JIFF25: Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse

Australian premiere

Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus – an autobiographical memoir about Spiegelman’s relationship with his father, a Holocaust survivor – pioneered the appreciation of comic books as a serious artform. It came to define Spigelman’s career, however the full scope of his artistic output is more significant than many realise.  

This conversational documentary brings you up-close with the artist and his life, revealing Spiegelman’s early love of Mad magazine, his mother’s tragic death by suicide when he was 20, his prolific artistic collaborations with his wife, Françoise Mouly, art editor of The New Yorker, and his work responding to the September 11 attacks, In the Shadow of No Towers.  

Through extensive interviews with Spiegelman and those close to him, including comic book royalty Robert Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb (who died in 2022), the film celebrates Spiegelman’s particular brand of mordant humour and his talent for turning tragedy into profound works of art. 

English and Polish with English subtitles.