29:06,161 --> 00:29:11,750
And then we were going to be
the next film after Medium Rare.
401
00:29:11,833 --> 00:29:16,212
[Sandi] Medium Rare was a film
about a Singaporean serial killer
402
00:29:16,296 --> 00:29:18,715
who was played by an American TV actor.
403
00:29:19,591 --> 00:29:22,719
And come on, we can do better than that.
404
00:29:24,137 --> 00:29:28,057
We dispatched an army of location scouts
across the island.
405
00:29:34,773 --> 00:29:37,400
I made sure
they found the mannequin shops...
406
00:29:38,276 --> 00:29:40,737
and the old-timey bakery that I loved
407
00:29:40,820 --> 00:29:43,114
because I knew
they wouldn't be around for long.
408
00:29:45,241 --> 00:29:49,496
Jasmine and Sophie negotiated with Kodak
and the film equipment houses...
409
00:29:51,247 --> 00:29:54,626
and we got all our film
and camera equipment for free.
410
00:29:57,462 --> 00:30:02,842
There remained one last role to be cast:
the heroine S.
411
00:30:03,551 --> 00:30:06,471
I even felt like I couldn't play the role,
'cause it was a non-role.
412
00:30:06,554 --> 00:30:08,556
You wanted to play the role.
413
00:30:10,725 --> 00:30:14,354
Whether it was a good decision
to have cast you in the role,
414
00:30:16,147 --> 00:30:18,817
I think the footage will speak for itself.
415
00:30:19,776 --> 00:30:20,610
[Sandi] Yeah.
416
00:30:21,778 --> 00:30:25,114
"Exterior: S's Street, afternoon.
417
00:30:26,950 --> 00:30:31,663
A lazy suburban neighborhood
with rows of one-story houses,
418
00:30:31,746 --> 00:30:36,292
lawnmower sounds,
cutlery clangs, whining puppies,
419
00:30:36,376 --> 00:30:40,839
and faint sounds of radio fuzzying
with '30s Shanghai showtunes,
420
00:30:41,548 --> 00:30:46,427
track along the fronts of the houses
until camera frame bumps into S.
421
00:30:48,429 --> 00:30:51,808
Our 16-year-old protagonist
enters the scene
422
00:30:51,891 --> 00:30:55,061
with an old suitcase and an old camera."
423
00:30:56,312 --> 00:30:57,772
She is coming home.
424
00:31:01,442 --> 00:31:02,861
S lives with her grandmother...
425
00:31:04,070 --> 00:31:06,155
and her cousin, baby Woo Woo.
426
00:31:06,948 --> 00:31:09,742
They live next door to her best friend TB.
427
00:31:11,327 --> 00:31:15,331
TB lives with her mother,
who loves to smoke and watch TV.
428
00:31:16,374 --> 00:31:18,501
And her little brother TJ,
429
00:31:18,585 --> 00:31:21,462
who rides around the neighborhood
looking for trouble.
430
00:31:27,135 --> 00:31:32,140
One beautiful day, S gets TB
to go with her to shoot her piano teacher.
431
00:31:32,515 --> 00:31:35,268
[metronome ticking]
432
00:31:35,351 --> 00:31:37,228
[gunshot, thump]
433
00:31:38,146 --> 00:31:40,315
[metronome continues ticking]
434
00:31:43,067 --> 00:31:45,945
When TB gets too busy
to hang out with her,
435
00:31:46,029 --> 00:31:48,072
S goes looking for a new sidekick...
436
00:31:48,948 --> 00:31:51,784
and four more people
she likes enough to kill.
437
00:31:53,953 --> 00:31:56,289
Sleeping on her favorite spot
in the grass,
438
00:31:56,581 --> 00:32:01,794
she meets a visibility inspector
named Rahman and goes home with him.
439
00:32:03,463 --> 00:32:05,548
She abducts his little son, Haryo.
440
00:32:06,925 --> 00:32:11,054
She and Haryo walk around the island
looking for more people to collect.
441
00:32:11,137 --> 00:32:12,555
[insects chirping]
442
00:32:13,222 --> 00:32:14,057
[dog panting]
443
00:32:14,140 --> 00:32:17,226
[Sandi] They spot Cecilia, the nurse,
and her giant dog, Cherish,
444
00:32:17,310 --> 00:32:18,686
and follow them home.
445
00:32:20,063 --> 00:32:22,023
They meet Cecilia's daughter, Monster,
446
00:32:22,106 --> 00:32:24,567
who is epileptic, but who loves to dance.
447
00:32:24,651 --> 00:32:26,653
[dog panting]
448
00:32:28,321 --> 00:32:30,239
S is a Catcher in the Rye...
449
00:32:30,990 --> 00:32:32,992
and so they are three.
450
00:32:33,701 --> 00:32:36,079
-Together, they meet Montana Bob.
-[girl gasps]
451
00:32:36,746 --> 00:32:39,332
He's a funny dude,
so they follow him home.
452
00:32:40,625 --> 00:32:44,587
Meanwhile, there's the mystery boy
S keeps encountering.
453
00:32:45,213 --> 00:32:49,258
She develops feelings for him,
which means she has to kill him.
454
00:32:51,511 --> 00:32:53,346
That's two down, three to go.
455
00:32:55,390 --> 00:32:59,060
She meets Albert, the self-made man
who built a fortune in sticky tape,
456
00:33:00,561 --> 00:33:02,897
and he's eager to show off
his massive new house.
457
00:33:04,732 --> 00:33:06,484
S meets his wife Mimi...
458
00:33:08,695 --> 00:33:09,904
their son Robert...
459
00:33:10,363 --> 00:33:13,533
and their maids, Portrero and Pacifica.
460
00:33:14,742 --> 00:33:17,954
Robert tells S he's an armchair hedonist.
461
00:33:18,913 --> 00:33:20,206
They go driving.
462
00:33:20,873 --> 00:33:22,667
His friends are all dweebs.
463
00:33:24,085 --> 00:33:25,211
Time is running out.
464
00:33:25,837 --> 00:33:29,090
And S has three more people
to take to the other world with her.
465
00:33:31,259 --> 00:33:33,845
It's not clear if this world is heaven,
466
00:33:33,928 --> 00:33:36,180
hell or a supermarket.
467
00:33:37,265 --> 00:33:38,307
So things happen.
468
00:33:41,936 --> 00:33:43,312
Or maybe they don't.
469
00:33:44,772 --> 00:33:49,027
Because maybe this whole thing
was a dream after all.
470
00:33:56,159 --> 00:33:59,370
Well, because, like,
the plot was almost immaterial.
471
00:33:59,454 --> 00:34:03,249
-You know, it was a mood piece. It was...
-Yeah.
472
00:34:04,751 --> 00:34:05,752
I don't know.
473
00:34:10,882 --> 00:34:14,761
[Sandi] My script called
for the largest dog in the country,
474
00:34:14,844 --> 00:34:18,389
and Sophie got hold of this
giant wolfhound named Mega.
475
00:34:20,391 --> 00:34:24,020
Then Sophie and Jasmine sneaked him
into the supermarket...
476
00:34:24,729 --> 00:34:26,397
when the manager's back was turned.
477
00:34:30,109 --> 00:34:32,195
[Sophie] I faked a seizure...
478
00:34:33,196 --> 00:34:34,906
in order to draw crowds.
479
00:34:34,989 --> 00:34:38,326
So I was the crowd wrangler as well.
480
00:34:41,662 --> 00:34:45,291
[Sandi] Sophie and Jasmine stole
these seniors out of an old folks home.
481
00:34:49,462 --> 00:34:52,465
And returned them
before they even knew what happened.
482
00:34:54,133 --> 00:34:57,303
And we made all the grown up women smoke.
483
00:34:58,471 --> 00:34:59,472
And smoke.
484
00:35:00,681 --> 00:35:01,891
And smoke.
485
00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:10,066
We captured some startling performances
from friends and strangers.
486
00:35:11,734 --> 00:35:14,028
You were really great
as the Detergent Lady.
487
00:35:14,612 --> 00:35:17,615
I was not really great.
I think you love laughing at your friends.
488
00:35:17,698 --> 00:35:20,159
[Sandi]
There was Freda as my best friend TB.
489
00:35:21,786 --> 00:35:24,789
Kaylene as my disabled sidekick, Monster.
490
00:35:26,249 --> 00:35:28,793
And Pohshon as Monster's mom.
491
00:35:31,170 --> 00:35:36,217
You were supposed to take my child away
from me and I was like...
492
00:35:36,843 --> 00:35:40,888
crying because you're gonna
take her away from me for good
493
00:35:40,972 --> 00:35:44,392
and, see, you're making me cry now.
[laughs]
494
00:35:51,023 --> 00:35:53,901
Our passion and our earnestness...
495
00:35:55,111 --> 00:35:56,237
came through.
496
00:35:56,320 --> 00:35:58,948
At that time, I thought that Shirkers...
497
00:35:59,824 --> 00:36:01,576
as it was proposed,
498
00:36:02,702 --> 00:36:05,788
was incredible,
it was way ahead of its time.
499
00:36:08,207 --> 00:36:11,419
This was a period when America
was making some of these movies
500
00:36:11,502 --> 00:36:13,129
with Winona Ryder, I believe.
501
00:36:13,212 --> 00:36:17,133
And I think that to have
a Singapore side of things
502
00:36:17,216 --> 00:36:21,429
and especially when it's fronted by Sandi,
503
00:36:21,512 --> 00:36:23,264
absolutely astounds me.
504
00:36:26,434 --> 00:36:29,687
[Sandi] Did you ever read the script?
Like, did you feel it was childish?
505
00:36:29,770 --> 00:36:32,440
Yeah, but that was the beauty of it,
right? You know that.
506
00:36:34,192 --> 00:36:37,028
You know that.
It was so personal, wasn't it?
507
00:36:44,410 --> 00:36:47,205
[Sandi] Georges came up
with an idea for a set piece.
508
00:36:59,342 --> 00:37:03,930
And it was only much later
that I realized the idea wasn't even his.
509
00:37:17,985 --> 00:37:20,863
My friend Leon was so full of himself,
510
00:37:20,947 --> 00:37:23,074
claiming that every girl
was in love with him.
511
00:37:23,658 --> 00:37:27,161
And so I gave him the kind of fate
I thought he deserved.
512
00:37:29,288 --> 00:37:30,831
[brakes screeching, thump]
513
00:37:33,251 --> 00:37:37,755
In my world of Shirkers,
there were different categories of boys:
514
00:37:39,715 --> 00:37:41,676
the boys I thought delectable,
515
00:37:43,469 --> 00:37:45,972
the boys I liked as good friends,
516
00:37:47,473 --> 00:37:49,141
and as in life,
517
00:37:50,184 --> 00:37:52,603
I made friends with strange men
518
00:37:52,687 --> 00:37:54,939
because I was bold in that way.
519
00:37:57,400 --> 00:38:01,445
One of the most visceral memories
I have of Shirkers
520
00:38:01,529 --> 00:38:04,323
was the scene in the bowling alley.
521
00:38:11,122 --> 00:38:13,165
We spent a whole day shooting.
522
00:38:14,458 --> 00:38:16,961
It involved a lot of emotional energy.
523
00:38:17,044 --> 00:38:18,713
Remember, you know, you're 18, 19.
524
00:38:19,505 --> 00:38:22,466
In the end, I remember asking Georges,
525
00:38:23,384 --> 00:38:25,886
"How was it?
You know, how were the takes?"
526
00:38:27,054 --> 00:38:31,475
And he looked at me and he's like,
"The camera jammed on the first take."
527
00:38:32,226 --> 00:38:36,063
So... we'd shot nothing.
528
00:38:36,981 --> 00:38:40,151
And this was, I don't even know
how many hours in that day,
529
00:38:40,943 --> 00:38:42,069
and I lost it with him.
530
00:38:43,988 --> 00:38:46,949
[Sandi] We had to go back
to the bowling alley the next day
531
00:38:47,033 --> 00:38:50,369
and do it all over again.
532
00:38:51,620 --> 00:38:54,457
-You're going too fast, man. Pull out!
-I can't! I can't!
533
00:38:54,540 --> 00:38:56,876
Why are you chasing him?
You know you're off the case.
534
00:38:56,959 --> 00:38:58,544
The boss is gonna have your ass!
535
00:38:59,045 --> 00:39:01,922
[Sandi] While we were shooting,
our friend Ben was busy
536
00:39:02,006 --> 00:39:04,050
working on the soundtrack for Shirkers.
537
00:39:05,217 --> 00:39:09,138
I knew you from Exploding Cat
and BigO magazine.
538
00:39:09,722 --> 00:39:14,643
At the time, I guess my resources meant
that I would have just had one tape.
539
00:39:15,019 --> 00:39:17,188
A lot of little doodles...
540
00:39:18,230 --> 00:39:19,231
on guitar...
541
00:39:20,441 --> 00:39:23,402
electric, a lot
of backwards stuff, I think.
542
00:39:25,321 --> 00:39:27,990
The first time,
I remember my skin crawling.
543
00:39:28,074 --> 00:39:31,619
It was like I was ushered away
from you guys at Newton Circus.
544
00:39:32,912 --> 00:39:37,416
What I wasn't expecting
is Georges to take me aside,
545
00:39:37,500 --> 00:39:40,461
escort me to his car,
546
00:39:41,420 --> 00:39:44,965
like some gangster meeting
or a policeman meeting an informer
547
00:39:45,049 --> 00:39:47,968
or something like that,
straight out of the movies.
548
00:39:48,594 --> 00:39:51,847
I thought, "Okay, he's going to listen
to the cassette of the stuff I have,"
549
00:39:52,640 --> 00:39:56,143
which I thought was odd because it was
for you guys, but I didn't get that.
550
00:39:56,227 --> 00:39:57,603
He was just threatening me,
551
00:39:57,686 --> 00:40:02,066
sussing me out to see if I had an agenda
and, you know, telling me off that...
552
00:40:03,025 --> 00:40:05,403
"Don't take advantage of these guys"
or something like that.
553
00:40:05,486 --> 00:40:07,822
I was like, "What? Sorry?"
554
00:40:08,406 --> 00:40:12,576
He also tells me
that a far more professional
555
00:40:12,660 --> 00:40:17,706
and established musician
was working on the soundtrack,
556
00:40:17,790 --> 00:40:19,250
which was news to me.
557
00:40:19,333 --> 00:40:21,210
[Sandi] But you left the tape with him.
558
00:40:22,628 --> 00:40:24,964
-Yeah. I thought they were going to you.
-[Sandi] Why?
559
00:40:26,882 --> 00:40:30,302
[Sandi] I didn't know it then,
but Georges took Ben's only tape...
560
00:40:31,178 --> 00:40:34,348
and banned him
from visiting us on the set.
561
00:40:36,517 --> 00:40:38,436
I don't remember exactly
the chain of events,
562
00:40:38,519 --> 00:40:40,646
but things just got worse and worse.
563
00:40:42,481 --> 00:40:46,444
[Sandi] Jasmine started keeping notes
about what was actually going on.
564
00:40:48,487 --> 00:40:50,656
Just read it. You wrote this.
565
00:40:51,532 --> 00:40:53,534
"Everything is bloody uncertain.
566
00:40:54,702 --> 00:40:57,037
Mr. C. has no idea what he's doing,
567
00:40:57,121 --> 00:40:58,956
he has no idea
how he's gonna get the money.
568
00:40:59,373 --> 00:41:02,376
He claims he has a production manager
who worked on Apocalypse Now."
569
00:41:03,210 --> 00:41:04,253
Who was that?
570
00:41:04,336 --> 00:41:05,629
I don't know.
571
00:41:05,713 --> 00:41:07,506
You were there. You were at the meeting--
572
00:41:07,590 --> 00:41:09,216
Obviously that person didn't show up.
573
00:41:11,260 --> 00:41:15,181
How can we continue with this
when I was pointing all these things out?
574
00:41:15,264 --> 00:41:16,348
So it was true.
575
00:41:16,932 --> 00:41:19,935
It was just really you and Georges
who wanted this to happen.
576
00:41:21,061 --> 00:41:24,982
You weren't paying attention
to any of these progress reports.
577
00:41:25,065 --> 00:41:28,277
I was paying attention, but I just thought
we're just gonna wing it.
578
00:41:29,361 --> 00:41:30,613
Like I do.
579
00:41:30,696 --> 00:41:33,157
Because we were doing the work--
doing the legwork,
580
00:41:33,240 --> 00:41:34,992
and you thought you were
just gonna wing it.
581
00:41:39,330 --> 00:41:43,292
You were obviously being an asshole.
You've always been an asshole.
582
00:41:43,375 --> 00:41:46,462
Just as much as you have
the capacity to be really wonderful,
583
00:41:46,545 --> 00:41:48,923
you have as much capacity
of being an asshole.
584
00:41:54,136 --> 00:41:55,930
[Sandi] So maybe I was an asshole,
585
00:41:56,013 --> 00:41:58,891
but I just wanted us to keep going,
no matter what.
586
00:41:59,517 --> 00:42:01,185
There was no time to think.
587
00:42:02,853 --> 00:42:06,440
Georges was shooting us
from a bridge overlooking the track.
588
00:42:23,582 --> 00:42:24,583
[Georges] Train.
589
00:42:31,090 --> 00:42:33,926
[Sandi] I heard the train
even before I heard his warning.
590
00:42:34,009 --> 00:42:35,094
[Georges laughing]
591
00:42:40,975 --> 00:42:43,269
Do you think it was fun for him
to dick us around like that?
592
00:42:43,352 --> 00:42:44,603
Of course. What do you think?
593
00:42:55,489 --> 00:42:58,784
With two weeks left to go,
we ran out of money.
594
00:43:00,744 --> 00:43:04,290
Georges said he needed just $10,000...
595
00:43:04,873 --> 00:43:07,167
or the production
would have to be shut down.
596
00:43:09,378 --> 00:43:13,716
Sophie and I felt we'd come too far
to let this happen.
597
00:43:15,718 --> 00:43:19,597
So Georges drove us from ATM to ATM.
598
00:43:22,474 --> 00:43:24,059
And over the next few nights...
599
00:43:25,019 --> 00:43:29,148
Sophie and I withdrew all of our savings.
600
00:43:31,900 --> 00:43:33,611
We never told a soul.
601
00:43:38,282 --> 00:43:39,742
After shooting wrapped,
602
00:43:39,825 --> 00:43:43,370
Sophie, Jasmine and I
were completely spent.
603
00:43:44,913 --> 00:43:47,291
But we had pulled off the impossible,
604
00:43:47,374 --> 00:43:48,626
we made a movie!
605
00:43:50,628 --> 00:43:53,047
[upbeat music playing]
606
00:44:05,851 --> 00:44:07,895
Sophie went back to LA.
607
00:44:07,978 --> 00:44:09,813
Jasmine went back to New York.
608
00:44:10,814 --> 00:44:12,399
I went back to England.
609
00:44:14,109 --> 00:44:18,864
Leaving Georges in Singapore
to process the 70 cans of film
610
00:44:18,947 --> 00:44:21,075
and to tell us
what the footage looked like.
611
00:44:22,034 --> 00:44:25,579
None of us had seen
a single frame of what we had shot.
612
00:44:30,125 --> 00:44:31,085
And so...
613
00:44:32,336 --> 00:44:33,337
I waited.
614
00:44:37,549 --> 00:44:38,550
And I waited.
615
00:44:42,388 --> 00:44:43,806
And I waited.
616
00:44:51,313 --> 00:44:52,606
Christmas went by.
617
00:44:54,733 --> 00:44:56,151
New Years went by.
618
00:44:57,903 --> 00:45:00,447
Finally, a package arrived...
619
00:45:01,407 --> 00:45:02,950
from Georges Cardona.
620
00:45:09,707 --> 00:45:10,874
[Georges] I hope you're fine.
621
00:45:14,378 --> 00:45:16,547
I hope you managed
to open your bottle of wine.
622
00:45:17,172 --> 00:45:18,882
Don't drink it all at one time.
623
00:45:20,134 --> 00:45:24,179
Listen to classical music. Piano, Chopin,
624
00:45:24,930 --> 00:45:25,931
Beethoven.
625
00:45:26,974 --> 00:45:28,142
It's very soothing.
626
00:45:29,518 --> 00:45:31,645
Okay, that's it for now.
627
00:45:33,105 --> 00:45:34,606
I'll be sending you some stuff.
628
00:45:36,650 --> 00:45:37,818
[click]
629
00:45:38,902 --> 00:45:41,822
[Sandi] And so I waited some more.
630
00:45:45,284 --> 00:45:46,952
Summer was approaching again.
631
00:45:47,953 --> 00:45:51,206
And that was when Jasmine thought
she might have to go back to Singapore,
632
00:45:51,707 --> 00:45:52,958
to edit the film.
633
00:45:54,501 --> 00:45:55,711
Just read it--
634
00:45:55,794 --> 00:45:58,172
"He thinks that both Sophie
and I are overreacting...
635
00:45:58,964 --> 00:46:01,383
and falling into unnecessary fits
of paranoia."
636
00:46:04,386 --> 00:46:06,388
[phone ringing]
637
00:46:07,014 --> 00:46:09,850
Because of where I was working at,
it would have been possible for me
638
00:46:09,933 --> 00:46:13,270
to edit the film,
finish the film, do everything.
639
00:46:16,482 --> 00:46:17,441
[phone is put down]
640
00:46:18,108 --> 00:46:20,986
[Sandi] I finally received another tape.
641
00:46:22,780 --> 00:46:23,655
[Georges] Hi.
642
00:46:24,823 --> 00:46:27,075
First of all, the telephone rang...
643
00:46:27,743 --> 00:46:30,788
and it was, well, it's New York calling.
644
00:46:31,663 --> 00:46:34,625
Your very best friend called today.
645
00:46:36,001 --> 00:46:39,379
At three o'clock in the morning
she was watching TV and she was...
646
00:46:39,755 --> 00:46:40,839
"Can you hear me?
647
00:46:41,465 --> 00:46:44,092
We were wondering how the film is doing?"
648
00:46:46,303 --> 00:46:47,888
So I said, "Who is we?"
649
00:46:47,971 --> 00:46:51,475
She said, "Oh, come on,
we, the people in this part of the world."
650
00:46:52,768 --> 00:46:57,105
So she's truly American, she speaks like,
"We, the people of the United States."
651
00:46:58,023 --> 00:46:59,900
Um, anyway...
652
00:47:00,984 --> 00:47:03,070
So I decided I better make this recording
653
00:47:03,153 --> 00:47:08,242
before any more
strange calls come through.
654
00:47:10,744 --> 00:47:11,620
[click]
655
00:47:12,412 --> 00:47:15,207
[Sandi]
That was the last we heard from him.
656
00:47:19,545 --> 00:47:20,671
He was gone.
657
00:47:21,463 --> 00:47:22,840
And so was Shirkers.
658
00:47:30,138 --> 00:47:32,724
It really hit me like a ten-ton truck.
659
00:47:32,808 --> 00:47:35,102
That really exhausted--
660
00:47:35,185 --> 00:47:39,606
I think I just, like all that energy
just zapped out of me in that one instant.
661
00:47:39,690 --> 00:47:43,777
There was a piece of my spirit that died.
662
00:47:50,534 --> 00:47:51,785
[Sandi] All I was left with...
663
00:47:52,536 --> 00:47:54,538
were these fuzzy memories...
664
00:47:56,415 --> 00:47:58,125
of being on the set...
665
00:48:00,752 --> 00:48:01,879
and just waiting.
666
00:48:08,010 --> 00:48:10,053
[Georges] Is Sandi in the picture?
667
00:48:11,972 --> 00:48:13,056
Camera ready.
668
00:48:19,897 --> 00:48:23,025
[Sandi] Georges took everything.
669
00:48:24,985 --> 00:48:27,070
From deep in the fuzz,
670
00:48:27,154 --> 00:48:29,907
I remembered one final incident.
671
00:48:31,074 --> 00:48:33,118
On the last day of the shoot,
672
00:48:33,201 --> 00:48:35,871
only Georges, Ronnie and I were left.
673
00:48:37,456 --> 00:48:40,334
We drove out to a patch of land
by the airport...
674
00:48:42,336 --> 00:48:45,547
and built a very strange contraption.
675
00:49:00,312 --> 00:49:03,398
It was to make
our young actor Romaino fly.
676
00:49:05,233 --> 00:49:07,903
But there was no such flying scene
in my script.
677
00:49:14,368 --> 00:49:18,121
"How are we gonna get rid of the harness
and the rope?" I asked Georges.
678
00:49:20,248 --> 00:49:23,835
"Don't worry," he said,
"There's computers."
679
00:49:26,505 --> 00:49:30,968
After the long hours spent trying to film
that completely made up scene,
680
00:49:33,261 --> 00:49:35,430
he popped open the camera by mistake.
681
00:49:36,890 --> 00:49:38,475
Or maybe it wasn't by mistake.
682
00:49:39,601 --> 00:49:41,561
And there was no film in it.
683
00:49:48,443 --> 00:49:49,444
Twenty-five years later...
684
00:49:50,737 --> 00:49:55,909
I'm now wondering if he was sending me
a secret message only I would understand.
685
00:50:01,456 --> 00:50:05,085
There's a scene in my script
where Haryo discovers
686
00:50:05,168 --> 00:50:07,337
there's no film in S's camera.
687
00:50:08,213 --> 00:50:11,466
She tells him, "It doesn't matter,
because when you look through the hole
688
00:50:11,550 --> 00:50:14,720
and go 'click' it catches something
689
00:50:14,803 --> 00:50:17,305
or at least your mind catches something."
690
00:50:17,973 --> 00:50:21,852
You don't need film. Just the action
of doing that helps you remember.
691
00:50:24,688 --> 00:50:26,648
What was he trying to tell me?
692
00:50:27,691 --> 00:50:29,234
"Film or no film,
693
00:50:30,152 --> 00:50:32,154
you must remember this."
694
00:50:41,079 --> 00:50:43,665
[Sophie]
Was he role-playing as a director?
695
00:50:44,666 --> 00:50:49,004
Did he just view
this entire filmmaking venture
696
00:50:49,087 --> 00:50:51,798
as this psychological exercise?
697
00:50:52,549 --> 00:50:55,343
[Sandi] We were no longer magical kids
who made a movie.
698
00:50:56,928 --> 00:50:59,181
We were just kids.
699
00:51:02,100 --> 00:51:06,396
Shirkers is such a free film
because you were very free yourself.
700
00:51:07,439 --> 00:51:10,650
It was such a joy
that you were willing to experiment
701
00:51:10,734 --> 00:51:12,736
and express anything on your mind.
702
00:51:14,863 --> 00:51:16,448
[Sandi] But when I lost Shirkers,
703
00:51:17,324 --> 00:51:18,784
I lost that too.
704
00:51:22,996 --> 00:51:27,417
Don't get me in it.
I refuse to be part of this thing.
705
00:51:28,585 --> 00:51:32,339
I became a terrible
22-year-old film critic
706
00:51:32,422 --> 00:51:34,508
at the largest newspaper in Singapore.
707
00:51:44,309 --> 00:51:47,479
And I made them
let me interview my heroes.
708
00:51:53,360 --> 00:51:57,489
A publisher approached me to write
a fictionalized memoir of Shirkers...
709
00:51:58,240 --> 00:52:00,283
but I said I wasn't ready.
710
00:52:01,660 --> 00:52:04,996
In the years that followed,
I said no to interviewers
711
00:52:05,080 --> 00:52:07,082
asking me to talk about Shirkers.
712
00:52:07,749 --> 00:52:11,795
It was something I just wanted to forget.
713
00:52:19,302 --> 00:52:21,972
Exactly five years
after Shirkers wrapped...
714
00:52:22,722 --> 00:52:26,184
a mysterious package arrived
at Jasmine's office.
715
00:52:28,436 --> 00:52:30,605
They were videotapes from Georges Cardona,
716
00:52:31,356 --> 00:52:35,193
which had to mean they contained Shirkers.
717
00:52:37,237 --> 00:52:40,699
I remember, maybe incorrectly,
718
00:52:40,782 --> 00:52:43,368
that it was a very kind
of joyous occasion.
719
00:52:43,451 --> 00:52:45,328
[Sandi]
Sophie, me and you were going to come--
720
00:52:45,412 --> 00:52:47,497
It was at my workplace, yeah.
721
00:52:47,581 --> 00:52:49,624
[Sandi]
And we were gonna watch these tapes.
722
00:52:49,708 --> 00:52:52,002
Then they all turned out to be...
723
00:52:52,586 --> 00:52:53,461
[click]
724
00:52:53,545 --> 00:52:55,213
[static noise]
725
00:52:58,633 --> 00:53:00,302
Was it all just snow?
726
00:53:01,011 --> 00:53:03,597
Like there was really nothing.
727
00:53:04,931 --> 00:53:07,225
And I thought, "How cruel."
728
00:53:07,309 --> 00:53:11,813
I mean, what stakes did he still have
in this mind game?
729
00:53:16,401 --> 00:53:18,737
Give us the material
so we can finish the film.
730
00:53:27,412 --> 00:53:30,165
[Jasmine] We couldn't believe
how ridiculous the situation was.
731
00:53:30,707 --> 00:53:32,375
So surreal, so unimaginable.
732
00:53:32,459 --> 00:53:33,835
[pen scratching furiously]
733
00:53:33,919 --> 00:53:35,879
[Sandi] I was beyond furious with Georges,
734
00:53:36,713 --> 00:53:38,965
but there was nowhere
for me to direct my rage.
735
00:53:39,674 --> 00:53:41,593
So I wrote it all down.
736
00:53:44,638 --> 00:53:46,806
"I envisage some measure of a showdown...
737
00:53:48,767 --> 00:53:50,185
[tires screech]
738
00:53:50,644 --> 00:53:52,771
...with pyrotechnics and slick editing."
739
00:53:59,527 --> 00:54:01,196
As far as I'm concerned,
740
00:54:01,279 --> 00:54:04,908
he should disappear deep and far
into the Amazon jungle, where he belongs,
741
00:54:05,909 --> 00:54:09,496
amongst his distinct relation,
the buck-toothed boa.
742
00:54:10,914 --> 00:54:11,915
Lowlife."
743
00:54:11,998 --> 00:54:14,292
[grunting]
744
00:54:22,050 --> 00:54:24,386
[Sandi] We forced ourselves to move on.
745
00:54:42,445 --> 00:54:43,655
My baby cousin Yao...
746
00:54:44,614 --> 00:54:46,199
gave me this book of mosquitoes.
747
00:54:50,745 --> 00:54:53,707
But my baby cousins were no longer babies.
748
00:55:00,714 --> 00:55:02,299
You can't see anything.
749
00:55:04,384 --> 00:55:08,471
I made my peace that a chunk of my life
would forever be lost.
750
00:55:12,517 --> 00:55:14,102
And I moved to New York...
751
00:55:14,853 --> 00:55:18,565
to attend film school
at Columbia University.
752
00:55:21,026 --> 00:55:22,986
I know I was doing things backwards.
753
00:55:24,154 --> 00:55:25,196
First I made a movie,
754
00:55:26,323 --> 00:55:27,741
then I became a film critic,
755
00:55:28,575 --> 00:55:30,410
then I went to film school.
756
00:55:33,038 --> 00:55:36,416
But that's what happens
when you no longer have a map.
757
00:55:42,380 --> 00:55:44,883
I spent ten years in the wilderness.
758
00:55:46,009 --> 00:55:47,218
I tried to write that book...
759
00:55:47,927 --> 00:55:49,387
about the making of Shirkers.
760
00:55:50,513 --> 00:55:51,848
But I just couldn't do it.
761
00:55:53,933 --> 00:55:57,896
Instead, I wrote screenplays
for films that would never be made.
762
00:56:00,148 --> 00:56:03,401
Shirkers was now a distant memory.
763
00:56:09,657 --> 00:56:12,369
Then it began sending me distress signals.
764
00:56:15,622 --> 00:56:18,792
I heard these pings when I saw Rushmore.
765
00:56:34,349 --> 00:56:35,767
And I heard them again...
766
00:56:36,810 --> 00:56:38,061
during Ghost World.
767
00:56:49,656 --> 00:56:51,699
Then silence once more.
768
00:56:52,617 --> 00:56:54,327
[crickets chirping]
769
00:56:54,411 --> 00:56:56,996
But I knew now that it was alive.
770
00:56:58,456 --> 00:57:00,959
And I knew we had to meet again.
771
00:57:02,544 --> 00:57:05,797
Suddenly, I found myself in my mid-30s,
772
00:57:06,923 --> 00:57:09,217
in Los Angeles, of all places.
773
00:57:12,595 --> 00:57:14,389
I decided to turn to fiction.
774
00:57:16,015 --> 00:57:19,144
Because to write a novel,
I didn't have to wait for anyone.
775
00:57:20,437 --> 00:57:21,396
It's just me...
776
00:57:22,313 --> 00:57:23,398
and my ghosts.
777
00:57:30,280 --> 00:57:33,575
My novel, The Black Isle, was the story
778
00:57:33,658 --> 00:57:36,619
of a young woman with extraordinary powers
779
00:57:36,703 --> 00:57:40,498
who falls under the influence
of a charismatic, but sinister man.
780
00:57:43,168 --> 00:57:45,628
Writing it felt like an exorcism.
781
00:57:47,172 --> 00:57:48,840
But I would be wrong about that.
782
00:57:51,759 --> 00:57:53,887
On September 11, 2011,
783
00:57:55,013 --> 00:57:57,891
I received an email from a familiar name.
784
00:58:00,810 --> 00:58:02,437
It was Georges's wife.
785
00:58:05,148 --> 00:58:08,276
She said Georges was dead.
786
00:58:24,334 --> 00:58:28,004
She also told me she had found
70 cans of film
787
00:58:28,087 --> 00:58:32,467
labeled Shirkers, and that
they were all in perfect condition.
788
00:58:35,553 --> 00:58:40,683
I felt as if a curse, which lasted
20 years, had finally been lifted.
789
00:58:45,104 --> 00:58:49,484
His widow sent me box after box
of things I hadn't seen in years.
790
00:58:51,486 --> 00:58:53,363
Georges had kept everything.
791
00:59:00,912 --> 00:59:04,666
I pulled out some of the slides
that were taken in his studio.
792
00:59:09,379 --> 00:59:10,630
And there was Kaylene,
793
00:59:11,381 --> 00:59:13,007
the girl who played Monster,
794
00:59:13,883 --> 00:59:15,385
surrounded by my stuff.
795
00:59:19,722 --> 00:59:22,767
[camera shutter clicking]
796
00:59:23,601 --> 00:59:26,479
Now why would Georges keep everything...
797
00:59:27,272 --> 00:59:28,648
from Shirkers?
798
00:59:35,321 --> 00:59:37,865
He even wrote this letter
on behalf of the crew.
799
00:59:41,035 --> 00:59:45,081
"At the moment,
the film is in the editing suite.
800
00:59:45,164 --> 00:59:46,499
But we are almost there.
801
00:59:47,292 --> 00:59:50,003
Shirkers will be completed by October,
802
00:59:50,086 --> 00:59:52,839
hopefully in time for Cannes Festival.
803
00:59:54,132 --> 00:59:55,216
Have a nice day."
804
01:00:04,392 --> 01:00:08,896
Georges and his stories were so exotic
that he was very hard to place.
805
01:00:09,522 --> 01:00:10,440
Um...
806
01:00:11,524 --> 01:00:16,195
I remember first he started
describing movies from start to finish.
807
01:00:18,406 --> 01:00:21,909
And then he started telling stories
about his own life.
808
01:00:21,993 --> 01:00:26,623
His family wanted to demolish a dam,
809
01:00:26,706 --> 01:00:28,458
I guess, on their property
810
01:00:28,541 --> 01:00:30,460
and make the river flow again.
811
01:00:30,543 --> 01:00:34,130
So Georges built a three-stage rocket.
812
01:00:35,006 --> 01:00:36,549
And his hand got exploded.
813
01:00:39,093 --> 01:00:42,221
He told me about his brother in Colombia
814
01:00:42,805 --> 01:00:46,976
running into the house
with a knife in his femoral artery
815
01:00:47,060 --> 01:00:49,771
and bleeding to death
on the kitchen floor.
816
01:00:50,355 --> 01:00:52,899
He got arrested, uh...
817
01:00:53,566 --> 01:00:56,319
by the police,
who thought he was a Cuban burglar.
818
01:00:56,402 --> 01:00:59,405
From jail, he called an uncle
in New Orleans
819
01:00:59,489 --> 01:01:03,493
and that uncle said, "Come to New Orleans.
I'll take care of you."
820
01:01:03,576 --> 01:01:08,373
And at one point my foot felt wet,
821
01:01:08,456 --> 01:01:12,919
and I realized he was in tears
at his own stories
822
01:01:13,002 --> 01:01:15,338
and his tears were dropping on my foot.
823
01:01:16,297 --> 01:01:19,175
[Sandi] These were all stories
Georges told Grace
824
01:01:19,258 --> 01:01:21,386
on the very first day they met
825
01:01:21,469 --> 01:01:25,973
in the swimming pool
of the Raffles Hotel in 1985.
826
01:01:26,516 --> 01:01:30,186
And then I thought, "Good God,
he doesn't even know my name."
827
01:01:33,815 --> 01:01:35,733
[man speaking French] No longer a child,
828
01:01:36,025 --> 01:01:38,111
Sandi Tan has turned into a detective
829
01:01:38,194 --> 01:01:43,241
who must travel across two continents
to solve this 25-year mystery.
830
01:01:45,910 --> 01:01:48,621
[Sandi]
Long ago, I went on the road with Georges.
831
01:01:49,664 --> 01:01:52,166
Now I was on the road again without him,
832
01:01:53,126 --> 01:01:54,293
but not really.
833
01:01:57,046 --> 01:02:01,259
It was so like Georges that he would want
me to chase him down this way.
834
01:02:02,719 --> 01:02:04,595
-[woman] Hey. How are you?
-Hi.
835
01:02:04,679 --> 01:02:08,224
-Oh, it's been a long time.
-It's been a long time.
836
01:02:08,307 --> 01:02:09,809
[woman] But you haven't changed.
837
01:02:15,690 --> 01:02:20,153
Oh, Sandi, I have been dreading today.
I'm glad to see you.
838
01:02:20,236 --> 01:02:21,904
-[Sandi] Yeah.
-And I want to help you out.
839
01:02:21,988 --> 01:02:26,159
Whatever happened, I have no clue.
I have no clue.
840
01:02:28,035 --> 01:02:30,455
[Sandi] The widow remains so horrified
841
01:02:30,538 --> 01:02:34,667
by her 25 years with Georges
that she didn't want to be named.
842
01:02:39,338 --> 01:02:40,673
I don't even know how he died.
843
01:02:41,841 --> 01:02:44,010
[woman]
He had a girlfriend who was, like, 21.
844
01:02:44,552 --> 01:02:48,264
Um, not only was she young,
but she was from Belgium...
845
01:02:49,140 --> 01:02:50,933
and a chemist.
846
01:02:51,017 --> 01:02:52,935
And he went to go to bed.
847
01:02:53,019 --> 01:02:55,563
His arteries closed up
and he passed out...
848
01:02:56,981 --> 01:02:57,982
and died.
849
01:02:58,524 --> 01:02:59,358
[laughs]
850
01:02:59,442 --> 01:03:01,611
-He died like that, yeah.
-'Cause the funny thing--
851
01:03:01,694 --> 01:03:03,404
-[woman] He was too young, wasn't he?
-Yeah.
852
01:03:03,488 --> 01:03:05,865
[woman] He was actually four years older
than what we thought.
853
01:03:06,491 --> 01:03:08,618
[Sandi] When did you find out
he was four years older?
854
01:03:08,701 --> 01:03:09,911
[woman] When we got divorced.
855
01:03:09,994 --> 01:03:14,290
He always told me that his passport
had the wrong date
856
01:03:14,373 --> 01:03:16,083
and the wrong day.
857
01:03:16,959 --> 01:03:19,086
[Sandi]
So even his birthday wasn't his birthday.
858
01:03:19,170 --> 01:03:20,797
[woman] It was two days before.
859
01:03:20,880 --> 01:03:24,509
But by making it two days later,
he got to be a different horoscope.
860
01:03:24,592 --> 01:03:25,426
[laughs]
861
01:03:25,843 --> 01:03:27,386
He was really a Cancer.
862
01:03:29,180 --> 01:03:32,892
[Sandi] The poetry of that
was just pure Georges Cardona.
863
01:03:36,103 --> 01:03:37,939
[woman]
Whatever Georges told me, I believed.
864
01:03:38,022 --> 01:03:42,109
I am a completely trusting person,
you know, gullible, whatever.
865
01:03:42,610 --> 01:03:44,529
That's why this is all so hard for me.
866
01:03:45,238 --> 01:03:49,116
Every time he got involved with filmmaking
it was a horrible experience for me.
867
01:03:49,200 --> 01:03:52,453
-You know, this is expensive.
-[Sandi] You paid for everything, right?
868
01:03:52,537 --> 01:03:55,581
-I mean--
-[woman] No, not everything. But a lot.
869
01:03:56,415 --> 01:04:00,378
Wherever he was, as long as we were
together, which was until 1998,
870
01:04:00,920 --> 01:04:04,590
he carried that film with him and he
always made sure it was air-conditioned
871
01:04:04,674 --> 01:04:06,968
and it was like, "Oh, my God."
872
01:04:07,051 --> 01:04:09,595
It was like a cross around my neck.
873
01:04:11,055 --> 01:04:14,684
I think though, in Singapore,
he kept it at the studio that he had.
874
01:04:21,899 --> 01:04:25,236
[Sandi] She and Georges left Singapore
for Perth, Australia,
875
01:04:25,862 --> 01:04:29,740
where he had her sink her savings
into buying him a vineyard.
876
01:04:29,824 --> 01:04:34,203
Which he said he would learn to run
by reading books on the subject.
877
01:04:37,415 --> 01:04:40,459
[woman]
We had a little room, and it was in there.
878
01:04:40,543 --> 01:04:44,589
That's when I wanted to get rid of it,
because it was taking up a whole room.
879
01:04:46,299 --> 01:04:50,636
[Sandi] When they got divorced two years
after that, he moved to Seattle...
880
01:04:51,137 --> 01:04:53,681
and then to Houston, where he died...
881
01:04:55,224 --> 01:04:57,059
always carrying with him
882
01:04:57,143 --> 01:04:58,769
the 70 cans of film
883
01:04:58,853 --> 01:05:02,648
and boxes and boxes of scripts
and storyboards.
884
01:05:02,732 --> 01:05:04,901
[woman] I thought, who does that?
885
01:05:13,451 --> 01:05:17,663
My wife reminded me this morning,
my wife met Georges in 1985.
886
01:05:19,332 --> 01:05:23,377
And her thought was, "I think he must
be in the Witness Protection Program."
887
01:05:23,461 --> 01:05:25,379
[laughing]
888
01:05:30,176 --> 01:05:33,346
I think former students and protégés
of Georges, like you and me,
889
01:05:34,597 --> 01:05:37,767
remain obsessed with him, first of all,
because we're storytellers,
890
01:05:37,850 --> 01:05:39,435
and he's a great story.
891
01:05:39,936 --> 01:05:42,980
I met Georges Cardona sometime
in the late '70s.
892
01:05:43,397 --> 01:05:46,025
I learned through the local media
893
01:05:46,108 --> 01:05:49,570
that Georges had opened the legendary
Lighthouse Media Center.
894
01:05:49,654 --> 01:05:51,906
So I would have been 21.
895
01:05:52,448 --> 01:05:54,659
And we instantly bonded,
896
01:05:54,742 --> 01:05:57,036
instantly there was chemistry there.
897
01:05:57,119 --> 01:05:59,580
I thought, "My God,
I've died and gone to heaven,"
898
01:05:59,664 --> 01:06:03,209
because here he had these cameras and
tape recorders that I'd only read about.
899
01:06:03,292 --> 01:06:07,463
I mean, nobody south
of the Mason-Dixon Line, probably,
900
01:06:07,546 --> 01:06:09,465
had professional Super 8 equipment.
901
01:06:10,091 --> 01:06:12,051
And Georges had that kind of charisma.
902
01:06:12,134 --> 01:06:16,180
I mean, he had this uncanny way
of making adventure happen in your life,
903
01:06:16,263 --> 01:06:18,599
or at least the anticipation of adventure.
904
01:06:25,606 --> 01:06:26,899
[Sandi] I asked the widow...
905
01:06:27,400 --> 01:06:30,569
for a Georges Cardona tour of New Orleans.
906
01:06:36,701 --> 01:06:40,162
Oh, this is where Georges lived,
he lived on the left,
907
01:06:40,246 --> 01:06:42,039
in that little garage apartment.
908
01:06:42,748 --> 01:06:43,749
You see it?
909
01:06:48,087 --> 01:06:50,756
When we first got married,
we both worked for the same company.
910
01:06:51,549 --> 01:06:53,801
I did renderings of mausoleums.
911
01:06:53,884 --> 01:06:58,514
I was a horrible renderer
of mausoleums. [laughter]
912
01:07:01,559 --> 01:07:05,396
And the place where we had our shop,
it was called the University Section.
913
01:07:06,355 --> 01:07:07,857
[Sandi] What was the name of the shop?
914
01:07:10,234 --> 01:07:12,069
[woman] Lighthouse Media Center.
915
01:07:13,112 --> 01:07:14,030
And, um...
916
01:07:15,031 --> 01:07:17,283
now I'm looking for Maple Street.
917
01:07:17,658 --> 01:07:20,828
I think it was where this gray house is.
918
01:07:21,412 --> 01:07:26,000
Maybe it was where this yellow house is.
It just looks totally different now.
919
01:07:26,751 --> 01:07:29,712
It was somewhere around here, I can't
believe I can't remember where it was.
920
01:07:30,421 --> 01:07:33,466
How could it have disappeared?
Right here--
921
01:07:33,549 --> 01:07:36,052
[Sandi] We spent hours
looking for the film center
922
01:07:36,135 --> 01:07:38,095
that Georges had set up with her money.
923
01:07:38,179 --> 01:07:40,848
[woman] We lost $36,000, but...
924
01:07:42,266 --> 01:07:46,979
I must have been totally...
Maybe I was brainwashed. Who knows?
925
01:07:55,738 --> 01:07:57,198
[woman] Georges wrote to me.
926
01:07:57,281 --> 01:08:00,951
We were staying in Cambridge, England
at that point and said,
927
01:08:01,035 --> 01:08:04,163
"I'm going to send somebody to you.
She's a genius.
928
01:08:04,246 --> 01:08:06,082
She's mostly self-taught.
929
01:08:06,665 --> 01:08:07,583
She needs you."
930
01:08:08,751 --> 01:08:11,796
[Sandi] He thought she might encourage me
to write a screenplay,
931
01:08:12,713 --> 01:08:16,884
just as he had once talked her
into writing a screenplay for him.
932
01:08:18,052 --> 01:08:21,013
Just before I met him I had started
writing my first novel,
933
01:08:21,347 --> 01:08:25,684
and he asked me if I would collaborate
934
01:08:25,768 --> 01:08:27,895
on a movie project with him.
935
01:08:27,978 --> 01:08:31,982
He wanted to make a noir set
in New Orleans,
936
01:08:32,066 --> 01:08:33,859
and he was calling it Night Decoy.
937
01:08:37,238 --> 01:08:40,407
What he proposed
was for me to come to New Orleans...
938
01:08:40,991 --> 01:08:45,955
and he would talk to me.
I would record it,
939
01:08:46,038 --> 01:08:49,250
and then I would go home
and make a film script out of it.
940
01:08:50,876 --> 01:08:54,880
There was a man and two women, uh,
941
01:08:55,589 --> 01:08:58,050
a tough, hard-boiled woman named Audrey...
942
01:08:58,634 --> 01:09:02,763
and a sweet Asian named Chelly.
943
01:09:03,472 --> 01:09:07,101
And this man obsesses about Audrey
944
01:09:07,184 --> 01:09:08,936
and is...
945
01:09:09,562 --> 01:09:13,649
videotaping her
without her knowing in her apartment.
946
01:09:14,900 --> 01:09:20,364
There was a constant feeling
of Peeping Tom-ism to Georges.
947
01:09:22,449 --> 01:09:25,202
He never came on to me, personally.
948
01:09:25,786 --> 01:09:28,664
I think Georges was good with women
in another way.
949
01:09:29,206 --> 01:09:33,169
I think he could get from them
what he wanted,
950
01:09:33,252 --> 01:09:36,046
and what he wanted wasn't always sex.
951
01:09:37,214 --> 01:09:41,343
He got me to work on his dreams
952
01:09:41,427 --> 01:09:44,305
for probably four or five years
953
01:09:44,388 --> 01:09:46,390
instead of writing my own stuff.
954
01:09:46,473 --> 01:09:48,350
It's always been a mystery.
955
01:09:48,434 --> 01:09:49,768
Good Lord. How...
956
01:09:50,227 --> 01:09:53,480
Uh, how did I become an intern?
957
01:09:54,106 --> 01:09:58,235
He had this really uncanny way
of helping you
958
01:09:58,319 --> 01:10:00,613
feel like you could achieve
your dream project,
959
01:10:01,238 --> 01:10:04,074
but then when you got closer
to achieving your dream project,
960
01:10:04,158 --> 01:10:05,868
he felt the need to sabotage it.
961
01:10:06,785 --> 01:10:09,705
So I wrote this slasher film
called The Last Slumber Party.
962
01:10:10,122 --> 01:10:12,791
And it was meant to be
kind of the culmination,
963
01:10:12,875 --> 01:10:16,462
the graduate school
of the Lighthouse Media Center group.
964
01:10:16,545 --> 01:10:19,506
Georges was the director
of photography, but also...
965
01:10:20,174 --> 01:10:21,383
the guru.
966
01:10:23,219 --> 01:10:25,429
So years later,
I had some discretionary income
967
01:10:25,512 --> 01:10:27,514
that I could put back into my filmmaking.
968
01:10:27,598 --> 01:10:31,227
So I ordered all the film negative
from Motion Picture Labs in Memphis,
969
01:10:31,310 --> 01:10:33,145
which is where Georges had sent the film,
970
01:10:33,229 --> 01:10:35,940
and Georges had an ongoing relationship
for years with these people.
971
01:10:36,023 --> 01:10:38,817
Except that some of the negative
was missing.
972
01:10:41,028 --> 01:10:43,489
I have a feeling that Georges
did something with it.
973
01:10:43,572 --> 01:10:47,034
I can't prove it, but it certainly
would not be inconsistent
974
01:10:47,117 --> 01:10:49,036
with other things that he had done.
975
01:10:49,703 --> 01:10:52,289
[Sandi] I know it's terrible
to feel a twinge of joy
976
01:10:52,373 --> 01:10:54,041
at someone else's misfortune,
977
01:10:54,667 --> 01:10:57,336
but hearing this made me feel less alone.
978
01:10:59,338 --> 01:11:03,801
The widow and I continue to search
for remnants of her life with Georges.
979
01:11:05,177 --> 01:11:07,179
It's a nightmare driving.
980
01:11:07,263 --> 01:11:09,223
Been this way already and I can't find it.
981
01:11:09,932 --> 01:11:11,892
You all might not realize how happy
982
01:11:11,976 --> 01:11:14,937
this makes me
that I can't even remember where it was.
983
01:11:17,815 --> 01:11:21,652
[Sandi] I hoped that by driving around
with her I'd get closer to him.
984
01:11:22,861 --> 01:11:25,197
But all she had were dead ends.
985
01:11:28,575 --> 01:11:32,579
He had this perverse need
to create a mythology.
986
01:11:33,622 --> 01:11:36,834
To speculate as to why
Georges would go around
987
01:11:36,917 --> 01:11:39,628
claiming that he was the inspiration
988
01:11:39,712 --> 01:11:43,549
for the protagonist in Steven Soderbergh's
Sex, Lies, and Videotape...
989
01:11:43,632 --> 01:11:46,302
I worked on the crew
of Sex, Lies, and Videotape,
990
01:11:46,385 --> 01:11:49,513
with my dear,
beloved best friend Larry Blake,
991
01:11:49,596 --> 01:11:52,558
also part of the original
Georges Cardona mafia.
992
01:11:52,641 --> 01:11:55,144
and Georges felt jealous,
993
01:11:55,227 --> 01:11:58,188
threatened, left out, entitled,
994
01:11:59,064 --> 01:12:01,692
that two of his protégés
995
01:12:01,775 --> 01:12:03,902
had this association with this film
996
01:12:03,986 --> 01:12:05,654
that had become a cause célèbre.
997
01:12:06,488 --> 01:12:08,615
We all worked on this film
that won the Palme d'Or.
998
01:12:08,991 --> 01:12:13,203
And it's entirely in keeping with
Georges's personality and character,
999
01:12:13,287 --> 01:12:16,957
as I understand it,
that he would concoct such a story.
1000
01:12:31,847 --> 01:12:33,849
[birds chirping]
1001
01:12:34,183 --> 01:12:36,852
[Sandi] When we were trying
to get hold of him over the years,
1002
01:12:36,935 --> 01:12:38,729
like, there would be no trace.
1003
01:12:38,812 --> 01:12:42,149
The only thing that's on there
is this missing persons...
1004
01:12:42,232 --> 01:12:44,651
[woman]
That was, to me, the most bizarre thing,
1005
01:12:44,735 --> 01:12:47,321
to see him smoking,
'cause I never saw him smoke.
1006
01:12:47,404 --> 01:12:49,031
And he never smelled like smoke.
1007
01:12:49,114 --> 01:12:51,867
-[Sandi] Yeah.
-That's so weird, he smoked. [chuckles]
1008
01:12:55,120 --> 01:12:58,707
[Sandi] I think it's funny that she was
struck by the sight of him smoking,
1009
01:12:58,791 --> 01:13:02,044
and not by the fact
that someone went online
1010
01:13:02,127 --> 01:13:04,755
and put up a Missing Persons page for him.
1011
01:13:05,547 --> 01:13:08,759
[woman] You know, what was real
and what wasn't, I have no clue.
1012
01:13:10,135 --> 01:13:12,930
-He did say his mother was French.
-[Sandi] Was she?
1013
01:13:13,013 --> 01:13:15,432
-I don't know.
-But you met her, was she French?
1014
01:13:15,516 --> 01:13:18,102
[woman] Well, I couldn't speak to her,
she only spoke Spanish.
1015
01:13:19,103 --> 01:13:22,189
He never told me he was French.
I would have remembered that.
1016
01:13:22,272 --> 01:13:26,276
I mean, he told me
that he was born on a ship
1017
01:13:26,360 --> 01:13:29,613
that had departed Germany
en route for Colombia,
1018
01:13:29,696 --> 01:13:32,825
departing Germany
because his father was German.
1019
01:13:32,908 --> 01:13:37,121
And I just accepted that as gospel
for the longest time
1020
01:13:37,204 --> 01:13:41,625
until one day, I was having a conversation
with his niece Catalina,
1021
01:13:41,708 --> 01:13:43,460
and she started laughing.
1022
01:13:44,753 --> 01:13:46,422
I said, "Why? What's so funny?"
1023
01:13:46,505 --> 01:13:49,800
She says, "He told you that story too?"
1024
01:13:50,634 --> 01:13:54,471
He was born in a little mountain village
in the hills of Colombia.
1025
01:13:55,180 --> 01:13:59,351
There was always a sense
that he was not just self-conscious
1026
01:13:59,435 --> 01:14:01,728
about perceptions of his class,
1027
01:14:01,812 --> 01:14:03,313
but also his ethnicity.
1028
01:14:03,397 --> 01:14:06,525
He was always very vague
about his ethnicity.
1029
01:14:06,817 --> 01:14:08,110
[meows]
1030
01:14:08,819 --> 01:14:10,696
[Stephen] The last time
I actually spoke with Georges...
1031
01:14:11,447 --> 01:14:13,323
was sometime in the early '90s
1032
01:14:13,407 --> 01:14:16,368
and he had already moved to Singapore
and I was still here in New Orleans.
1033
01:14:16,452 --> 01:14:19,371
And as was invariably the case,
1034
01:14:19,455 --> 01:14:23,500
Georges began talking about
a dream project that he was concocting.
1035
01:14:24,376 --> 01:14:26,545
And he wanted me to be part of it,
1036
01:14:26,628 --> 01:14:28,755
and it was making this movie in Singapore.
1037
01:14:32,259 --> 01:14:34,428
"Come to Singapore,
you'll be my right-hand man.
1038
01:14:34,511 --> 01:14:36,513
We'll do this feature film in Singapore."
1039
01:14:39,558 --> 01:14:42,978
The pattern that emerges is that Georges
1040
01:14:43,061 --> 01:14:48,066
would feel threatened
by his protégés being successful.
1041
01:14:49,318 --> 01:14:53,280
And the way that he dealt
with that threat was to take action
1042
01:14:53,363 --> 01:14:57,868
by absconding with physical manifestations
of these people's dreams.
1043
01:15:02,748 --> 01:15:06,126
You know, in your case it was film,
in my case it was film and equipment.
1044
01:15:06,710 --> 01:15:10,005
Other people, it was also film,
soundtracks, whatever.
1045
01:15:13,175 --> 01:15:15,677
[Sandi] Steve and I are now forever bound,
1046
01:15:16,512 --> 01:15:20,265
not as fellow victims,
but as fellow detectives...
1047
01:15:20,891 --> 01:15:23,018
and therefore, friends.
1048
01:15:24,937 --> 01:15:28,023
I had one last shred of Georges:
1049
01:15:28,106 --> 01:15:32,986
an old letter from Georges's mother
with a return address in Arabi,
1050
01:15:33,070 --> 01:15:34,363
outside New Orleans.
1051
01:15:34,696 --> 01:15:35,781
It's beautiful.
1052
01:15:36,740 --> 01:15:39,159
The widow tried to talk us
out of going there.
1053
01:15:40,452 --> 01:15:42,704
[woman]
I can tell you Arabi is not pretty.
1054
01:15:42,788 --> 01:15:44,039
-[Sandi] Okay.
-[laughing]
1055
01:15:45,290 --> 01:15:46,875
[woman] Arabi is horrible.
1056
01:15:48,961 --> 01:15:51,380
[Sandi] So, of course, I had to go there.
1057
01:16:17,281 --> 01:16:19,032
It's not raining now so it's good.
1058
01:16:20,158 --> 01:16:21,868
Do you need this, the matte box?
1059
01:16:22,452 --> 01:16:26,331
[dogs barking in distance]
1060
01:16:31,378 --> 01:16:35,048
[thunder rumbling in distance]
1061
01:16:36,341 --> 01:16:38,218
[dogs continue barking]
1062
01:16:42,472 --> 01:16:45,100
[heavy wind blowing, leaves rustling]
1063
01:16:45,892 --> 01:16:49,021
And this made me think
of that scene in Blow Up,
1064
01:16:49,896 --> 01:16:53,317
when David Hemmings returns
to the scene of the crime...
1065
01:16:54,109 --> 01:16:56,236
only to find nothing.
1066
01:17:04,119 --> 01:17:07,998
After unpeeling Georges Cardona
layer by layer,
1067
01:17:08,582 --> 01:17:12,836
I realize there's nothing there
but movies.
1068
01:17:14,713 --> 01:17:17,341
There were characters
he wanted to emulate.
1069
01:17:18,842 --> 01:17:21,345
And there were characters
he pretended to be.
1070
01:17:22,429 --> 01:17:26,016
But the one who was closest
to who he really was...
1071
01:17:26,099 --> 01:17:27,643
was Nosferatu.
1072
01:17:29,728 --> 01:17:31,563
Trying to become immortal...
1073
01:17:32,105 --> 01:17:34,650
by feeding on young people's dreams.
1074
01:17:35,984 --> 01:17:40,906
Georges Cardona had his own
very bizarre love, right? For Shirkers.
1075
01:17:41,740 --> 01:17:44,409
I thought that when he absconded
1076
01:17:44,493 --> 01:17:46,620
with all of the reels
1077
01:17:46,703 --> 01:17:50,624
that it would just be strewn outside,
1078
01:17:50,707 --> 01:17:53,627
and the humidity
would basically eat up the film,
1079
01:17:53,710 --> 01:17:55,045
and that would be it.
1080
01:17:55,629 --> 01:17:56,880
But he loved those reels.
1081
01:17:57,756 --> 01:18:00,592
We all fell in love with the film
in different ways,
1082
01:18:00,676 --> 01:18:03,011
and his was like, I don't know, man,
1083
01:18:03,095 --> 01:18:05,430
it was like necrophiliac. [laughs]
1084
01:18:07,099 --> 01:18:09,101
[Sandi] He might have loved our reels,
1085
01:18:09,184 --> 01:18:11,603
but he threw
all the sound recordings away.
1086
01:18:13,605 --> 01:18:17,317
Shirkers was returned to us a mute.
1087
01:18:20,070 --> 01:18:22,072
[no audible sound]
1088
01:18:42,509 --> 01:18:44,511
[film reel thrumming]
1089
01:18:46,596 --> 01:18:49,224
I'm seeing everything, first time.
1090
01:18:50,642 --> 01:18:52,269
More than 20 years later.
1091
01:19:00,694 --> 01:19:03,113
There you are. God, look at you.
1092
01:19:04,281 --> 01:19:06,366
You know, you guys were adorable.
1093
01:19:06,450 --> 01:19:08,952
[stuttering] Okay, I really...
1094
01:19:09,035 --> 01:19:12,873
[stuttering] When I saw the footage,
1095
01:19:12,956 --> 01:19:16,626
I just thought that, "Gee whiz,
this film should've been finished."
1096
01:19:16,710 --> 01:19:21,381
It would have been a rallying call
that it's okay to try anything.
1097
01:19:32,017 --> 01:19:34,978
[Sophie]
You know, Shirkers is like the ghost
1098
01:19:35,061 --> 01:19:39,441
in between the lines of books
written on Singapore film history,
1099
01:19:39,524 --> 01:19:44,154
and for me, Shirkers
has this very palpable absence.
1100
01:19:45,530 --> 01:19:47,991
And I have this voice going, "No, no, no,
1101
01:19:48,074 --> 01:19:49,785
Shirkers needs to be there."
1102
01:19:53,121 --> 01:19:55,707
[Sandi] For years,
I felt like a crazy person
1103
01:19:55,791 --> 01:19:58,251
talking about this film that didn't exist.
1104
01:19:59,461 --> 01:20:01,129
But I was vindicated.
1105
01:20:01,713 --> 01:20:05,592
Everyone I remembered being fantastic
was fantastic.
1106
01:20:16,061 --> 01:20:19,064
And I was as rotten as I thought I was.
1107
01:20:21,942 --> 01:20:25,111
There were so many surprises
in this time capsule.
1108
01:20:26,112 --> 01:20:28,323
The fashion choices of the era.
1109
01:20:34,663 --> 01:20:39,417
Jasmine defiantly chewing gum
after gum was officially banned.
1110
01:20:47,926 --> 01:20:52,097
And then, there was the landscape
of a Singapore
1111
01:20:52,180 --> 01:20:54,266
I had let myself forget.
1112
01:21:30,927 --> 01:21:33,763
[birds singing]
1113
01:22:22,604 --> 01:22:24,814
Jasmine didn't come along
on that road trip
1114
01:22:24,898 --> 01:22:26,900
that Georges and I took before Shirkers...
1115
01:22:29,235 --> 01:22:32,280
but years later, we took another one.
1116
01:22:37,452 --> 01:22:39,287
I was taking her back to New York.
1117
01:22:41,414 --> 01:22:43,750
Maybe not the same New York she once knew.
1118
01:22:45,001 --> 01:22:47,587
But she wasn't the same person
anymore either.
1119
01:22:51,758 --> 01:22:53,927
[Jasmine] Why do they make it look
like it's cardboard?
1120
01:22:54,844 --> 01:22:57,681
You Americans, so wonderful.
1121
01:22:58,264 --> 01:23:00,058
[Sandi] I was getting married in Paris,
1122
01:23:00,684 --> 01:23:02,811
Paris, Las Vegas.
1123
01:23:02,894 --> 01:23:05,814
Hey, here we go. There they are.
1124
01:23:07,691 --> 01:23:09,776
[indistinct chatter]
1125
01:23:09,859 --> 01:23:10,944
[Jasmine] Oh, yeah.
1126
01:23:11,027 --> 01:23:12,195
[Sandi] The light's not on.
1127
01:23:12,278 --> 01:23:13,655
-Hey?
-The light's not on.
1128
01:23:13,738 --> 01:23:17,117
[Sandi] Look at this. I step out
of my own wedding...
1129
01:23:17,200 --> 01:23:18,535
Is the video...?
1130
01:23:18,618 --> 01:23:21,121
...and instantly begin yelling at Jasmine.
1131
01:23:27,877 --> 01:23:29,504
You are not a camel.
1132
01:23:30,171 --> 01:23:32,882
It's not heavy. I'm holding it.
1133
01:23:33,299 --> 01:23:34,634
[Sandi] She was right.
1134
01:23:35,427 --> 01:23:36,845
I was an asshole.
1135
01:23:41,725 --> 01:23:44,019
I wanna be the Elvises!
1136
01:23:44,728 --> 01:23:46,146
It's so good!
1137
01:23:46,730 --> 01:23:49,441
[Sandi]
Jasmine had just made what is still
1138
01:23:49,524 --> 01:23:52,360
the most adventurous movie
ever created in Singapore.
1139
01:23:59,200 --> 01:24:01,202
Let's rock!
1140
01:24:15,258 --> 01:24:20,013
[Sandi] Of the three of us, Jasmine is
the only one who still lives in Singapore.
1141
01:24:23,308 --> 01:24:25,643
And she's the noblest of us by far.
1142
01:24:26,269 --> 01:24:29,898
And this is to raise awareness
for the screenwriters, yeah!
1143
01:24:33,359 --> 01:24:35,361
-[boy] Like that?
-Like that.
1144
01:24:35,779 --> 01:24:37,363
Say, "Writers unite!"
1145
01:24:37,447 --> 01:24:39,157
-Writers unite!
-Yeah!
1146
01:24:40,075 --> 01:24:43,119
[Sandi] She fights Injustice
wherever she sees it.
1147
01:24:44,287 --> 01:24:47,707
We still grab lunch
whenever we're in the same city,
1148
01:24:47,791 --> 01:24:51,461
and we still ambush our friend Yek Keak
who never leaves his home.
1149
01:24:51,920 --> 01:24:52,921
Yek Keak!
1150
01:24:54,464 --> 01:24:55,632
You guys, come on in.
1151
01:24:56,049 --> 01:24:57,425
Uh, and then we'll probably cut.
1152
01:24:57,509 --> 01:25:00,595
Because we have to clear the studio room
and reset our blocking.
1153
01:25:00,845 --> 01:25:02,639
Whenever you're ready. Rolling?
1154
01:25:04,599 --> 01:25:08,186
[Sandi] But whenever Shirkers comes up,
even after all these years,
1155
01:25:09,229 --> 01:25:12,398
we descend into the same circle of hell.
1156
01:25:13,441 --> 01:25:17,695
This is so typically you that you're gonna
put everybody under the magnifying glass
1157
01:25:17,779 --> 01:25:21,407
and put everyone in a little glass tank
terrarium except yourself.
1158
01:25:21,491 --> 01:25:24,119
That's how you always
do these things, you always--
1159
01:25:24,202 --> 01:25:26,788
-Like what? Like when?
-All the time.
1160
01:25:26,871 --> 01:25:29,457
Because this is like for your amusement.
1161
01:25:29,916 --> 01:25:32,752
How many times can I keep telling you
that it was extremely annoying
1162
01:25:32,836 --> 01:25:36,589
and it was extremely disappointing
and it was extremely draining
1163
01:25:36,673 --> 01:25:40,009
and that it was the relationships
that drained
1164
01:25:40,093 --> 01:25:45,098
and not the production itself
that exhausted us?
1165
01:25:47,725 --> 01:25:48,643
Thank you.
1166
01:25:51,813 --> 01:25:53,857
This 23-year battle...
1167
01:25:54,315 --> 01:25:56,818
um, is a double-edged sword for me,
1168
01:25:56,901 --> 01:25:57,986
because...
1169
01:25:58,361 --> 01:26:01,739
uh, you and Jasmine and I
are bonded in a way
1170
01:26:01,823 --> 01:26:04,701
that I don't share a bond
with anyone else.
1171
01:26:05,577 --> 01:26:07,662
I don't have to talk to you every day.
1172
01:26:07,912 --> 01:26:11,249
I don't have to talk to you, you know,
on a regular basis,
1173
01:26:11,332 --> 01:26:14,878
but there is that instant sort of
very visceral and emotional connection.
1174
01:26:16,421 --> 01:26:20,216
You gave me this notebook
when you arrived.
1175
01:26:20,300 --> 01:26:23,678
So I have I have not seen this
for 23 years.
1176
01:26:23,761 --> 01:26:25,763
-This is your notebook.
-This is my notebook.
1177
01:26:26,639 --> 01:26:30,018
So I'm analyzing
and breaking down the script
1178
01:26:30,101 --> 01:26:33,188
for, like, symbolism
and metaphor and allusions.
1179
01:26:34,731 --> 01:26:39,027
This notebook
contains the kernel for my profession,
1180
01:26:39,110 --> 01:26:40,069
unbeknownst to me.
1181
01:26:41,237 --> 01:26:45,158
"Scene seven, interior,
S's house, afternoon."
1182
01:26:45,241 --> 01:26:49,579
Quote: "The toys would be physical
manifestations of her personality.
1183
01:26:49,662 --> 01:26:52,498
They must reflect, HER"-- in all caps.
1184
01:26:53,124 --> 01:26:55,793
"Is she seeking immortality
through her dreams?"
1185
01:26:55,877 --> 01:26:56,920
[laughs]
1186
01:26:57,003 --> 01:26:59,881
See, even then, I was digging,
right, for subtext.
1187
01:27:00,798 --> 01:27:04,177
I'm gonna be chair of the department
actually in the fall for three years.
1188
01:27:04,260 --> 01:27:06,638
You? You're gonna be chair
of the department? Wow.
1189
01:27:06,721 --> 01:27:09,933
You should've said...
So you're the chair of Film?
1190
01:27:10,016 --> 01:27:11,768
-Yeah.
-Vassar?
1191
01:27:11,851 --> 01:27:16,064
It's like I'm the next senior person,
but anyway...
1192
01:27:17,565 --> 01:27:20,693
So, yeah. So what's next?
1193
01:27:23,488 --> 01:27:26,366
[cat purring]
1194
01:27:30,620 --> 01:27:33,581
[Sandi]
Making this film, I've come to realize
1195
01:27:33,665 --> 01:27:36,542
that Georges's ghost
will never truly leave me.
1196
01:27:38,169 --> 01:27:39,587
And I've learned to think:
1197
01:27:40,838 --> 01:27:41,923
"That's okay."
1198
01:27:43,549 --> 01:27:47,136
[Georges] Let's wait for the other side.
And see what it brings.
1199
01:27:55,520 --> 01:27:57,272
[Sandi] For more than 20 years,
1200
01:27:57,355 --> 01:28:00,817
Ben talked about the soundtrack
that Georges stole from him.
1201
01:28:00,900 --> 01:28:02,902
[humming]
1202
01:28:05,154 --> 01:28:06,656
[Sandi] Finally, one day I said,
1203
01:28:07,365 --> 01:28:09,367
why don't you just play it for me?
1204
01:28:11,786 --> 01:28:13,788
[guitar playing]
1205
01:29:34,077 --> 01:29:37,455
[Jasmine] You have this affection towards
the film because of the time in your life.
1206
01:29:37,538 --> 01:29:39,957
You know, we laughed about it,
we cried about it,
1207
01:29:40,041 --> 01:29:41,376
we bitched about it.
1208
01:29:42,627 --> 01:29:44,837
[Sophie] It's strange
because it doesn't exist as a film,
1209
01:29:44,921 --> 01:29:46,255
and yet it does.
1210
01:29:46,339 --> 01:29:49,217
Right? It exists here for me
and exists here.
1211
01:29:50,301 --> 01:29:54,764
And so what you're doing
is not bringing Shirkers back to life
1212
01:29:54,847 --> 01:29:56,808
but giving it an afterlife...
1213
01:29:57,475 --> 01:29:58,684
and back to us.
1214
01:30:01,437 --> 01:30:04,690
[Jasmine] It's more
than a physical time capsule.
1215
01:30:04,774 --> 01:30:08,945
It's not just scenery
and disappearing buildings,
1216
01:30:09,278 --> 01:30:12,031
but it's also people in those places.
1217
01:30:22,458 --> 01:30:26,838
[Sandi] I know I'll never get
all of my friends in the same place
1218
01:30:26,921 --> 01:30:29,048
at the same time ever again.
1219
01:30:31,467 --> 01:30:32,593
Let's do the F again.
1220
01:30:33,761 --> 01:30:35,388
[Sandi] But here they all are...
1221
01:30:37,140 --> 01:30:38,182
with me.
1222
01:30:49,152 --> 01:30:51,821
-[laughs]
-[cat meows]
1223
01:30:51,904 --> 01:30:52,780
Oh.
1224
01:30:53,406 --> 01:30:55,241
[instrumental music playing]
1225
01:30:57,577 --> 01:30:58,995
[no audible dialogue]
1226
01:31:04,167 --> 01:31:05,585
[no audible dialogue]
1227
01:31:21,225 --> 01:31:23,227
[music resolves]
1228
01:31:28,900 --> 01:31:30,443
[camera shutter clicks]
1229
01:31:33,279 --> 01:31:36,365
[Sandi] "Exterior, highway, afternoon.
1230
01:31:39,243 --> 01:31:41,287
The sound of wind."
1231
01:31:45,458 --> 01:31:46,834
[gun cocking]
1232
01:31:50,421 --> 01:31:51,422
Hey, look.
1233
01:31:51,506 --> 01:31:53,716
[Sandi] In all golden afternoons
1234
01:31:53,799 --> 01:31:55,301
there are movers,
1235
01:31:55,718 --> 01:31:56,886
there are shakers,
1236
01:31:57,470 --> 01:31:58,471
and then,
1237
01:31:59,180 --> 01:32:00,723
there are shirkers.
1238
01:32:00,806 --> 01:32:01,891
[gunfire]
1239
01:32:03,559 --> 01:32:05,561
[laughter]
1240
01:32:11,442 --> 01:32:13,444
[indie synth-pop music playing]
1241
01:32:26,290 --> 01:32:30,378
♪ Have you ever stopped living
In a photograph? ♪
1242
01:32:30,461 --> 01:32:33,881
♪ Will you ever stop living
In a photograph? ♪
1243
01:32:33,965 --> 01:32:36,175
♪ You're a selfie queen ♪
1244
01:32:36,259 --> 01:32:41,389
♪ But that don't mean anything at all ♪
1245
01:32:42,181 --> 01:32:45,977
♪ Did you get enough likes
To get you through your day? ♪
1246
01:32:46,060 --> 01:32:49,772
♪ Do you have to post more
Till you get your way? ♪
1247
01:32:49,855 --> 01:32:54,652
♪ Have you been like this
Your entire life? ♪
1248
01:32:57,405 --> 01:33:01,492
♪ I think I'm gonna leave my cell phone
At home today ♪
1249
01:33:01,576 --> 01:33:05,288
♪ And I hope you call
While I'm away ♪
1250
01:33:05,371 --> 01:33:10,585
♪ When I get home and see
I'll just let it be ♪
1251
01:35:32,977 --> 01:35:34,395
[Ben] Let's do the F again.
1252
01:36:27,281 --> 01:36:28,908
[film roll ends, click]
95215
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