Series: Music Mavens
ABOUT THE FILM
In Person: March 26
Virtual: Streaming March 31-April 13
At the height of the civil rights movement in the mid-1960s, teenage singer-songwriter Janis Ian’s hit song about an interracial relationship, “Society’s Child,” launched her illustrious career but also ignited controversy. Over the next six decades, Ian jammed with Jimi Hendrix, partied with Janis Joplin and duetted with Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson. But she also had to work to overcome hostility to her debut, homophobia, record industry misogyny, and a life-threatening illness to produce an indelible body of work that continues to draw large audiences around the globe.
JANIS IAN: BREAKING SILENCE chronicles the singer’s epic life journey from her Jewish childhood on a chicken farm in New Jersey through the release of the disruptive album “Breaking Silence,” which she leveraged to come out publicly as a lesbian. With access to Ian’s vast archive, family, friends, famed collaborators, and music journalists, this in-depth documentary balances the intimacy of a home movie with a sweeping historical and contemporary context.
Director Bio: View on IMDB
Award-winning director Varda Bar-Kar brings a global perspective to work exploring the complexity of the human condition in uplifting ways. Her documentary BIG VOICE (Netflix, 2015) takes a deep dive into the culture of artistic excellence fostered by Santa Monica High School choir director Jeffe Huls, and FANDANGO AT THE WALL (HBO/Max, 2020) follows Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra maestro Arturo O’Farrill to the US-Mexico Border for a binational fandango.
Community Sponsor: Congregation Beth Shalom
