Coming to NYC’s JCC for their CineMatters series tomorrow, Tuesday, May 24, to Stranger Than Fiction this Thursday, May 26, and to theatres and VOD this Friday, May 27: PRESENTING PRINCESS SHAW
Ido Haar’s inspirational portrait of an unusual musical collaboration debuted under its original title, THRU YOU PRINCESS, at Jerusalem last year. It went on to screen at Toronto, Miami, SXSW, True/False, Cleveland, Nashville, San Francisco, Montclair, Seattle, Tempo Doc, and Docs Against Gravity, among other events.
Under the pretense of profiling YouTube performers, Haar makes contact with Samantha, a New Orleans-based caregiver to the elderly who records online confessionals alongside original songs under the name Princess Shaw for a small number of followers, and occasionally tries to perform at open mic nights. What she doesn’t know is that her songs have attracted the attention of the renowned Kutiman, an Israeli musician who specializes in mash-ups, carefully sampling an astonishing number of publicly-available music clips and editing them into remarkable new compositions. The film follows both artists in parallel – Princess as she struggles to realize her performing dreams, Kutiman as he composes his latest song, highlighting and validating Princess’ talent – all unbeknownst to her until an unforgettable, emotional reveal that opens up the world to the likeable would-be star.
what (not) to doc 