2025 BJFF Maintenance Artist film Q&A

Описание: Boston Jewish Film Festival conversation with MAINTENANCE ARTIST Director Toby Perl Freilich, moderated by Betsy More, Director of Programs at Jewish Women’s Archive. Filmed at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, on November 17, 2025.

MAINTENANCE ARTIST is the first feature documentary about trailblazing Jewish artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles, the original artist-in-residence of the NYC Sanitation Department. Believing that routine maintenance—from changing diapers to picking up city trash to caring for the earth—could be performance works.

Toby Perl Freilich produced and directed MAINTENANCE ARTIST, a film about pioneering artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles. MAINTENANCE ARTIST premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival and had a special screening at the National Gallery of Art for DC/DOX. She co-produced and co-directed MOYNIHAN, released theatrically in 2018 and broadcast on PBS’ American Masters series in March 2024. Freilich wrote, directed, and produced INVENTING OUR LIFE: The Kibbutz Experiment, released theatrically in 2012. The NY Times hailed it as “fascinating,” and NPR as “excellent.” She co-produced and wrote the documentary film, SECRET LIVES: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers, selected by Andrew Sarris as one of the ten best non-fiction films of 2003, and winner of numerous festival awards. For SECRET LIVES, Freilich was nominated for a news and documentary Emmy for Writing, and the film was nominated for Outstanding Historical Programming. Freilich was also a co-producer of the Emmy-nominated RESISTANCE: Untold Stories of Jewish Partisans, an independent documentary broadcast nationally on PBS. She is a 2025 Jewish Film Institute resident and a contributing writer for Tablet, Sh’ma, and the Jewish Review.

Betsy More is JWA’s Director of Programs. She earned her Ph.D. in history in 2012 from Harvard University, where her research focused on the history of work and motherhood in the United States. She has taught widely in American history, American studies, and women’s and gender studies. She is a recipient of fellowships, including the Mellon/ACLS Early Career Research Fellowship and the Women and Public Policy Fellowship from the Harvard Kennedy School. Most recently, she served as the Director of Open Circle Jewish Learning at Hebrew College. She lives in Belmont, MA, with her husband and daughter.