Monk in Pieces (2025) on Netflix
NR20251h 30mDocumentary
Composer and performer Meredith Monk built a vocabulary of sound and movement while critics dismissed her. In her seventh decade, she asks whether such work can be performed without her.
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- Netflix4.1/5
- IMDb7.3/10109 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes92%
Trailer
Plot summary
Meredith Monk is a composer, performer and interdisciplinary artist whose cultural influence has gone largely unrecognized. She arrived during World War II into a family of musicians: her great-grandfather served as cantor in a Moscow synagogue, and her mother sang on commercial radio until producers set her aside, so Monk made her own way. An eye condition left her uncoordinated and without a sense of dimension, and four years of Dalcroze Eurythmics planted the seeds of her approach to music and movement. Working in the downtown arts scene of 1960s and 1970s New York, she fought for recognition and resources, and early notices turned vicious and sexist. Vocalizing at a piano, she recognized the potential of the human voice and began developing a vocabulary of her own, hand-picking an ensemble to perform it.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Monk in Pieces (2025)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Monk in Pieces grew out of director Billy Shebar's 30-year relationship with Meredith Monk; his wife joined the cast of Monk's opera ATLAS in 1990 and has performed in all of Monk's major works since.
- Monk opened the doors of the Tribeca loft where she has worked since 1972 to Billy Shebar and his crew, who filmed her daily life there and the creation of her newest work, Indra's Net.
