Monk in Pieces

Opened Friday, July 25, 2025

SHOWTIMES AT IFC CENTER

Thursday, July 24 at 6:45 p.m.: Sneak Preview + Q&A with Meredith Monk, director Billy Shebar, and producer Susan Margolin moderated by WNYC’s John Schaefer after the show
Friday, July 25 at 6:45 p.m.: Q&A with Meredith Monk, director Billy Shebar, and producer Susan Margolin moderated by Nadia Sirota
Saturday, July 26 at 6:45 p.m.: Q&A with director Billy Shebar

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 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, 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 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.”

Official Selection: Berlin International Film Festival

A Zeitgeist Films release in association with Kino Lorber.


  • Country USA, Germany, France
  • Running Time 95 minutes
  • Format DCP
  • Distributor Zeitgeist Films
  • Director Billy Shebar, David Roberts
  • Cast Meredith Monk, Bjork, David Byrne, John Schaefer, Ping Chong, Joanna Lynn-Jacobs, Lanny Harrison, Julia Wolfe
  • Accessibility Assistive Listening, T-Coil

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