Tribeca Film Festival 2025 Review: “Maintenance Artist”

By Morgan Roberts

Director: Toby Perl Freilich
Runtime: 95 minutes
Year: 2025

How can trash be transformed into art? Mierle Laderman Ukeles has been one of New York City’s longest serving Artist in Residence. In 1977, she became the Artist in Residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation, and in the process began to reframe what sanitation, essential work, and community truly mean. In Toby Perl Freilich’s documentary, “Maintenance Artist,” Ukeles’ decades-spanning career as an artist was in full focus. Prior to her work with the sanitation department, Ukeles was making feminist art, highlighting the service and labor of women, thus creating a larger art form of “maintenance” art.

Her work with the NYC Department of Sanitation began at a critical time. The department had their budget slashed, staffing cut, morale amongst sanitation workers was decimated while the public lost trust in the department. Ukeles took this opportunity to begin to humanize the workers from the sanitation department, and understand how their labor impacts society.

Ukeles’ work has always focused on labor, particularly the underpaid and/or underappreciated. Essential work such as parenting, sanitation, restoration, preservation, that largely goes unnoticed when it’s operational but becomes an area of contention when it isn’t. It is a fascinating perspective to take. And it is also pertinent. Especially as work that is needed for our society to operate, work that is largely ignored or undervalued by people as a whole.

Still from “Maintenance Artist” | Tribeca Film Festival

All art is political, and there is nothing more political than interrogating the work we belittle while relying so heavily on the labor of others. As the film unfolds, we witness the lengths Ukeles took to really dig into what sanitation workers’ realities were like. Her approach is deeply human and deeply invested in their experience. Her art then transforms into a manner which bears witness to these realities far from the gaze of society. The film progresses in the same fashion - exploring Ukeles, her art, and her passion through interviews and through bearing witness to her art itself.

Freilich understands the totality of Ukeles, exploring the many facets and identities which weave together the tapestry of her humanness. It is through those identities we come to know Ukeles’ passion. Her art stems from her own experience as a mother, as a caregiver, as a misunderstood art student. As a feminist, a Jewish woman, as an artist, the way she moves through the world has informed the truths she has connected with, and in turn, the stories she wishes to tell. As we watch her meet with largely men who work in sanitation, her openness allows these tough exteriors to fade. Men begin to talk about their frustrations, their fears, their struggles. We learn many veterans began working for the city due to the yearning for the stability. Particularly for the Vietnam veterans of the group, once left behind by the U.S. government, they once again feel abandoned by New York City. Her art may not always be the tactile pieces such as the photographs and videos, but the magic that comes with being seen and heard.

“Maintenance Artist” is a stunning portrait of one woman who gave voice to thousands of underseen, undervalued, and underappreciated essential workers. Through her desire to highlight the most crucial work throughout society, Ukeles has managed to piece by piece transform how others view maintenance. Freilich’s keen eye and dedication to Ukeles’ work and vision ensures this documentary film feels insightful, inspiring, and powerful.

Grade: A
Pair This Film With: “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” (2022) dir. Laura Poitras; “Maudie” (2016) dir. Aisling Walsh; “Showing Up” (2023) dir. Kelly Reichardt