Is Meredith Monk a composer? A singer? A dancer? A poet? Even by this film’s end, there is no clear answer. In 1960s New York, Monk combined voice, body, movement, and theater into her convention-breaking art, garnering admiration and criticism.

Watching archival footage of Monk, her voice and movement seem strange at first, but viewers quickly become mesmerized by the sounds and marvel at her range. The film details Monk’s many contributions to the art world: She composed music for movies (Godard and the Coen Brothers used her works) as well as two operas, directed films and performances, and – as artists such as Björk and David Byrne attest – her cultural influence was, and still is, enormous. Monk shattered boundaries between various art forms, and therefore had to fend off critics who didn’t understand her and her works. She is now widely viewed as one of the most outstanding multidisciplinary artists of her generation. As composer Philip Glass said of her, “She, among all of us, was – and still is – the uniquely gifted one.”