Directors Karen O’Connor, Miri Navasky, and Maeve O’Boyle spend time getting to know a folk music legend with their documentary Joan Baez I Am A Noise, a biographical film that should appeal nicely to fans and casual observers alike.
By the age of nineteen, Joan Baez – who is half Mexican – was a major singer-songwriter, and just two years later, she would be on the cover of Time Magazine. A boisterous music loving teen who struggled in school and suffered from panic attacks, Baez was often described as “the right voice at the right time,” providing part of the 1960s soundtrack for the civil rights movement and the ongoing protests in the war against Vietnam. Now in her late seventies and after sixty years in the music industry, Baez remains as strong a human rights advocate as ever, but she’s considering calling it a career. Joan Baez I Am A Noise captures the musician as she tries figuring out what the end of such a long career would look like, and looking back on the highs and lows that led to this point.
In terms of structure and execution, Joan Baez I Am A Noise follows a well worn biographical film template, and it’s a tad on the long side for this sort of things, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of great stuff in here that would appeal to a wider audience. With unprecedented access to Baez’ vast archives – including eye popping sketches from the artist herself and highly intimate recordings of therapy sessions – O’Connor, Mavasky, and O’Boyle paint a picture of a person who lived in service of an imperfect, sometimes unjust world. Through her words, music, and actions, Baez is shown as someone who was at their best whenever they stepped outside of themselves; a person who produced great works because it was never all about them. Baez has all the speaking power of a superstar, but she’s willing to be as raw as possible when it comes to certain topics, like her mental health or during an emotional return to Selma, Alabama, where the scars of Bloody Sunday still loom large.
It has the pleasing feeling of having a relaxed cup tea with someone famous trying to make sense of their legacy, but it’s also crucially never vapid or reductive in its approach to profiling a major celebrity.
Thursday, April 27, 2023 – 5:15 pm – TIFF Bell Lightbox 1
Friday, April 28, 2023 – 6:00 pm – TIFF Bell Lightbox 3
Saturday, April 29, 2023 – 11:30 am – TIFF Bell Lightbox 2
Thursday, May 4, 2023 – 9:15 pm – Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema
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