Maintenance Artist dives deep into the extraordinary life and work of the woman who called herself the “artist-in-residence” of the Department of Sanitation and made the invisible labor of cleaning, caretaking, and motherhood visible — and sacred. Through a blend of rare archival footage, striking visual compositions, and interviews with Ukeles, her colleagues, and the workers who became her collaborators, the film explores how a single artist transformed “maintenance” — the often-dismissed work of women and working-class people — into one of the most profound artistic and political statements of the twentieth century. Maintenance Artist is a meditation on art, feminism, ecology, and the moral act of care in a culture obsessed with production and profit.

Premiering to acclaim as an Official Selection in Documentary Competition at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival, the film has since captivated audiences at DC DOCS, the Jerusalem Film Festival, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, and others, hailed as “a luminous portrait of one of art’s quiet revolutionaries.” Ukeles’s message resonates more urgently than ever: creation isn’t just what we build — it’s what we sustain.