Joan Baez: I am a Noise is an unusually intimate psychological portrait of legendary folk singer and activist Joan Baez. Neither a conventional biopic nor a traditional concert film, this immersive documentary shifts back and forth through time as it follows Joan on her final tour and delves into her extraordinary archive, including newly discovered home movies, diaries, artwork, therapy tapes, and audio recordings. Throughout the film, Baez is remarkably revealing about her life on and off stage – from her lifelong emotional struggles to her civil rights work with MLK and a heartbreaking romance with a young Bob Dylan. A searingly honest look at a living legend, this film is a compelling and deeply personal exploration of an iconic artist who has never told the full truth of her life, as she experienced it, until now. We open Joan Baez: I am a Noise this Friday at the Claremont, Glendale, Newhall, NoHo and Town Center.
Scott Simon of NPR recently spoke with Baez for an interview. It began this way:
SIMON: This film is searingly and, I bet at times, uncomfortably personal. Why did you want to do it?
BAEZ: A number of reasons. I wanted to leave an honest legacy of myself, and I trusted – Karen O’Connor has been a friend of mine for years, so I knew where to put my trust, and I was right in doing so. I think mainly wanting to be honest and straightforward because – you know why? ‘Cause I got nothing to lose now.