Milford Graves: Full Mantis is the first feature-length portrait of the renowned percussionist Milford Graves, exploring his kaleidoscopic creativity and relentless curiosity. Meet the film’s director Jake Meginsky—who was a student and collaborator of Graves—and receive a sneak peek of never-before-seen footage of Graves to be included in an upcoming film release with Criterion Collection. 

Also present for the evening will be musician and longtime Graves collaborator Hugh Glover, and Tatiana Graves-Kochuthara, Graves’s granddaughter.

Composer/filmmaker Jake Meginsky, a New Music USA award winner and Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellow in both music and film, has collaborated and performed with an extraordinary range of musicians including Milford Graves, Alvin Lucier, Joan La Barbara, Kim Gordon, Vic Rawlings, Greg Kelley, Bhob Rainey, Joe McPhee, Thurston Moore, William Parker, Daniel Carter, Paul Flaherty, John Truscinski, Arthur Brooks, and Bill Nace. His work has been presented widely and internationally, including Institute for Contemporary Art (London, UK), TUSK Festival (Newcastle, UK), BFI Southbank, (London, UK), IFFR Rotterdam, SXSW Film Festival, CPH:DOX, Click Festival (Copenhagen, Denmark), Deutsches Historisches Museum (Berlin, Germany), Laemmle Music Hall (Los Angeles), Counterflows (Glasgow), Standards (Milan), the Duolun Museum of Modern Art (Shanghai), Beijing Today Museum, Jinse Gallery (Chongqing, China), throughout New York City at The Kitchen, Lincoln Center, Metrograph, The Guggenheim, New York Live Arts, Joyce SoHo, Gibney Dance, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, Symphony Space, Judson Church, La MaMa, The Stone, The Flea Theater, Vision Festival, Roulette, Museum of Arts and Design, Center for Performance Research, Improvised and Otherwise Festival, and Northside Festival; in Boston at the Museum of Fine Art, Opensound Festival, The MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology, YDLMER Festival, Mobius Gallery, Le Laboratoire and the New England Complex Systems Institute; The Neurosciences Institute (La Jolla, CA), Context Art Fair (NYC & Miami), Experimental Music and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), and the Arts Center for the Capital Region (Troy, NY), and The Fisher Center for the Performing Arts (Bard College, NY).