
Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse (2025)
- Fri, Mar 7
Director: Molly Bernstein, Philip Dolin Run Time: 98 min. Release Year: 2025
Starring: Art Spiegelman
Country: United States
Language: English
About the film:
While best-known for the two volumes of Maus (voted by the New York Public Library as one of the 125 most important books of the last 125 years), Spiegelman’s deeply personal body of work also includes In the Shadow of No Towers, Breakdowns, and The Wild Party and he is known for his many provocative covers for The New Yorker magazine where he was a staff artist and writer from 1993-2003. With his wife, Françoise Mouly, Spiegelman published and edited the acclaimed and influential comics magazine RAW from 1980-1991, where Maus was first serialized.
When Maus was banned by a Tennessee school board in 2022, Art, a self-avowed “first amendment fundamentalist,” stepped back into the spotlight as an ardent defender of free speech and against book-banning in both national media appearances and community engagements all over the country. As one of our country’s leading public intellectuals he has used his platform well and continues to do so.
Disaster is My Muse! is a portrait of an artist fully engaged with his past and his present who, with his chosen medium of comics, helps us to understand our turbulent world, and is testimony to the power of art to make sense of our personal and collective histories.



About the filmmaker:
Molly Bernstein – Director, Producer
Molly Bernstein is the director and producer of Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay, a documentary that premiered at the New York Film Festival and received a wide theatrical release. The film was named one of Entertainment Weekly‘s top 10 films and aired on PBS American Masters. She also directed An Art That Nature Makes: The Work of Rosamond Purcell, which played in over 20 theaters nationwide. Most recently, she produced and directed The Show’s The Thing: The Legendary Promoters of Rock, a feature documentary about the creation of the live rock show, which premiered at DOC NYC and was screened at festivals throughout the US and in Europe. It was recently broadcast on SKY ARTS UK.
Recent credits include: Producer/Director, The Show’s The Thing: The Legendary Promoters of Rock, called “essential viewing for anyone interested in music industry history” by the Hollywood Reporter; Producer, Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay, which was named one of the top ten films of 2013 by Entertainment Weekly; Producer/Cinematographer, An Art That Nature Makes: The Work of Rosamond Purcell, which screened at theaters and museums nationwide. Through his company Particle Productions, Philip has made over 100 short films for non-profits, arts organizations and universities. He started out producing hip-hop videos in the early ‘90s for artists Salt-N-Pepa, MC Lyte, Chubb Rock and many others.
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