Meredith Monk – composer, performer, and interdisciplinary artist – is one of the great artistic pioneers of our time, yet her profound cultural influence is often overlooked. Monk in Pieces is a mosaic that mirrors the structure of Monk’s own work, and illuminates her wildly original vocabulary of sound and imagery.
As a female artist in the male-dominated downtown arts scene of the 1960s and 70s, Monk had to fight for recognition and resources. Early reviews in the New York Times were vicious and sexist: “a disgrace to the name of dancing,” wrote one male critic, and “so earnestly strange in a talented little-girl way,” wrote another. Yet, as her celebrated contemporary, Philip Glass, says, “”she, among all of us, was – and still is – the uniquely gifted one.””
In the film’s final chapters, Monk faces mortality. We see her warily entrust her masterpiece, ATLAS, to director Yuval Sharon and singer Joanna Lynn-Jacobs for a new production at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. For 60 years, Monk has directed and performed in all of her music theater works; now she must learn to let go. What will happen to such singular work after she is gone?