I like to take chances on films at film festivals, but I confess that ART SPIEGELMAN: DISASTER IS MY MUSE was pretty much a slam dunk. So no need to beat around the bush, I had a great time.
ART SPIEGELMAN: DISASTER IS MY MUSE is a PBS documentary. So, yes, it’s not going to break new ground in terms of form. But, what you get is a polished, well researched, documentary made with the full cooperation of Art Spiegelman. And anyone who has ever read anything by Spiegelman should know that the man has never been much interested in self aggrandizement.
And it’s no hidden secret to say that Art Spiegelman’s art, his perfectionism, his sense of humor, and his basic honesty are strengths of this documentary too. It’s something of a basic outline of Speigelman’s art career from its beginning to its present, with Mad Magazine being a key rosetta stone for his art, the basic building blocks of his career in underground comix and other jobs (hey did you know he created the Garbage Pail Kids?), of course leading up to his masterpiece MAUS. But, there’s also the fact that what can you do after you create a groundbreaking masterpiece? Spiegelman obviously struggled in the shadow of that, even turning it into art, but he eventually came to peace with it and now can joke about it.
It also needs to be mentioned that Speigelman’s wife, Françoise Mouly, played both a big part in his art and a big part in this documentary. And her insight and commentary is invaluable. Especially as she’s no more interested in romanticizing the process than Art is. Her tenure at the New Yorker, where Art was able to push buttons as a cover artist willing to be in people’s faces, gets a nice spotlight within the documentary.
After the screening, a good Q&A was presented by Milwaukee Film featuring producer Alicia Sams. Not too many questions were asked, but we did learn that you can’t see a small portion of the film on PBS, for reasons that are pretty obvious.
The 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival runs from April 24, 2025 until May 8, 2025. ART SPIEGELMAN: DISASTER IS MY MUSE plays twice more at the 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival; first on Tuesday, April 29, 2025 at 3:30 PM at the Oriental Theatre and finally on Wednesday, May 7, 2025 at noon at the Downer Theatre. Tickets to ART SPIEGELMAN: DISASTER IS MY MUSE and other films can be purchased at MKEFILM.ORG.
