Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse
Director: Molly Bernstein, Philip Dolin Run Time: 98 min. Release Year: 2025
Starring: Art Spiegelman
Join us for a Q&A following the film with co-director and editor Molly Bernstein!
Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse explores the life and career of cartoonist Art Spiegelman and the creation and ground-breaking impact of his Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus, the story of his parents’ survival of the Holocaust and his own struggle to come to terms with this legacy. The film premiered at DOC NYC and was awarded the top prize for the festival’s Metropolis Competition, which is dedicated to stories about New Yorkers and New York City.
Molly Bernstein is the director, producer and editor of Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay, a documentary that premiered at the New York Film Festival, received a wide theatrical release and was selected by the Dublin and Glasgow International film festivals. Deceptive Practice was named one of Entertainment Weekly’s top 10 films of the year and aired on the PBS series American Masters. Bernstein directed and edited An Art That Nature Makes: The Work of Rosamond Purcell, a New York Times Critic’s Pick that premiered at Film Forum in NYC, played in over 20 theaters nationwide and at: The Folger Shakespeare Library; MASS Moca; Museum of Art in Portland, Maine; The Center for Contemporary Arts in Sante Fe; and at The Natural History Museum of Denmark. Bernstein produced, directed and edited The Show’s The Thing: The Legendary Promoters of Rock, a feature documentary selected by festivals including DOC NYC, the Boulder, Cleveland and Doclands International Film Festivals, Doc’n Roll Film Festival in London and Asbury Park Music & Film Festival. The Show’s The Thing aired on Sky Arts in the UK. Bernstein has had an extensive career as an editor with credits including Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb (Sony Pictures Classics), and the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning Jerome Robbins: Something to Dance About (American Masters). She has produced and directed many short films with Particle Productions on various subjects such as contemporary international artists and art collectors, and environmental issues and climate activists. She is on the film faculty of University of North Carolina School of the Arts.