Presenting Princess Shaw

Presenting Princess Shaw
reż. Ido Haar/Izrael, 2015/80 min

All around the world, at any given moment, random people post personal video clips online. They are their virtual messages in a bottle, tossed into the boundless sea that is the Internet. Most of these posts flounder in a sad limbo of indifference and anonymity — unless your YouTube handle happens to be Princess Shaw. Samantha Montgomery, 38, lives on her own in one of New Orleans' toughest neighborhoods. By day she works as a caregiver for the elderly; at night she transforms into Princess Shaw, belting out soulful originals at sparsely attended open mic nights and posting homemade a cappella clips on YouTube to a handful of followers. One of them is Kutiman, a.k.a. Ophir Kutiel, an Israeli musician living on a kibbutz outside Tel Aviv, who mixes together one of Montgomery's clips with instrumentals posted online by random musicians, resulting in a surprising reversal of fortune for the unforgettable Princess Shaw. A rousing documentary crowd-pleaser about a star-crossed singer-songwriter and her crafty secret admirer, “Thru You Princess” examines loneliness, anonymity and connectivity in the Internet age, where showbiz dreams remain but a mouse-click away for even the most hardscrabble.
READ MORE
HIDE

  • projection time:
    80 min
  • country/year:
    Israel, 2015
  • director:
    Ido Haar
  • pictures:
    Ido Haar
  • production:
    Atzmor Productions/​Reconsider
  • selected festivals and awards:
    2015 – IDFA Amsterdam, 2015 – TIFF Toronto

Other movies on this section

The City’s Ours

Inside the Mind of Favela Funk

 
Inside the Mind of Favela Funk

Europe, She Loves

 
Europe, She Loves

Anthill

 
Anthill
Other movies from this contest

Chopin’s Nose Award

Hitchcock/Truffaut

 
Hitchcock/Truffaut

I Am the Blues

 
I Am the Blues

Innocence of Memories – Orhan Pamuk's Museum and Istanbul

 
Innocence of Memories – Orhan Pamuk's Museum and Istanbul
 
Doc shop
Buy our films on DVD
NEWSLETTER
Sign up and stay up to date