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A new documentary about an artist’s decades-long dialogue with New York City government agencies premiered, at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this month, at the perfect time. For the past several months, supposed cost-saving measures, courtesy of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, shrunk federal agencies under the guise that workers who process new vaccines, coordinate air traffic, or protect consumers from business fraud waste money. Debates about the childcare costs, building affordable housing, and free buses dominate New York’s current mayoral race. The moment is ripe to reflect on the practice of an artist like Mierle Laderman Ukeles who encouraged city residents to “hear what New York City is like for the people who keep it alive every single day.”

Maintenance Artist, written and directed by Toby Perl Freilich, follows Ukeles as she develops “Maintenance Art,” a term she coined in a 1969 manifesto to describe her new approach to art, or as she put it, “doing everyday things, flushing them up to consciousness, and exhibiting them as art.” As she was raising two children, Ukeles seemed frustrated with daily house tasks (child-rearing, cleaning, cooking) that got in the way of her art-making. Likewise, she wanted to make her presence known in an art world that rendered mothers invisible. The manifesto brought those worlds together. In a contemporary art landscape focused on innovation, genius, and individualism, she asked, “After the revolution, who’s going to pick up the garbage on Monday morning?”

Telling her story chronologically, Maintenance Artist weaves in key points from Ukeles’s career—dropping out of Pratt, the manifesto, working with conservators and museum staff, interviewing janitorial staff—into moments for succinct analyses of the context that shaped them (second-wave feminist art, the city’s economic crisis, and the rise of conceptual art). The film deftly unpacks themes without letting their weight distract from the film’s main thrust, as it does when it shows her discussing plans for Landing: Cantilevered Overlook (2008), an ongoing installation at the landfill–turned–city park Freshkills in Staten Island. Difficulties securing institutional funding for the Percent for Art commission coupled with red tape from city bureaucracy have kept the work from being realized. As the artist sorts through documentation for Landing to determine what to send to the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, which holds her papers, the exhaustion and frustration show clearly on her face. But central to it all is Ukeles at work, from cleaning the sidewalk, to talking to or shaking hands with maintenance workers, to worrying about funding.

Freilich keeps the editorializing to a minimum while still managing to expose the unconscious bias that operates within the systems that Ukeles works. The film zooms in, for example, on Ukeles’s time as an artist in residence with the NYC Department of Sanitation workers in the late ’70s and early ’80s. For her seminal Touch Sanitation Performance (1979–80), the artist documented her interactions with some 8,500 DSNY employees, or “sanmen,” across the five boroughs, as she shook their hands, interviewed them, and simply observed them. The groundbreaking partnership between an artist and a city agency helped to raise public sentiment and budgets for DSNY. But Ukeles’s footage from that era reveals the crux of her feminist concerns with the project. A veteran, explaining why DSNY staff feel undervalued, says that city residents don’t respect their work because “they think that we’re here to clean up their messes.” Debriefing that moment for the documentary, Ukeles points out the tension. She says, “If they were women would it be okay to hate them?”

But Maintenance Artist features mostly footage from Ukeles’s own archive and the artist’s narration. Freilich wanted to highlight the overlooked artist making ecofeminist, public art decades before it was popular after seeing Ukeles’s Queens Museum career retrospective in 2016. Staying so close to the artist’s point of voice means there are only a few moments that describe the impact of her work. Her collaborators at DSNY, the gallery representing her, and her family share their experiences with the artist at the time, but few interviews interrogate the work beyond its immediate impact.

The omission becomes evident at the end, where you would expect to see comments from contemporary artists or art administrators whom Ukeles inspired, either directly or indirectly. There would be no shortage of artists or administrators to pull. Ukeles’s unpaid work has grown into funded city programs such as NYC’s Public Artist in Residence program, established in 2015 during interviewee Tom Finkelpearl’s time as commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, or Los Angeles’s Creative Catalyst programs, which now intentionally pair artists with city agencies. The documentary also seems to ignore the abundance of social practice artists whose works Ukeles would have been in conversation with.

Similarly, other than a short description of Ukeles attending Vito Acconci’s Seedbed (1972) with her children, there is little information about her relationship with her children as her practice developed. After that experience, Ukeles left her children at home, working 16-hour sanitation shifts. Her children seem understanding of that decision but they don’t elaborate. The film never resolves if Ukeles’s Maintenance Art was the best solution for the two people who inspired her career. Instead, the, at times, myopic documentary seems so overwhelmed by the mere fact that the 86-year-old artist is still alive that it forgets to step back and look around. “We are all a maintenance worker,” Ukeles reminds us.

SPY SAGA

The U.K.’s ITV and Mammoth Screen have commenced production on “Betrayal,” a four-part espionage thriller exploring the psychological toll of modern intelligence work. BAFTA and Emmy-nominated director Julian Jarrold (“A Very Royal Scandal,” “This England”) helms the project, currently filming in Manchester and Liverpool.

Shaun Evans (“Endeavour,” “Vigil”) stars as John Hughes, an MI5 operative struggling with contemporary intelligence demands while his personal life crumbles. Olivier Award winner Romola Garai plays his partner Claire, a GP whose trust erodes under the strain of his secretive profession.

The ensemble includes Zahra Ahmadi, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Gamba Cole, and Omid Djalili, alongside television newcomers. Award-winning playwright David Eldridge penned the series. Eldridge has upcoming adaptations including John le Carré’s “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold” at Soho Place.

Produced by Irma Inniss (“Mr Loverman”), the drama follows Hughes’ investigation of a British-Iranian informant that turns deadly, triggering scrutiny from superiors. Executive producers include Mammoth’s Damien Timmer and Shaun Evans himself. “Betrayal” premieres on ITV1 and ITVX in 2026, with ITV Studios handling international distribution.

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Meanwhile, ITV Studios and Sri Lanka’s Sirasa TV have strengthened their partnership with renewed “Voice” franchise deals and the first-ever Asian commission of physical game show “Catchpoint.” Sirasa TV will produce third and fourth seasons of “The Voice Sri Lanka” and “The Voice Teens” respectively, airing this year. The format has become a cultural phenomenon since 2019, consistently delivering strong ratings.

“Sirasa Catchpoint” launches mid-July 2025, marking the show’s Asian debut. The U.K. version attracted 3 million viewers and 20.2% share on BBC One. The format combines quiz questions with physical action as contestants position themselves to catch falling balls for cash prizes. “The expansion of our partnership with Sirasa TV is a testament to the strength and versatility of our formats,” said Augustus Dulgaro, executive VP Asia Pacific at ITV Studios.

REALITY REVIVAL

Disney+ has commissioned a trio of U.K. unscripted series including a contemporary reimagining of dating format “Blind Date.” The 10×45′ series, executive produced by Matthew Worthy and Kieran Doherty for Stellify Media and Graham Stuart for SO TV, features contestants choosing from hidden suitors behind the legendary wall with new format twists.

The slate includes “The Rooneys” (10×40′), following Coleen and Wayne Rooney‘s family life as she pursues entrepreneurial ventures while he handles school runs. Lorton Entertainment and Blast Films produce the observational series.

“Jamie and Sophie: Raising Chelsea” tracks “Made in Chelsea” alumni Jamie Laing and Sophie Habboo navigating impending parenthood. Dorothy St Pictures produces in association with Jampot Productions. Sean Doyle, Executive Director Unscripted, commissioned all three series focusing on “female-skewed factual” programming.

STAGE SWEETHEARTS

The new London West End stage musical “50 First Dates” has announced its full cast for The Other Palace run from Sept. 14-Nov. 16. Georgina Castle (“Mean Girls”) stars as Lucy Whitmore, an artist with short-term memory loss, opposite Josh St. Clair (“Ghost”) as commitment-phobe Henry Roth in roles originated by Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler in the 2004 film.

The ensemble includes Georgia Arron (“Mean Girls”) as Sharon, John Marquez (“The Birthday Party”) as Marlin Whitmore, and Ricky Rojas (“Moulin Rouge!”) as Marco, among others. Multi-Tony winner Casey Nicholaw (“Mean Girls,” “The Book of Mormon”) directs the adaptation by David Rossmer and Steve Rosen (“The Other Josh Cohen”), featuring original songs exploring love and second chances. ATG Productions, Bad Robot Live, and Gavin Kalin Productions produce the romantic comedy about a man falling for a woman who forgets him nightly.

CHAT CHAMPIONS

Screen Players Film Club launches today on major podcast platforms, bringing film industry creatives into intimate conversation about beloved movies. Created by The Script Factory in partnership with Soho Square Studios and Olympic Studios, the PODSSS production features host Charlotte Bogard Macleod interviewing acclaimed talents like Sam Taylor-Johnson and Simon Beaufoy.

Most episodes record live at The Cinema in Selfridges before movie-loving audiences. Season One’s five episodes explore behind-the-scenes stories from “Nowhere Boy,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Conclave,” “Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love,” and “Drive.” Bastille’s Dan Smith composed the jingle and appears in episode four discussing his documentary-inspired tribute single “Leonard and Marianne.” The weekly series aims to offer insights into filmmaking processes from initial concept to screen realization.

PERUSE IT: Fostering its cultural approach to fashion and lifestyle, Miu Miu hosted the sophomore edition of its “Summer Reads” event this past weekend.

Held in in key cities around the world, such as Milan, Paris, Beijing, Hong Kong and Osaka, the literary initiatives took over green spaces in each location, including the Giardino delle Arti in Milan and the Chaoyang Park in Beijing.

Visitors were gifted copies of two literary classics selected by Miu Miu: the 1954 novel “The Inseparables” by the French existentialist Simone de Beauvoir and the 1957 novel “The Waiting Years” by Fumiko Enchi, the pen name for Fumi Ueda, one of the most prominent female authors of the Shöwa era in Japan.

The selected titles were wrapped in special Miu Miu packaging, customized with different colors and a dedicated bookplate, bookmark, reading clip and stamp for each location.

Both writers and titles are not new to Miu Miu. They were already selected last April for the second edition of the Miu Miu Literary Club initiative held during Milan Design Week. The goal was to promote literature and the arts with a schedule of talks, readings and live music performances to evoke the spirit of literary salons and artist collectives of yore.

Miu Miu’s Summer Reads is in sync with Miuccia Prada‘s wish to create a space for ideas and conversation around emancipation and women’s empowerment with the Miu Miu brand — in addition to directional and innovative collections.

In the same vein, for example, the Miu Miu Women’s Tales, the series of short films introduced in 2011, have been allowing women directors to speak up and offer their points of view, remaining one of the only consistent commissioning platforms exclusively for female filmmakers.

Similarly, the “Tales & Tellers” event, launched in Paris during Art Basel in October 2024 and replicated with a second installment last May in New York during Frieze Week, is billed as an intersection between “fashion, cinema and art,” which includes film commissions from Miu Miu’s Women’s Tales.