Meredith Monk in Twelve Pieces

Directors & Producers Billy Shebar, David Roberts
Meredith Monk in Twelve Pieces

Logline

Meredith Monk–Jewish-American composer, singer, choreographer, and filmmaker–is one of the great artistic pioneers of our time, yet her profound influence on contemporary art and music is largely unrecognized. Featuring interviews with Björk and David Byrne and access to her entire archive, Meredith Monk in Twelve Pieces illuminates Monk’s genius through a cinematic playlist rooted in her wildly original vocabulary of sound.

Phase of Support: Production

Project Links

Billy Shebar

Billy Shebar - Director, Producer

Billy Shebar is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker whose credits include Dark Matter (2007) with Meryl Streep, winner of the Sloan Prize at Sundance, the acclaimed docuseries DarkNet (2016) for Showtime, and numerous films for PBS, BBC, Discovery, and National Geographic. Shebar created film projections for Monk’s Magic Frequencies (2000), which premiered at the Joyce Theater. He co-founded 110th Street Films with David Roberts to explore new approaches to documentary film. The team won a Webby Award for their viral animated series Trump Bites (2018-2020), which premiered on the New York Times website. Doctor’s Orders (2021), a crime documentary with animation, premiered on Discovery+. Their short film High Noon on the Waterfront, featuring John Turturro and Edward Norton, premiered at the 2022 Telluride Film Festival, was broadcast on Turner Classic Movies, and is now streaming on HBO Max.

David Roberts

David Roberts - Director, Producer

David Roberts is a former U.S. diplomat turned writer and filmmaker. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, and Foreign Affairs. He co-founded 110th Street Films with Billy Shebar, and together they have directed and produced numerous films that push the boundaries of documentary filmmaking, including the Webby-winning viral animated series Trump Bites (New York Times); the crime documentary Doctor’s Orders (Discovery+); and High Noon on the Waterfront (Turner Classic Movies), a short film featuring John Turturro and Edward Norton that premiered at the 2022 Telluride Film Festival, and is now streaming on HBO Max. In addition to Meredith Monk in 12 Pieces, Roberts and Shebar are currently producing a documentary on CIA Director Bill Burns.

Project logline and bios courtesy of the grantees.