USA/Germany/France/2025—directed by Billy Shebar | 95 min.

Meredith Monk—composer, performer,and interdisciplinary artist—is one of the great artistic pioneers of our time, yet her profound cultural influence is largely unrecognized. With Monk’s music at its center, and interviews with David Byrne and Björk, Monk in Pieces is a mosaic that mirrors the structure of Monk’s work and illuminates her wildly original vocabulary of sound and imagery. As a female artist in the male-dominated arts scene of the ‘60s and ‘70s, Monk fought for recognition and resources.

Yet as her celebrated contemporary, Philip Glass, says, “she, among all of us, was—and still is—the uniquely gifted one.” In the final chapters, Monk, facing mortality, warily entrusts her masterpiece, Atlas, to director Yuval Sharon (now Artistic Director of Detroit Opera) for a production at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. For 60 years, Monk directed and performed in all of her own works; suddenly she must learn to let go.

“This spry, lively and appropriately offbeat biography of the artist celebrates the reverberations of a distinctive voice.” –Stephen Saito, The Moveable Fest