Babeth VanLoo’s film Meredith Monk: Inner Voice is now available on DVD from First Run Features. One of the most original and important artists of her generation, acclaimed as a “magician of the voice,” Meredith Monk has spent her life creating and innovating as singer, composer, director, filmmaker, and choreographer. In intimate conversations and through archival footage, director VanLoo braids together the threads of Monk’s life exquisitely: her creative process; her Buddhist practice; the untimely death of her life partner; her connection with friends, collaborators, and her mother (Audrey Marsh, a radio vocalist and pop singer). Each thread informs Monk’s journey, and the integration of creativity and spiritual practice resonates throughout.
Excerpts from her four-decade career including the recent Songs of Ascension, Dolmen Music, her opera Atla and her film Ellis Island remind us of the pioneer she has always been: her vocal works and choreography stretch the possibilities of the voice and body, discover and play with timbre and nuance, and create unusual, compelling solo, ensemble and theater works. VanLoo’s film gives intriguing insight into a rare being. As in Monk’s work itself, the film retains a sense of mystery and wonder.
“In our culture it is customary to describe an experience, whereas I prefer placing myself right in the middle of it.” –Meredith Monk
She owes her initial exposure to Buddhism to her friend Lanny Harrison, an original member of The House, who introduced her to the teachings of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Since 1975, Monk has also taught at the Naropa Institute in Colorado. She is currently a student of Pema Chödrön.
Featuring John Daido Loori, Ann Hamilton, the Meredith Monk Vocal Ensemble, members of the Oratorio Society of Minnesota. Filmed on location in New Mexico, New York, Italy, and California.
Meredith Monk: Inner Voice
A film by Babeth M. VanLoo
2009 / 82 min / English
a Buddhist Broadcasting Foundation (BOS) production
UPC: 7-20229-91428-4/Catalog #: FRF 914284D
SRP: $24.95 / Can. $29.95
