JOAN BAEZ, I AM A NOISE

U.S.A. | 2023 | 113 min

Looking peachy at 82, Joan Baez mustered the courage and looked at her past, revealing in front of the film camera how she managed to balance her public image as a singer-songwriter, and symbol of counterculture, with a private dimension loaded with sorrow and never-solved family traumas. An untold truth, possibly because no one ever seemed to deserve to listen to it. Partly unusual biography, partly secret journal, the film co-directed by Baez’s friend Karen O’Connor with Miri Navasky and Maeve O’Boyle is like an intimate portrait combining several registers. Thus, the viewer is driven into the universe of a much loved and universally renowned artist who has not been fully understood. Perceived like a sanctified emblem of political commitment for too long, Baez’s darker side has always been overlooked. A brief passage is inevitably dedicated to her liaison with Bob Dylan, for whom Joan reserves a few, but important, words, that weigh down like (rolling?) stones. (e.s.)