At 82, Meredith Monk May Finally Get Her Due 

“She, among all of us, was the uniquely gifted one — is the uniquely gifted one.” So avers none other than Philip Glass, minimalist composer extraordinaire. The “she” in question is Meredith Monk, whose unconventional genius epitomized the creative avant-garde during...

Who Are Museums Really For? And Can We Change Our Minds?

The cinematic journey in Binnigula’sa’ (Ancient Zapotec People) (2024) begins in the Mexican countryside. Modern civilization — signified by concrete, metal, and powerlines — peeks through the green landscape to reveal a more rigid world of roads,...

An Absurd Take on Masahisa Fukase’s Darkness

Few of Japan’s great photographers had a career as bold and multifaceted as Masahisa Fukase. Though largely defined by his black and white magnum opus Ravens (1986), a book of photographs in which the photographer casts himself as the grim black bird, Fukase managed...

The Renaissance, but Make It Game of Thrones

A documentary can sometimes tell a viewer more about the time it was made than the one it recounts. This holds especially true for films about the Renaissance, which has been so meticulously covered that new revelations are farther and fewer between. The three-part...

Rashaad Newsome’s Futurist Manifesto of Black Joy

Rashaad Newsome’s Assembly is technically a documentary about a performance. But calling it that feels small. Yes, it documents his installation at the Park Avenue Armory, but what it offers is a vision, a map, a speculative ritual for survival. At its core, Assembly...