09. Shirkers

We wade into the world of documentary filmmaking with Sandi Tan’s SHIRKERS (2018), which reflects on Tan’s teenage experience of making a movie with her friends and losing the footage after their teacher steals it. The movie’s “layers of aboutness,” as we writerly types love to say, are plentiful—and get into as much as we can wrap our heads and hearts around: magical realism, punk spirit, youthful determination, and how to live a life that is in service to your art. 

 

Secondary texts referenced:

“Lessons of the Line: Charles Simic and Me” by Dana Levin (from the Yale Review, spring 2024 issue)

“After the World-Breaking, World-Building” by Vanessa Angélica Villarreal (from Magical/Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders)