Monk in Pieces (Monk in Pieces)

With Meredith Monk’s music at its center, and featuring interviews with Björk and David Byrne, 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, she had to fight for recognition and resources. Early reviews in the New York Times were vicious and sexist, 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. She 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?