film

Directed by Molly Bernstein and Philip Dolin, Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse is an intimate look at the life, work and legacy of the cartoonist best known for the comic Maus. The documentary traces Spiegelman’s story from his early days as a co-editor of underground comic magazines such as Arcade and Raw, through his tenure as a contributor for The New Yorker to his creation of Maus, which won the Pulitzer Prize. It places particular (and fascinating) emphasis on how his family history, and in particular his parents’ experiences in the Holocaust, shaped his work.

Disaster Is My Muse is a down-the-line look at an extraordinary person, and therefore not one for anyone looking for avant-garde filmmaking. As a way to learn about the life and times of a brilliant artist, though, it ticks every box you could wish it to.