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“He Realized It Was Useful to Stop Running From the 500 Pound Maus Chasing After Him”: Molly Bernstein and Philip Dolin on Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse!
Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse! Molly Bernstein and Philip Dolin’s Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse! centers on a legendary cartoonist who’s long struggled with being eclipsed by his own creation. Decades ago Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning, Holocaust-focused, autobiographical graphic novel Maus launched the underground artist into mainstream fame, and its success prompted him to follow up with the explanatory MetaMaus so he could finally stop having to publicly dissect the most painful time in his family’s history. (Needless to say, the plan backfired spectacularly.) Fast forward to today, when calls to ban Maus — and other “uncomfortable” books — make the moral of the story more relevant than ever, and the perennial antifascist spokesman even more in demand. (Cut to a panel with the caption “Oy.”)
Nevertheless, Spiegelman is a game participant in this study of his life, influences (Mad magazine of course) and eclectic oeuvre (the 9/11-themed In the Shadow of No Towers is probably better known than Garbage Pail Kids); as are the assorted literary scholars, fellow cartoonists and critics (including J. Hoberman), all some combination of fans, friends and colleagues. But perhaps the most memorable moments occur when reflection is a group activity, such as the intimate scene around the dinner table with Spiegelman and his spouse and collaborator Françoise Mouly eating and chatting comics with a strikingly bland Robert Crumb and his late wife Aline Kominsky-Crumb — the burden of Maus temporarily lifted by graying domesticity.
A few days prior to the theatrical release (February 21st at Film Forum) of Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse!, Filmmaker reached out to the veteran co-directors whose 2013 doc Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay likewise received PBS’s American Masters imprimatur.
Filmmaker: How did the doc originate? Did you bring the project to American Masters – or vice-versa?
Bernstein and Dolin: We first met Art through magician Ricky Jay, the subject of our film Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay. Art asked us to film his stage show Wordless about the wordless novels that influenced his work. We were fascinated by his encyclopedic knowledge of the history of his medium and his passion for communicating this little-known world, and we became inspired to make a film that explored this in depth.
We got to know Art, and every three or four months he would invite us to film him at various events: getting an honorary degree at a university or spending a day making a print in a lithography studio in Brooklyn, for example. At that point we started to look for funding and took many meetings, including with American Masters. Interest in our film heated up after Maus was banned in Tennessee in 2022. Which is when American Masters came onboard and we jumped into full-time production.
Filmmaker: Spiegelman has spent the bulk of his career trying (and failing) to escape the shadow of Maus, which made me wonder whether he was at all hesitant to fully participate in the film (including discussing and reading from Maus)? What was your pitch to him?
Bernstein and Dolin: One of the things we learned to empathize with was the fact that just because you make a groundbreaking masterpiece that completely alters the world’s perception of your field, it doesn’t mean it’s all you want to talk about for the rest of your life.
Art has remained extremely prolific across a range of pursuits, and when we first met him he was indeed not particularly keen to talk about Maus. As time went on however, political events in the US and the larger world convinced Art that talking about Maus would allow him to weigh in on the pressing issues of the day: censorship, the rise of antisemitism, book banning, the ascendancy of Donald Trump and so forth. As he says in the film, he realized it was useful to stop running from the 500 pound Maus chasing after him and talk about Maus as a cautionary tale.
Filmmaker: While it’s obvious you got quite a bit of access, with Spiegelman’s wife and two adult children all featured in the doc, I’m also guessing certain things may have been off limits to the camera. How did you navigate personal boundaries with Spiegelman and his family?
Bernstein and Dolin: The Spiegelmans are very private and protective of their time. Art and Françoise are both incredibly busy, and their children are off leading their own lives. We actually had very limited access to them all. We filmed Art at many events but only had a few sit-down interviews with him. The same with Françoise. This put the pressure on us to be very well prepared for those opportunities.
Filmmaker: Since you also interview a range of fellow cartoonists and scholars, I’m curious to hear how you chose who to include.
Bernstein and Dolin: Our process is usually to learn about our subject and our story as we make the film. We do a huge amount of research in general and prepare intensely for each interview.
We tried to get subjects who have worked with Art or were intimately familiar with his work. Cartoonist and graphic novelist Bill Griffith has known Art for over 50 years, and they edited many comics together. Hillary Chute is a scholar of comics who has written several books that have featured Art, and she collaborated with him closely on MetaMaus.
As for the film itself, we had to carefully weave in all the elements of Art’s life, his knowledge of comics and his discovery of his parent’s experiences in the Shoah. One element of our film is having Art and the family read sections of his various autobiographical comics. We’d filmed other people reading as well, but in the end we felt that it is more impactful and personal to have only the Spiegelmans reading the comics.
Filmmaker: With the return of Trump and the ongoing book banning that’s included Maus, Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winner does seem more relevant than ever – a sad irony not lost on Spiegelman. So what are your and Spiegelman’s hopes for the film?
Bernstein and Dolin: It was amazing for us to watch Art’s attitude change and to see our final act materialize in real time before our eyes. One thing to note is that during Covid we were using remote technology to make a series of films about environmental activists around the world. During this period, and especially after the banning, Art was appearing in Zoom events all across the country. We recorded all of these as a way of keeping up with what Art was doing and thinking. A lot of these recordings are in the film and show his reactions to the events of the day. His final warnings about book banning and rising fascism resonate powerfully today even though the chronology of the film basically ends in 2024.
The film is opening at Film Forum in New York as well as in theaters, festivals and special screenings around the world. It will also be broadcast on PBS’s American Masters in the spring. We designed Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse! to appeal to a wide spectrum of people, including those with little knowledge of Art’s work or comics in general. We hope the film will continue to connect with audiences, and to spark conversations and debates well into the future.
