“Presenting Princess Shaw” – Re: Meme her [MOVIE REVIEW]

A Magnolia Pictures release. A film by Ido Haar
A Magnolia Pictures release. A film by Ido Haar

A Magnolia Pictures release. A film by Ido Haar

“Presenting Princess Shaw,” a documentary by director/editor Ido Haar, is a mash-up of a mash-up or even a meme in that one artist “borrows” another’s work and transforms it into something that is both the same and different.

Samantha Shaw lives a marginal existence in a tough neighborhood in New Orleans and works as a nurse’s aide in the geriatric unit of a New Orleans hospital. But Samantha has a grander world view of herself and in the evenings she presents that vision as Princess Shaw on her personal YouTube channel where she sings songs and tells stories that she has written about her life and daily travails, her past abuse and rough childhood.

Cheery and optimistic to her patients, Samantha believes that she is destined for greater things and has even managed to move into her own apartment. She, like so many others living on the margins, is immediately confronted with adversity. Local thieves have stolen all four tires from her car, leaving it balancing on the rims. No way will she be able to afford the cost of repairs and replacement of the tires. Now, on top of everything else, she must rely on inconsistent public transportation to get to her job and outside activities. This too will find its way into her music.

Half way around the world on a kibbutz south of  Tel Aviv, Ophir Kutiel, a multimedia artist and musician known as Kutiman, is creating video mash-ups of music and performers he has discovered by trolling YouTube. Taking unrelated musical clips performed by unknown artists on YouTube that have been sent out over the air like scattershot in the wilderness, Kutiman visually blends them together on multiple screens accompanied by his own orchestrations to create albums from his point-of-view. Recognized internationally for his multimedia performance art, for lack of a better expression, his albums have been shown at the Guggenheim where he has accompanied them, creating a whole-cloth theatrical piece from unrelated snippets – a symphonic quilt so to speak.

Trolling YouTube for fresh material, he discovers Princess Shaw and takes her raw, amateur but emotionally powerful musical presentations and matches them up with musical snippets from amateur musicians around the world he has found in similar fashion.

Ido Haar, a filmmaker intrigued by Kutiman’s work, approached him with the idea of making a documentary about the making of Kutiman’s new “album,” one that prominently featured Princess Shaw. Haar, intended to include the other musicians who, unknowingly, were part of Kutiman’s album, but he was increasingly drawn to Shaw, her music and her story. Flying to New Orleans, he approached Shaw to be featured in a documentary he was making about artists who uploaded their music on YouTube. Never did he give her any indication that this was a ruse and that the real story was Kutiman’s process.

Still, Haar was captivated by the raw openness of Princess Shaw and eventually the documentary became her story: her desire to be heard. He filmed her at sparsely attended open mic nights, at her day job and performing in her apartment.

Finally, almost a year after he met her, he orchestrated her discovery of Kutiman’s mash-up using her music. She was delighted and a continued collaboration ensued.

Samantha Shaw has a gripping personality and a tenacious belief in herself. With Kutiman manipulating Shaw’s music into orchestrations and video clips of other previously uninformed amateur musicians of different gradations of talent, he creates a whole that is far greater than the individual parts.

This two-pronged story, more or less as Haar intended, is how Kutiman creates performance art that has been given a wide platform of acceptance in the art world and that of a marginally talented, vulnerable young woman with dreams of a musical career getting her five minutes of fame.

Haar, whose initial approach to Shaw was nothing if not disingenuous, edited the documentary in a choppy manner to make the film appear more like cinema verité. His initial intention was to follow some of the other unknowing musicians who contributed to Kutiman’s album and it would have added a bit more substance to the film had he done so. Using Princess Shaw as his only subject, intercut occasionally with clips of Kutiman’s YouTube splicing technique, causes the film to creep along as there are too many times that this 80 minute film drags.

All in all, however, it is hoped that Princess Shaw by dint of a ferocious desire to tell her story will find a continued platform to share her tenacious optimism despite the road blocks placed in her path.

Being given a limited run, “Presenting Princess Shaw” is a film that may be better served on the small screen.

Opening Friday May 27 at the Sundance Sunset Cinema and on VOD. Princess Shaw will be appearing in person at the theater on Friday May 27 and Saturday May 28 after the 7:30 pm showings.

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