Crumb premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 10 September 1994.
Terry Zwigoff had known Robert Crumb since the early 1970s (and was a member of R. Crumb and His Cheap Suit Serenaders) and made his first documentary (about musician Howard Armstrong) in 1985.
Zwigoff spent 9 years making the documentary (filming for 6 and editing for another 3), during which time he earned around $200/month, suffered from back pain, and claims to have slept with a loaded gun "trying to get up the nerve to kill myself."
Crumb is more than just a profile of an artist, however, but an uncomfortable look at mental illness, family dysfunction, sexual obsession, and the racism and misogyny apparent in Crumb's work. Zwigoff gave much credit to producer Lynn O'Donnell to helping him structure the documentary and provide necessary commentary.
The film received critical acclaim and earned numerous awards, including Grand Jury Prize Documentary at Sundance; Best Documentary by the National Board of Review, the Boston Film Critics, and the New York Film Critics; and Best Non-Fiction Film by the Los Angeles Film Critics and the National Society of Film Critics.
When it failed to receive and Academy Award nomination there was such an outcry that the Academy changed how nominees were selected. As Zwigoff stated, "the documentary membership was made up of distributors of documentary films. The rules have changed since then. But they would just vote for the films they distributed because it was in their financial interest to do so. I came to learn that later. At the time, I just assumed they were disgusted with the film."
It has been cited as one of the best films of the 1990s, and one of the best documentaries of all time.
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