Meredith Monk – composer, performer, and interdisciplinary artist – is one of the great artistic pioneers of our time, yet her profound cultural influence remains largely unrecognized. Centered around Monk’s music and featuring interviews with Björk and David Byrne, MONK IN PIECES is a mosaic that mirrors the structure of Monk’s own work, shedding light on 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 fought for recognition and resources. Early reviews in the New York Times 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.”

In the film’s final chapters, Monk faces mortality. We witness her warily entrust her masterpiece, Atlas, to director Yuval Sharon and singer Joanna Lynn-Jacobs for a new production at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. After 60 years of directing and performing in all of her musical theater works, Monk must learn to let go. What will become of such singular work after she is gone?