NYWIFT Blog

By Tammy Reese

Award-winning filmmaker, writer, and NYWIFT member Toby Perl Freilich returns to the spotlight with her latest documentary, Maintenance Artist, making its world premiere in the Documentary Competition at the 2025 Tribeca Festival.

Known for her deeply researched and socially resonant films such as Moynihan and Inventing Our Life: The Kibbutz Experiment, Freilich turns her lens to pioneering feminist artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles, whose groundbreaking concept of “maintenance art” challenged the boundaries between art, labor, and gender. In this compelling new work, Freilich not only brings Ukeles’ vision to life but also preserves a vital historical record of performance art.

In our exclusive interview, she opens up about the inspiration behind the film, the importance of platforms like Tribeca, and her journey as a multi-hyphenate creator paving the way for women in documentary filmmaking.

Congratulations on the world premiere of Maintenance Artist at Tribeca! What does it mean to you to debut this film in such a prestigious and culturally rich festival?

I’m thrilled! And honored. I think the Tribeca Film Festival is the perfect venue for the launch of Maintenance Artist. Though Mierle’s work has global reach, this is also a very New York story, and I think that’s what resonated for the Tribeca judges — both the universal appeal of her work and its very local roots. Also, I’m a native New Yorker, and I’m proud to have my film contribute to the cultural life of my city.

Still from Maintenance Artist (Courtesy of Tribeca)

Without giving too much away before the premiere, can you tell us what inspired Maintenance Artist and what story you’re most proud to share through it?

The Queens Museum held a museum-wide career retrospective of Mierle’s work in 2016–17. I caught the tail end of it and was blown away by the imaginative leap of “maintenance art,” the scale of Mierle’s work and by her creative range.

I was deeply moved that she embraced and celebrated such an essential but under-appreciated sector of the workforce. I was excited, too, about the richness and scope of the story — it encompassed not just art, but labor, feminism, urban history and environmental preservation. In that respect, it was an ideal subject for a film.

I guess what I’m most proud of is an unwitting collateral benefit of making this film: video conservation. Performance is an ephemeral medium, so many early performance artists arrange for their work to be photographed, or video recorded. Mierle is extremely organized, and she had an entire metal cabinet filled with all this painstakingly labeled and catalogued analogue material: PortaPak, ¾” and VHS video tapes, audiocassettes, etc. With time, just sitting there, all that material was deteriorating; eventually it would all have been lost to history.

I had very little money but made some judicious choices of what to digitize on a first round. The digitizing project expanded over the years as the story’s arc became clearer and as I was able to raise more money. So, in addition to telling Mierle’s story, I feel proud to have had a hand in preserving this rich historical record.

Still from Maintenance Artist (Courtesy of Tribeca)

Why do you think it’s vital to have festivals like Tribeca that provide platforms for documentaries and stories that challenge, inform, and inspire?

The current political climate as well as the media, marketing and distribution forces of this moment are slowly choking off possibilities for many documentaries and non-traditional narrative formats. Film festivals like Tribeca, which operate on a meritocratic system, are the frontline in bringing important films to the attention of the public and the press.

They are becoming essential launching pads for new films that might not be able to break through the current atmosphere of official and non-official censorship, or the drying up of government funds that support cultural outlets.

As a director, producer, and screenwriter with such an impressive body of work, what do you think it truly takes to be successful in wearing all three creative hats?

First, I think you have to have a deep and abiding interest in your project’s subject. Making a film is a bit like a relationship — there’s a lot of magic but also day-to-day, well, maintenance, drudge work to keep it going. Researching funding sources, writing grant proposals, keeping up with your subject, navigating world events like COVID and labor strikes — you have to have a passion for your story to keep it alive.

Still from Maintenance Artist (Courtesy of Tribeca)

Can you give us a glimpse into any other projects you’re currently developing or excited about in the near future?

Right now, I’m super focused on seeing Maintenance Artist through — finishing the film, doing the festival circuit. I always have ideas burbling, but nothing that’s ready for prime time.

What drew you to become a member of NYWIFT, and how has the organization supported or influenced your journey as a filmmaker?

I’m a female filmmaker who was making a film about a female artist trying to break into a male-dominated art world in the 1970s. Most of my crew and team are women. It’s also my first film featuring the work of a leading female artist and feminist. There were times when I felt pretty alone, and I wanted the support of a larger professional community of women filmmakers, which I got as a member of NYWIFT.

NYWIFT Member Toby Perl Freilich (Courtesy of Toby Perl Freilich)

For women who aspire to follow in your footsteps as a director, producer, and writer, what advice would you offer — especially when facing challenges in the documentary space?

Choose your projects wisely; be realistic about what you’ll be able to raise money for. And try to have a support team, both emotional and professional, because it’s a long process. I am blessed with a wonderful family and fortunate to have a great team, including an excellent editor, Anne Alvergue, who was able to take the complex ideas that I was trying to express and bring them to life in a uniquely creative way.

Judith Mizrachy, the film’s tireless producer, and its savvy Consulting Producer Alysa Nahmias, provided invaluable advice and support that not only helped to bring the film in on time and on budget, but is also positioning it in the market.

Keep up with Tony Perl Freilech at her two websites: www.frameworkfilms.org and www.maintenanceartist.com

Learn more about Maintenance Artist at Tribeca.

And be sure to check out the other NYWIFT Members at the 2025 Tribeca Festival! 

​Toby Perl Freilich co-produced and co-directed MOYNIHAN, released theatrically in 2018. MOYNIHAN had a theatrical debut at NYC’s Film Forum and a broadcast premiere on PBS’ American Masters series in March 2024. The film was an L.A. Times Critic’s Pick, which acclaimed it as “a sterling portrait of a singular American statesman. MOYNIHAN, produced with major support from the Ford Foundation’s JustFilms, is a film biography of the late NY Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan through an exploration of his ideas.  

​Freilich wrote, directed, and produced INVENTING OUR LIFE: The Kibbutz Experiment, released theatrically in 2012. Variety called it “poignant… and thought-provoking.” It was hailed by The N.Y. Times as “fascinating,” and “excellent” by NPR, which remarked that “Freilich comes to her subject with a generous curiosity and a gift for digging beneath the usual debates.”

​Freilich 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, featured on HBO/Cinemax, and winner of numerous festival awards. 

​For SECRET LIVES, Freilich was nominated for a news and documentary Emmy in the category of Outstanding Achievement in a Craft: Writing, and Secret Lives was nominated in the category of Outstanding Historical Programming.  

​Freilich was also co-producer of the Emmy-nominated RESISTANCE: Untold Stories of Jewish Partisans, an independent documentary that was broadcast nationally on PBS.   

​Leading up to her work as an independent ilmmaker, Freilich was a producer for the Garth Group, Inc., an internationally known media consulting firm specializing in political, corporate, and public interest campaigns.

​Freilich is a contributing writer to the magazines, Tablet, Sh’ma, the Jewish Review of Books and the Forward, where she was awarded a Simon Rockower Award for Excellence.