New Shaggs Documentary Trailer Asks Why We Like What We Like

By Tom Whitfield

Ken Kwapis's documentary We Are the Shaggs, which premiered at South by Southwest in March, has released a trailer examining the legacy of the sisters behind 1969's Philosophy of the World — an album both Kurt Cobain and Frank Zappa counted among their favorites.

The trailer opens with listeners hearing the band for the first time. Over their reactions runs the commentary: "I don't think anybody can be prepared to listen to the Shaggs."

Two of the four Wiggin sisters appear in the film, looking back on three threads of the story: how their father forced them to form a band, the fallout when the album was dismissed, and the surprising reappraisal of their music in recent decades.

Who made the film?

Kwapis is a seasoned television director. His credits include Follow That Bird and episodes of Freaks and Geeks, Malcolm in the Middle, and The Office. The producers are entertaining offers from distributors and hope to place the film in theaters early next year.

"I've been fascinated with the Shaggs ever since I first heard Philosophy of the World in 1980, and their music remains as puzzling and provocative as ever," Kwapis told Rolling Stone.

He set out to correct the record. "Many accounts of the Shaggs paint [band members] Dot, Betty, and Helen Wiggin as curiosities, or as the puppets of a domineering father," he said. "My intention was to humanize and dignify the sisters and make the case to take their unique music seriously."

What does the film actually argue?

Kwapis entered the project with questions rather than answers: "When it comes to music, why do we like what we like?" he asked. "What qualifies as 'good' versus 'bad'? 'Sophisticated' versus 'primitive'? When it comes to creativity, what is the difference between 'intentional' and 'accidental'?"

To ground those questions, he consulted composers, musicologists, record producers, and culture writers for on-camera commentary. Their insights, he said, made him admire the Wiggins even more. "What began as a straightforward telling of their story evolved into something much more personal and philosophical," he said.

That claim deserves scrutiny. A director who spent more than four decades fascinated by a band will not deliver a neutral verdict, and the trailer's framing — dismissal, then reappraisal — suggests a redemption arc rather than an open inquiry. The film's answers to Kwapis's own questions will only be testable when it reaches audiences.

How did the sisters respond to decades of mockery?

Dot Wiggin addressed that directly in a 2016 Rolling Stone interview. "We started reading all the negative stuff on the internet for a while but then I said, 'Everybody is entitled to their own opinion,'" she said.

She cited an unlikely source for her resilience. "My motto, from Bambi, was always, 'If you can't say anything nice, don't say nothing at all.' I'm not sure everybody feels that way. So I just blocked it out."

What changes for the Shaggs' legacy depends on distribution: no deal is signed yet, and a theatrical run early next year remains a hope, not a commitment.