Directed by Miri Navasky, Karen O’Connor, and Maeve O’Boyle, Joan Baez: I Am a Noise tells the story of the singer songwriter through modern interviews, and archival film clips and audio recordings, including therapy sessions, to look back at the moments that shaped her life and looking ahead at her future, aware that the end of her musical career looms. It’s a compelling exploration as Joan opens herself up to the audience and shares details about her life, from those well established during her time in spotlight and those newly revealed of a more personal nature.
Buy Joan Baez: I Am a Noise Blu-rayFrom her journal at the age of 13, Joan had an awareness she should help the less fortunate, ingrained from her family’s embrace of Quakerism and their traveling overseas where she saw the conditions in which others lived. This explains her call to activism, which went side by side with her music career. She stood up for and alongside minorities during the fight for civil rights in the United States. Being half Mexican, she also had to deal with racism directed at her. At 16, she began therapy due to suffering anxiety attacks, the source of which are unclear.
At 18, her folk-music performing led her to became an overnight sensation. Her sisters, older Pauline and younger Mimi, were also interested in becoming musicians. However, Joan cast such a large shadow so Pauline gave up while Mimi and her husband Richard Farina soldiered on until his death from a motorcycle accident in 1966. The audience gets to hear about the familial dynamics from both Joan and Pauline, the latter passing in 2016, which grows much more ominous as the film progresses.
I Am a Noise covers notable love interests, from her husband David Harris, an anti-Vietnam War activist who was imprisoned for draft resistance while she was pregnant with their son, Gabe; to a woman named Kim with whom she had a two-year relationship; and of course, Bob Dylan, of whom she says, they “changed each other’s lives and outlooks and music and careers.” She went to London with him for his 1965 concert tour and had her heart broken. She left and headed to Paris where she was rejuvenated. She would later join Bob’s Rolling Thunder Revue in 1975–76, but kept things between them professional.
Towards the end of the film, Joan reveals the darkness that beset her all her life comes from past abuse, including from her father which she buried until therapy revealed it to her. Her parents feel Joan’s therapist has caused her to experience False Memory Syndrome, even though Mimi makes the same claim. Unfortunately, the issue is never resolved for the family. By end of the documentary, all her immediate family is gone, leaving her alone, as she prepares for a new stage of life after concluding her farewell tour, which ended in 2019. There’s no sense of what’s to come, but Joan seems ready to face it, as she has done throughout her life.
The video has been a 1080p/MPEG-4 AVC encoded transfer, mostly displayed at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, but it varies with the source materials. The modern-day footage looks clean, with strong colors and a sharp focus. The archival footage is in good shape, taken from different film and video formats.
The audio is available in DTS-HD MA 5.1 and like the video, the quality varies depending on the source. The modern-day interviews sound clear. The audio recordings exhibit signs of age and wear. The music fills the surrounds, but it’s a shame we don’t get more of Joan’s songs, even as bonus material consider there’s only five music-based movie trailers for other Magnolia Home Entertainment titles included.
Although she made a bit of good noise in pursuit of social justice, Joan Baez is so much more than that, and Joan Baez: I Am a Noise reveals why her story, as a musician and as a woman, deserves to be shared. The Blu-ray delivers a fine high-definition presentation.
