Singapore, summer of 1992: Sandi Tan; two close friends; and her middle-aged mentor, Georges, scramble to shoot their first feature, Shirkers, an off-kilter, color-soaked slasher flick. The production is an intense, heady experience, and all signs point to indie greatness: This will be a film before its time, especially for the nascent Singapore film scene. But then Georges disappears… with the cans of film. Fast forward 20 years: With the lost Shirkers continuing to haunt those who participated, the film is recovered. Tan, now an L.A.-based novelist, hits the road in search of answers. And so we take a thrilling trip, from Singapore to California to New Orleans… and from the present to the past and back, in a brilliant testimonial to the power of the stories we tell about ourselves. (AV)