Joan Baez I Am A Noise

January 22, 2024

Showings 4:30, 7:00 and 9:10pm

U.S.A. | 2023 | Rated: PG | English | Documentary/Social Awareness/Music |113 minutes

Expansive in scope and deeply insightful, Joan Baez I Am a Noise offers an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at the iconic musician who was a central figure in the proliferation of folk music and countercultural activism in the 1960s.

At almost two hours, the amount of ground that the film covers is incredible, as is the diversity of material and techniques that the film’s directing trio uses to sustain and deepen our understanding of Baez, including radio interviews, therapy recordings, concert footage, home videos, and even illustrated depictions of diary entries, all pulled from various points throughout Baez’s 60-year career and history as a public figure.

In that time, we observe as the many roles that Baez is prescribed — by herself, her family, her romantic partners, and her peers — come into conflict with one another: artist, activist, leader, mother, sibling, and more. That the film avoids the trappings of hagiography is largely a testament to Baez’s own transparency and commitment to interrogating her own legacy as she embarks on her farewell tour.

The film notably dissects Baez’s ill-fated romance and artistic partnership with Bob Dylan; her friendship with Martin Luther King Jr., leading to her powerful performance at the March on Washington; and her complex relationship with her sisters Pauline and Mimi in their later years as they reckon with the abuses inflicted on them by their father. This is a monumental work about an artist whose impact spans generations.

“Anyone with an interest in the key artists of the counterculture movement will find much to appreciate here.”
–David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter