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Monk in Pieces

Panorama Dokumente 2025
© 110th Street Films
The profound cultural influence of the composer, performer and interdisciplinary artist Meredith Monk is often overlooked. As a female artist, she had to fight for recognition and resources in the male-dominated art scene of downtown New York of the 1960s and 1970s. Early reviews in “The New York Times” were vicious and sexist, with Clive Barnes calling her “a disgrace to the name of dancing” and John Rockwell opining that she was “so earnestly strange in a talented little-girl way”. And yet, as her celebrated contemporary Philip Glass says: “She, among all of us, was – and still is – the uniquely gifted one.”
Monk in Pieces is a mosaic that mirrors the structure of her own work and illuminates her wildly original vocabulary of sound and imagery. In the film’s final chapters, Monk confronts mortality. We see her warily entrust her masterpiece “Atlas” to the director Yuval Sharon and singer Joanna Lynn-Jacobs for a new production with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. For 60 years, Monk has directed and performed in all her works; now she must learn to let go. What will happen to such singular creations after she is gone?
by Billy Shebar (Director, Screenplay), David Roberts (Director, Screenplay)
with Meredith Monk, Björk, David Byrne, Ping Chong, John Schaefer, Lanny Harrison, Julia Wolfe USA / Germany / France 2025 English 94' Colour & Black/White World premiere | Documentary form

With

  • Meredith Monk
  • Björk
  • David Byrne
  • Ping Chong
  • John Schaefer
  • Lanny Harrison
  • Julia Wolfe

Crew

Directors Billy Shebar, David Roberts
Screenplay Billy Shebar, David Roberts
Cinematography Jeff Hutchens, Ben Stechschulte
Editing Sabine Krayenbühl
Music Meredith Monk
Sound Design Dominic Bartolini
Animation Paul Barritt, Paul Barritt
Producers Billy Shebar, Susan Margolin, David Roberts
Co-Producers Katie Geissinger, Sabine Krayenbühl

Produced by

110th Street Films

St. Marks Productions

ZDF

Arte

World Sales

Cinephil

Photos

Billy Shebar

The Emmy-nominated filmmaker is known for High Noon on the Waterfront, starring John Turturro and Edward Norton, which had its world premiere at Telluride, and Dark Matter with Meryl Streep in the lead role, which won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. He collaborated with the animator Bill Plympton on the viral web series Trump Bites which featured on the website of “The New York Times” and created the three-part crime series Doctor’s Orders with the animator Yoni Goodman.

Filmography (selection)

2014 America by the Numbers; series, director (two episodes) 2018 Trump Bites; animated series 2020 Paid Patriotism; short documentary 2021 Doctor’s Orders; series 2022 High Noon on the Waterfront; short documentary 2025 Monk in Pieces; documentary

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2025