Presenting Princess Shaw

The true story of the incredible Princess Shaw and the enigmatic composer Kutiman, who discovers her from the other side of the world.

By day, Samantha Montgomery cares for the elderly in one of New Orleans’s toughest neighborhoods. By night, she writes and sings her own songs as Princess Shaw on her confessional YouTube channel. Raw and vulnerable, her voice is a diamond in the rough.

Across the globe, Ophir Kutiel creates video mash ups of amateur YouTube performers. Known as Kutiman, he is a composer, musician, and pioneering video artist embraced by the world of fine art. Kutiman “transforms sampling into a multimedia art,” whether at his home on a kibbutz in Israel or at a live performance at the Guggenheim in New York.

Two strangers, almost 7,000 miles apart, begin to build a song. The film unfolds as Kutiman pairs Princess Shaw’s emotional performances in a beautiful expression of generosity and compassion, revealing the bona fide star underneath and her fight to never give up on her dreams.