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Zeitgeist Films in association with Kino Lorber acquires North American rights to Meredith Monk doc 'Monk in Pieces'
“A highly engaging, very human story about an uncompromising female artist battling
to keep her unique vision alive.”
– Stephen Dalton, The Film Verdict
“Present[s] the rich tapestry of Monk’s music… soaring vocalizations that swoop and loop across her three-octave range.”
– Amber Wilkinson, Screen International
“The best celebration that could be offered for an artist who found so much in her own voice.”
– Stephen Saito, The Moveable Fest
Zeitgeist Films in association with Kino Lorber has acquired North American rights to Monk in Pieces, a revealing documentary portrait of the innovative interdisciplinary artist Meredith Monk which made its World Premiere at the 2025 Berlinale and recently made its US premiere at the Seattle International Film Festival. Zeitgeist Films will release the film theatrically at the IFC Center in New York this summer with a national rollout to follow.
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 mainstream press were vicious and sexist: “A disgrace to the name of dancing” wrote Clive Barnes, and “so earnestly strange in a talented little-girl way,” wrote John Rockwell. Yet as her celebrated contemporary, Philip Glass, says, "she, among all of us, was–and still is–the uniquely gifted one."
The deal for Monk In Pieces was negotiated by Zeitgeist Films Co-President Emily Russo and Producer Susan Margolin.
Zeitgeist Co-Presidents Emily Russo and Nancy Gerstman said, “For the many legions of Monk fans, and for those who are not familiar with her work at all, this film delivers on every level. We loved Monk’s own telling of her life-long struggle as a true visionary and artist, and look forward to sharing this beautifully rendered film with North American audiences.”
“There’s nothing like the shared experience of watching a movie on a big screen, enveloped by sound,” said director Billy Shebar. “We’re so lucky to be working with Kino Lorber and Zeitgeist, who have distributed some of the most ground-breaking independent movies of the last thirty years. Their history of championing original, thought-provoking films makes them the ideal partners for Monk in Pieces, our film about a true original.”
Monk In Pieces, a film by Billy Shebar, was produced, written, and directed by Billy Shebar and David Roberts, and produced by Susan Margolin.