Latest news with #DisasterIsMyMuse
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Now PBS Is Censoring a Film About Free Speech
American Masters, an award-winning documentary series in its 39th season on PBS, promises to tell 'compelling, unvarnished stories' about the nation's most important cultural figures. The program's most recent story, though—Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse, about the cartoonist-author of Maus, the Pulitzer Prize–winning graphic novel depicting the Holocaust, and a self-described 'poster boy for books being censored'—seemed to need a bit more varnish on its approach to Donald Trump. In April, two weeks before it aired on PBS stations, a 90-second segment of the film in which Spiegelman referred to the president's 'smug and ugly mug' was cut from the film at the behest of public-media executives. (The details of this incident were first reported by Anthony Kaufman for Documentary magazine.) PBS has been under attack by the Trump administration since January. By the time Disaster Is My Muse was aired in shortened form, the network was already under investigation by the Federal Communications Commission, and the White House had a plan to claw back $1.1 billion in federal funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which passes money on to PBS. 'Their attempt at preemptively staying out of the line of fire was absurd; it wasn't going to happen,' Spiegelman told me this week. 'It seems like it would be better to go out with dignity.' Alicia Sams, who co-produced the film, told me that she received a call from the executive producer of American Masters, Michael Kantor, at the beginning of April. It was less than a week after a contentious congressional hearing in which the network was accused of being a 'radical left-wing echo chamber' that is 'brainwashing and trans-ing children.' According to Sams, Kantor said that Disaster Is My Muse would need one further edit before it could be shown: The filmmakers had to remove a short sequence where Spiegelman reads aloud from the one of the few comic strips about Trump that he's ever published, in a zine associated with the Women's March in 2017. There was no opportunity for negotiation, Sams said. The filmmakers knew that if they refused, they would be in breach of contract and would have to repay the movie's license fee. 'It was not coming from Michael,' she told me. 'It was very clear: It was coming from PBS in D.C.' [Read: PBS pulled a film for political reasons, then changed its mind] Kantor deferred all questions to Lindsey Horvitz, the director of content marketing at WNET, the producer of American Masters and parent company of New York's flagship PBS station. (Sams told me that in her understanding, WNET leadership had agreed with PBS about the cut.) Horvitz provided The Atlantic with this statement: 'One section of the film was edited from the theatrical version as it was no longer in context today. The change was made to maintain the integrity and appropriateness of the content for broadcast at this time.' A PBS spokesperson said, 'We have not changed our long-standing editorial guidelines or practices this year.' (The Atlantic has a partnership with WETA, which receives funding from PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.) Molly Bernstein, who co-directed Disaster Is My Muse with Philip Dolin, said this was 'absurd.' She told me that the team had already been through discussions with PBS over how to make the film compliant with broadcast standards and practices. A few profanities are spoken in the film, and some images from Spiegelman's cartoons raised concerns, but the network said that these could stand as long as the film aired after 10 p.m., when laxer FCC rules apply. 'We were delighted that was an option,' Bernstein said. A bleeped-and-blurred version of the film would not have worked. 'It's about underground comics. It's about transgressive artwork.' The team did make one other change to the film, several months before its broadcast: Some material featuring Spiegelman's fellow comic-book artist Neil Gaiman was removed in January after a series of sexual-assault allegations against Gaiman were detailed in a cover story for New York magazine. (Gaiman denies that he 'engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone.') The filmmakers say they did this on their own, to avoid distractions from the subject of the film. But they also said that Kantor told them PBS would likely have had that inclination too. In any case, to say the snipped-out material about Trump was 'no longer in context today' is simply false. Spiegelman's commitment to free speech is central to the film. So are his repeated warnings about incipient fascism in America. ('That's what I see everywhere I look now,' he says at one point.) They're also clearly relevant to the forced edit of the broadcast. Indeed, the censored clip was taken from an event involving Spiegelman in June 2022 called 'Forbidden Images Now,' which was presented in association with an exhibit of Philip Guston paintings that had itself been postponed for political reasons after George Floyd's murder, presumably on account of Guston's having made a motif of hooded Ku Klux Klansmen. [Read: Don't look away from Philip Guston's cartoonish paintings of Klansmen] Just a few months before that lecture, Spiegelman learned that Maus had been removed from the eighth-grade curriculum in McMinn County, Tennessee, on account of its rough language and a single panel showing the naked corpse of his mother following her suicide. 'The tendencies brought up by this frantic need to control children's thoughts,' Spiegelman told MSNBC's Art Velshi in 2023, are 'an echo of the book burnings of the 1930s in Germany.' The filmmakers told me that Spiegelman's free-speech run-in with the county school board was instrumental in persuading WNET to back Disaster Is My Muse. 'When Maus was banned, interest in Art and the relevance of his story increased,' Sams said. Only then did American Masters pledge its full support, licensing the film before it had even been completed, and supplying half its budget. In the lead-up to its broadcast, PBS also chose to highlight Spiegelman's focus on the First Amendment in its promotional materials. The network's webpage for Disaster Is My Muse describes him as 'a pioneer of comic arts, whose thought-provoking work reflects his ardent defense of free speech.' (Neither PBS nor WNET would explain how a decision had been made to censor footage from a documentary film that is in no small part about censorship.) A broader 'context' for the edit can be found in PBS's other recent efforts to adjust its programming in deference to political considerations. As previously reported in The Atlantic, not long before Kantor's call with Sams, PBS quietly shelved a different documentary film, Break the Game, that was set to air on April 7, apparently because it had a trans protagonist. The film, which is not political, was abruptly placed back on the schedule within two hours of my reaching out to PBS for comment. (The network did not respond to questions about why Break the Game's original airdate had been canceled.) If these efforts were meant to forestall pressure from the White House, they have roundly failed. Two weeks after Disaster Is My Muse aired—with its reference to Trump removed—the president attempted to dismiss three of five board members at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. A few days after that, he issued an executive order directing the board to terminate all funding, both direct and indirect, to NPR and PBS. (Both moves are being challenged.) But just imagine how much harder the administration would be going after PBS if Trump had seen the clip about his 'smug and ugly mug'! 'This seems like volunteering to pull the trigger on the firing-squad gun,' Spiegelman told me. The end of Disaster Is My Muse includes some footage from a 2017 free-speech protest on the steps of the New York Public Library, where Spiegelman read out the lyrics of a Frank Zappa song: 'And I'm telling you, it can't happen here. Oh, darling, it's important that you believe me. Bop bop bop bop.' The political climate has only gotten worse since then, he said. 'There's no checks and balances on this. This is severe bullying and control, and it's only going to get worse.' Article originally published at The Atlantic
Atlantic
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Atlantic
Now PBS Is Censoring a Film About Free Speech
American Masters, an award-winning documentary series in its 39th season on PBS, promises to tell 'compelling, unvarnished stories' about the nation's most important cultural figures. The program's most recent story, though— Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse, about the cartoonist-author of Maus, the Pulitzer Prize–winning graphic novel depicting the Holocaust, and a self-described 'poster boy for books being censored'—seemed to need a bit more varnish on its approach to Donald Trump. In April, two weeks before it aired on PBS stations, a 90-second segment of the film in which Spiegelman referred to the president's 'smug and ugly mug' was cut from the film at the behest of public-media executives. (The details of this incident were first reported by Anthony Kaufman for Documentary magazine.) PBS has been under attack by the Trump administration since January. By the time Disaster Is My Muse was aired in shortened form, the network was already under investigation by the Federal Communications Commission, and the White House had a plan to claw back $1.1 billion in federal funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which passes money on to PBS. 'Their attempt at preemptively staying out of the line of fire was absurd; it wasn't going to happen,' Spiegelman told me this week. 'It seems like it would be better to go out with dignity.' Alicia Sams, who co-produced the film, told me that she received a call from the executive producer of American Masters, Michael Kantor, at the beginning of April. It was less than a week after a contentious congressional hearing in which the network was accused of being a 'radical left-wing echo chamber' that is 'brainwashing and trans-ing children.' According to Sams, Kantor said that Disaster Is My Muse would need one further edit before it could be shown: The filmmakers had to remove a short sequence where Spiegelman reads aloud from the one of the few comic strips about Trump that he's ever published, in a zine associated with the Women's March in 2017. There was no opportunity for negotiation, Sams said. The filmmakers knew that if they refused, they would be in breach of contract and would have to repay the movie's license fee. 'It was not coming from Michael,' she told me. 'It was very clear: It was coming from PBS in D.C.' Kantor deferred all questions to Lindsey Horvitz, the director of content marketing at WNET, the producer of American Masters and parent company of New York's flagship PBS station. (Sams told me that in her understanding, WNET leadership had agreed with PBS about the cut.) Horvitz provided The Atlantic with this statement: 'One section of the film was edited from the theatrical version as it was no longer in context today. The change was made to maintain the integrity and appropriateness of the content for broadcast at this time.' A PBS spokesperson said, 'We have not changed our long-standing editorial guidelines or practices this year.' (The Atlantic has a partnership with WETA, which receives funding from PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.) Molly Bernstein, who co-directed Disaster Is My Muse with Philip Dolin, said this was 'absurd.' She told me that the team had already been through discussions with PBS over how to make the film compliant with broadcast standards and practices. A few profanities are spoken in the film, and some images from Spiegelman's cartoons raised concerns, but the network said that these could stand as long as the film aired after 10 p.m., when laxer FCC rules apply. 'We were delighted that was an option,' Bernstein said. A bleeped-and-blurred version of the film would not have worked. 'It's about underground comics. It's about transgressive artwork.' The team did make one other change to the film, several months before its broadcast: Some material featuring Spiegelman's fellow comic-book artist Neil Gaiman was removed in January after a series of sexual-assault allegations against Gaiman were detailed in a cover story for New York magazine. (Gaiman denies that he 'engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone.') The filmmakers say they did this on their own, to avoid distractions from the subject of the film. But they also said that Kantor told them PBS would likely have had that inclination too. In any case, to say the snipped-out material about Trump was 'no longer in context today' is simply false. Spiegelman's commitment to free speech is central to the film. So are his repeated warnings about incipient fascism in America. ('That's what I see everywhere I look now,' he says at one point.) They're also clearly relevant to the forced edit of the broadcast. Indeed, the censored clip was taken from an event involving Spiegelman in June 2022 called 'Forbidden Images Now,' which was presented in association with an exhibit of Philip Guston paintings that had itself been postponed for political reasons after George Floyd's murder, presumably on account of Guston's having made a motif of hooded Ku Klux Klansmen. Just a few months before that lecture, Spiegelman learned that Maus had been removed from the eighth-grade curriculum in McMinn County, Tennessee, on account of its rough language and a single panel showing the naked corpse of his mother following her suicide. 'The tendencies brought up by this frantic need to control children's thoughts,' Spiegelman told MSNBC's Art Velshi in 2023, are 'an echo of the book burnings of the 1930s in Germany.' The filmmakers told me that Spiegelman's free-speech run-in with the county school board was instrumental in persuading WNET to back Disaster Is My Muse. 'When Maus was banned, interest in Art and the relevance of his story increased,' Sams said. Only then did American Masters pledge its full support, licensing the film before it had even been completed, and supplying half its budget. In the lead-up to its broadcast, PBS also chose to highlight Spiegelman's focus on the First Amendment in its promotional materials. The network's webpage for Disaster Is My Muse describes him as 'a pioneer of comic arts, whose thought-provoking work reflects his ardent defense of free speech.' (Neither PBS nor WNET would explain how a decision had been made to censor footage from a documentary film that is in no small part about censorship.) A broader 'context' for the edit can be found in PBS's other recent efforts to adjust its programming in deference to political considerations. As previously reported in The Atlantic, not long before Kantor's call with Sams, PBS quietly shelved a different documentary film, Break the Game, that was set to air on April 7, apparently because it had a trans protagonist. The film, which is not political, was abruptly placed back on the schedule within two hours of my reaching out to PBS for comment. (The network did not respond to questions about why Break the Game 's original airdate had been canceled.) If these efforts were meant to forestall pressure from the White House, they have roundly failed. Two weeks after Disaster Is My Muse aired—with its reference to Trump removed—the president attempted to dismiss three of five board members at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. A few days after that, he issued an executive order directing the board to terminate all funding, both direct and indirect, to NPR and PBS. (Both moves are being challenged.) But just imagine how much harder the administration would be going after PBS if Trump had seen the clip about his 'smug and ugly mug'! 'This seems like volunteering to pull the trigger on the firing-squad gun,' Spiegelman told me. The end of Disaster Is My Muse includes some footage from a 2017 free-speech protest on the steps of the New York Public Library, where Spiegelman read out the lyrics of a Frank Zappa song: 'And I'm telling you, it can't happen here. Oh, darling, it's important that you believe me. Bop bop bop bop.' The political climate has only gotten worse since then, he said. 'There's no checks and balances on this. This is severe bullying and control, and it's only going to get worse.'
Los Angeles Times
18-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Art Spiegelman, Janinah Burnett and more: L.A. arts and culture this weekend
'Art Spiegelman is one of the most important cartoonists in the world working today. He tackled a subject that was enormous, and he established the medium as a serious literary form.' That's what Joe Sacco says of his fellow cartoonist in 'Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse,' a new documentary that explores the career and legacy of the artist, editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the acclaimed graphic novel 'Maus.' The 'American Masters' title, which won the Metropolis Grand Jury Prize at the DOC NYC Festival in November, features archival footage and stills, illustrations and new interviews with Spiegelman, as well as insights from his family and contemporaries, including cartoonists Robert Crumb, Emil Ferris, Jerry Craft and Bill Griffith, writer-artist Molly Crabapple and author J. Hoberman. A portion of the film sees Spiegelman deconstructing 'Maus' — which was based on his father's experiences as a Jewish immigrant and Holocaust survivor, as well as his own struggle to visualize it as an artist — and discussing its creation and impact alongside his wife, designer Françoise Mouly. Other sections recap his chapter as co-editor of comic magazines Arcade and Raw and revisit his most notable New Yorker covers. The film premiered earlier this week on PBS and is streaming online and available via the PBS app through May 14. It is a galvanizing watch about the power of art as a medium for processing humanity's most horrific events , and the lasting influence such brave creations will have for generations to come. I'm Ashley Lee, here with my fellow Times staff writer Jessica Gelt with more things to do and news to peruse. 'What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women, 1843–1999'The Getty Center's interactive pop-up reading room highlights more than 100 photobooks and encourages visitors to hold the books, read and flip through pages. The exhibition includes a selection of contemporary photobooks by female Southern California photographers, including Catherine Opie, Uta Barth, Jo Ann Callis, Elena Dorfman, Rose-Lynn Fisher, Judy Fiskin and Soo Kim. It is on view through May 11; the Getty's Central Garden will feature poetry inspired by the exhibition from Camae Ayewa (April 23) and Solange Aguilar (April 30). Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Brentwood. 'The Totality of All Things'Erik Gernand's play, which debuted in Chicago last year, explores the country's growing divide through the lens of a hate crime at a small-town Indiana high school. The Road Theatre Company production is part of Reflections on Art and Democracy, a citywide celebration of plays, salons, lectures, and concerts that raise awareness about the rise of fascism and antisemitism, as well as the power of art and design to resist them. Directed by Taylor Nichols, this West Coast premiere runs through May 25; Saturday's performance includes a talkback with the playwright. Road Theatre,10747 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood. Janinah BurnettBoston Court Pasadena continues its Just Jazz Foundation Series with this one-night-only concert, featuring songs from the artist's debut album, 'Love the Color of Your Butterfly,' as well as hidden gems from various eras of American musical history. Of course, this set list will be delivered with 'clazz' — her signature combination of numerous genres of music, including classical and jazz. Saturday, 8 p.m. Boston Court Pasadena, 70 N. Mentor Ave., Pasadena. — Ashley Lee FRIDAY🎸 AC/DC at the Rose Bowl The stalwart Australian rockers electrify the Arroyo Seco with their Power Up tour and opening act the Pretty Reckless.7 p.m. Rose Bowl, 1001 Rose Bowl Drive, Pasadena. 📖 🎭 Dark Library: Paris 1925 Visit Gertude Stein's apartment and mingle with such notable expats as Ernest Hemingway, Josephine Baker, F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda, via this intersection of multisensory mediums, including cocktails, dance and movement, and experiential design.7 and 9 p.m. Friday-Saturday, through April 26. New Musicals Inc., 5628 Vineland Ave., North Hollywood. 🎸 Graham Nash The singer-songwriter with the light tenor voice performs 'More Evenings of Songs & Stories 2025,' including his solo work and as a member of the Hollies and Crosby, Stills & Nash (and sometimes Young).8 p.m. Carpenter Performing Arts Center, 6200 E. Atherton St., Long Beach. 🎵 🎭 Shrek the Musical Jr. A benefit performance by middle school students with all donations going to help rebuild the Altadena Arts Magnet and Eliot Arts Magnet arts programs, which were severely affected by the Eaton fire. Admission is free but reservations are required.7 p.m. Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. SATURDAY🎤 Krush Groove Festival The Game, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Redman and Method Man are among the performers at the annual hip-hop festival presented by 93.5 Forum, 3900 W Manchester Blvd., Inglewood. SUNDAY📖 An Evening With Mark Hoppus The Blink-182 singer discusses his new memoir, 'Fahrenheit-182.'4 p.m. The Wiltern, 3790 Wilshire Blvd. 🎭 God's Favorite James Rice directs Neil Simon's 1974 comedy, loosely based on the biblical book of May 3. Long Beach Playhouse Theatres, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach. 🎞️ Something Mysterious: The Art of Philip Seymour Hoffman The Academy Museum's tribute series to the late Oscar-winning actor continues this week with 'Magnolia' (1999, 7:30 p.m. Sunday) and 'The Savages' (2007, 7:30 p.m. Monday).Series continues through May 29. Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd. An art project called 'The Goodbye Line' has been gaining steam — and users — in Southern California. Created by Adam Trunell and partner Alexis Wood, the interactive project consists of stickers placed on working payphones around the city, inviting passersby to call a free recorded line in order to say goodbye to something or someone. Trunell and Wood are posting these recordings online. The results are wildly varied, but almost always poignant. Beloved Devo frontman and all-around uber creator Mark Mothersbaugh has finally opened his MutMuz Gallery to the public. For years Mothersbaugh had used the space on Chung King Road in Chinatown, but he never invited guests inside. First up: his debut solo show of paintings and screenprints, 'Why Are We Here? No. 01.' 'Regency Girls,' a new musical comedy set in the era of Jane Austen, is making its pre-Broadway debut at the Old Globe in San Diego. Penned by TV writers Jennifer Crittenden and Gabrielle Allan, and directed and choreographed by Josh Rhodes, the show is 'both genuinely funny and unabashedly silly,' writes Times theater critic Charles McNulty. Fans of 'Pride and Prejudice' will likely savor the nonstop action, he speculates. Heidi Zuckerman will step down from her role as CEO and director of the Orange County Museum of Art in December, the museum announced this week. Zuckerman has overseen an extraordinary period of growth during her tenure, including the 2022 grand opening of the museum's new Thom Mayne, Morphosis Architects-designed home. Zuckerman is OCMA's 13th director since its 1962 founding and will help the executive committee search for a successor. The museum noted that in the two years since opening its new building, more than 500,000 visitors have stepped through its doors — a number 12 times greater than attendance in the old location. OCMA is not the only regional museum announcing a change in leadership. Adam Lerner, the executive director and CEO of Palm Springs Art Museum, announced this week that he decided not to renew his contract after four years at the helm of the institution. 'The museum is now stronger, more inclusive, and more engaged than ever — and I'm especially proud of the outstanding executive team we've built to carry that momentum forward,' Lerner wrote in a message about his decision to museum members. The 100th class of Guggenheim Fellows was announced this week and 16 L.A.-area honorees are among the 198 artists, scientists and more — across 53 disciplines — selected for the program. Writer-director-actor Miranda July is among the 2025 fellows, as is playwright Larissa Fasthorse, who is receiving funding in a new category for Indigenous Studies. 'At a time when intellectual life is under attack, the Guggenheim Fellowship celebrates a century of support for the lives and work of visionary scientists, scholars, writers, and artists,' Edward Hirsch, poet and president of the Guggenheim Foundation, said in a news release. 'We believe that these creative thinkers can take on the challenges we all face today and guide our society towards a better and more hopeful future.' The additional L.A.-area residents selected are Coleman Collins, UC Irvine, fine arts; Kyungmi Shin, fine arts; Raven Jackson, film/video; Mona Jarrahi, UCLA, engineering; Suk-Young Kim, UCLA, theater arts; Jingyi Jessica Li, UCLA, data science; Park Williams, UCLA, earth science; Mungo Thomson, film/video; Carolina Lithgow-Bertelloni, UCLA, earth science; Julie Tolentino, CalArts, fine arts; Carolyn Castaño, fine arts; Lauren Bon, Metabolic Studio, fine arts; Kerry Howley, general nonfiction; Emily Barker, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, fine arts. — Jessica Gelt Introducing Jesse Eisenberg — composer, lyricist and movie-musical director.
Axios
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
Weekend events: Bourbon & BBQ, Lanta Gras and Hawks
Looking for something to get into this weekend? We've got you covered. 🎪 Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey brings The Greatest Show on Earth to Gas South Arena. (Fri.-Sun.) 🪕 Bluegrass guitarist Billy Strings takes the stage at State Farm Arena. (Fri.-Sat.) 🎤 Yacht Rock Schooner plays sounds from the late 70s and early 80s at Red Clay Music Foundry. (Fri.) 🎥 Celebrate John Lewis' 85th birthday with a free screening of "John Lewis: Good Trouble" at the Rialto Center for the Arts. (Fri.) 🎞️ The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival screens movies including " Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse," " Come Closer" and more. (through March 16) 🥃 The Beer, Bourbon & BBQ Festival serves up brews, smoked meats and music at Atlantic Station. (Sat.) 🍻 Sweetwater Brewery celebrates 28 years of making hops magic with live music and, of course, beer. (Sat.) 🎉 Lanta Gras kicks off the 10th annual parade and festival in Kirkwood to money for area students' music scholarships and instruments. (Sat.) 🏀 The Atlanta Hawks host home games against the Orlando Magic (Thurs.) and Detroit Pistons. (Sun.)
