There is nothing that humanizes and equalizes a superpower superstar like Janis Joplin more than hearing the letters she wrote home to her parents as a teen and young woman. In these letters she asserts her independence, shares news of her life, good and bad, and apologizes for being her own rebellious, free, and ambitious self in San Francisco and beyond, a far way from her small hometown of Port Arthur, Texas, where she was bullied, squashed, and judged, including for her equal treatment of people across the racial divides of her day.
Through Janis' letters that begin, "Dear Family," as well as those to her fellows, friends, and lovers, the filmmaker offers the audience a moving portrait of Janis' personal and professional life. Her huge singing voice, which surprised her when was seventeen, is generously on display in concert footage showcasing the soulful, bluesy, psychedic rock and roll music Janis sang, purred, and belted out in her unique and monumental way. Having snippets of these letters read by musician Cat Power in such an authentic, heartfelt, and wistful way elicits quite an impact.
Janis' loving heart, indomitable spirit, passion for being on stage and having a conversation with the audience, and her vulnerabilities - the little girl aspect - are presented in a forthright way. I feel like I know her somehow by her choices, (brave to insecure), which make sense in the context of her life. Interviews with her sister and brother, Laura and Michael, members of Big Brother and the Holding Company, and more, add depth to this project as we follow her quest for stardom, rise to fame at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, and a varied narrative of joy, success, boldness, hesitation, and worry, all in relation to being true to herself and growing as a musician, baby.
I enjoyed the cameos by Dick Cavett, whereas the snippets of musicians who didn't know her personally detracted a bit from the film for me, but they didn't away much from the main material that delivered a stunning profile of an extraordinary musical artist and cultural icon. Janis' life story, of course, is bittersweet, because she died so young from a heroin overdose at only twenty-seven years old. I came away from this movie thinking more about her life than her death. She lives on through her remarkable music and legacy.
I watched Janis: Little Girl Blue for free on YouTube.
Through Janis' letters that begin, "Dear Family," as well as those to her fellows, friends, and lovers, the filmmaker offers the audience a moving portrait of Janis' personal and professional life. Her huge singing voice, which surprised her when was seventeen, is generously on display in concert footage showcasing the soulful, bluesy, psychedic rock and roll music Janis sang, purred, and belted out in her unique and monumental way. Having snippets of these letters read by musician Cat Power in such an authentic, heartfelt, and wistful way elicits quite an impact.
Janis' loving heart, indomitable spirit, passion for being on stage and having a conversation with the audience, and her vulnerabilities - the little girl aspect - are presented in a forthright way. I feel like I know her somehow by her choices, (brave to insecure), which make sense in the context of her life. Interviews with her sister and brother, Laura and Michael, members of Big Brother and the Holding Company, and more, add depth to this project as we follow her quest for stardom, rise to fame at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, and a varied narrative of joy, success, boldness, hesitation, and worry, all in relation to being true to herself and growing as a musician, baby.
I enjoyed the cameos by Dick Cavett, whereas the snippets of musicians who didn't know her personally detracted a bit from the film for me, but they didn't away much from the main material that delivered a stunning profile of an extraordinary musical artist and cultural icon. Janis' life story, of course, is bittersweet, because she died so young from a heroin overdose at only twenty-seven years old. I came away from this movie thinking more about her life than her death. She lives on through her remarkable music and legacy.
I watched Janis: Little Girl Blue for free on YouTube.