{"id":106961,"date":"2023-10-13T18:38:07","date_gmt":"2023-10-14T01:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=106961"},"modified":"2023-12-05T18:39:34","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T02:39:34","slug":"asr-film-new-documentary-on-joan-baez-shows-three-lives-public-privateand-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/asr-film-new-documentary-on-joan-baez-shows-three-lives-public-privateand-secret\/","title":{"rendered":"ASR Film ~~ New Documentary On Joan Baez Shows Three Lives: Public, Private\u2026and Secret"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Woody Weingarten<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The documentary film<\/strong> Joan Baez: I Am a Noise<\/em> appears to check all the right boxes, revealing three lives of the iconic singer\/protester and civil rights activist.<\/p>\n

The Public:<\/h4>\n

\u2022 Becoming world-famous overnight as a barefoot thrush at age 18 and having Time<\/em> magazine plaster her face on its cover.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Being immersed in a relationship with then unknown songwriter\/singer Bob Dylan and helping catapult his career, only to have him break her heart (\u201cIt was horrible.\u201d)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Being married for five years to David Harris \u2014 an icon in the anti-Vietnam War movement whose outcries led him to be jailed for more than a year \u2014 and having a son with him.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Relishing the marches where she accompanied Martin Luther King Jr. (\u201cNonviolent action is what I was born for\u201d).<\/p>\n

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The Private:<\/h4>\n

\u2022 Having at least two mental breakdowns and dealing with decades of almost constant sensations of panic, depression, inadequacy, insecurity, and loneliness (she describes herself as \u201ca personalized time bomb\u201d and her inner life as \u201cdark, dark, dark\u201d).<\/p>\n

\u2022 Experiencing midlife torment when her \u201ccareer plunged into the abyss.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Agonizing because her two sisters, Mimi (Farina) and Pauline, distanced themselves from her, unable to live in the shadow of a star.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Enduring racial slurs as a child because her physicist\/inventor dad was Mexican and she, therefore, was \u201chalf-Mexican\u201d and \u201cthought I was inferior to the white kids, the rich kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Savoring a two-year lesbian relationship (\u201cShe was more feral than I\u201d).<\/p>\n

\u2022 Accepting the fact that her son, Gabe, still bemoans her frequent absences because she was \u201ctoo busy saving the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Secret:<\/h4>\n

\u2022 Finding her father\u2019s alleged sexual abuse (which she unearthed during hypnotherapy) \u201cbone-shattering.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The film stitches all that together, nearly seamlessly, yet might still leave a viewer with the sense that something\u2019s missing, that some of the in-depth excursions into her psyche dig down only about 85 percent and that the most difficult truths are still covered. It\u2019s not unlike checking out the headlines of a story rather than reading it all the way through.<\/p>\n

Truly vulnerable moments are few in Joan Baez: I Am a Noise<\/em> \u2014 the title, not incidentally, stems from a journal entry from her 13-year-old incarnation in reaction to being likened to the Virgin Mary, \u201cI am not a saint, I am a noise.\u201d Two stand out. Most moving is when she lovingly caresses her mother\u2019s face on her death bed. Another is when she\u2019s photographed taking off all her makeup.<\/p>\n

But oddly absent from the film \u2014 which is distributed by Magnolia Pictures and deftly inserts Baez\u2019s home movies, artwork (her originals as well as someone else\u2019s animations), journal entries, and, surprisingly, therapy tapes \u2014 are:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Her multi-tune appearance at Woodstock.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Her two-year relationship with Steve Jobs.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Full-song performances (the doc does contain many, many fragments).<\/p>\n

\u2022 Humor (one rare inclusion is her imitating Dylan imitating her).<\/p>\n

Baez, who\u2019s followed around \u2014 almost reality TV-like \u2014 during her final tour at age 79 (she\u2019s now 82), admits she likes being the center of attention. Even now, although she says her once pure voice has turned \u201craggedy.\u201d That craving, the doc demonstrates, is evident when she dances to street drummers when no one else is dancing.<\/p>\n

The singer, who attended Palo Alto High School and now lives in Woodside in San Mateo County, also enjoyed making tons of money when she was young, despite her father dissing her because he\u2019d always had to work harder for it. She particularly enjoyed literally tossing $100 bills at him and the rest of her family.<\/p>\n

Regarding her dad, who denied inflicting any abuse, she tells the filmmakers \u2014 Miri Navasky, Karen O\u2019Connor, and Maeve O\u2019Boyle (who also deserves major accolades for her editing skills) \u2014 that if only 20% of what she remembers about the abuse is true, that\u2019s damning enough.<\/p>\n

Baez doesn\u2019t only point fingers at her father. She, who says she\u2019s been diagnosed as having multiple personalities, confesses that she\u2019s simply \u201cnot great at the one-on-one relationships \u2014 I\u2019m great at one-on-2,000.\u201d<\/p>\n

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When all\u2019s said and done, Joan Baez: I Am a Noise<\/em> is a fascinating portrait of somebody we thought we knew but didn\u2019t. Though it\u2019s possibly 20 minutes too long, it\u2019s definitely like having a backstage pass into all three of her lives.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s ending is clearly intended to show her finally at peace, but it feels too posed, too contrived, as she dances \u2014 eyes closed \u2014 with her dog as she recites lines from a Robert Frost poem that indicates she\u2019s not done yet (\u201c\u2026miles to go before I sleep\u201d).<\/p>\n

-30-<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>ASR Senior Writer<\/strong> Woody Weingarten is a voting member of the S.F. Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/p>\n

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Joan Baez: I am a Noise<\/strong><\/h3>\n