The seventh annual Houston Cinema Arts Festival
opened with a winner, the premiere of the documentary, Janis: Little Girl Blue,
directed by Amy Berg and produced by Alex Gibney. Janis Joplin from Port Arthur, Texas, was a rock star in the
‘60s, who could shock others with her talent as well as her sassy
personality. The documentary lends
a full picture of the artist and the person; the artist as incredibly talented
and driven and the person as someone who was misunderstood her whole life by
many (although not by those who really knew her). I kept thinking of Bob Dylan’s song, “Just like a Woman”
(“She aches just like a woman, but she breaks like a little girl”). Janis was complex—very intelligent in
her charisma, creative in her lifestyle and in her work, suffering from
rejection from the time she was young and took unpopular stands (such as for
integration in the Civil Rights era), and still warm, caring, and sincere. She retained a child-like naïveté
throughout her short life. Yet,
I’m sure she exhausted anyone who got close to her with the force of her energy
and will.
It was fortuitous that Janis’ father suggested
to his wife before she got pregnant with Janis, “Let’s do something for prosperity.” This happened, but not in a way that he
ever imagined. And Janis’ early
life would not suggest that she could ever achieve what she did. She was teased unmercifully in school
because she didn’t fit the mold of girls in the ‘50s; and when she came out for integration, she was literally
targeted by the Ku Klux Klan. Even
later, when she moved to California, a fraternity ran her for “ugliest man” and
she won. Her childhood friend,
Dave Moriarty, says this time it
pained her so much she wept.
But by virtue of her talent—and perhaps as well
the force of her personality—Janis found success. Her first band, the Big Brother Holding Company (BBHC),
brought her to fame, most notably at the Monterey Pop Festival where she
received a long standing ovation, but they were also what she needed in terms
of fatherly figures who provided guidance. Her career exploded when the group signed with Columbia
Records and had a gold album. But
then, her fame created friction within BBHC, and she went with a series of groups
after that. By this time, she was
injecting heroin, which affected her performance at Woodstock, although she
still won acclaim there.
Amy Berg’s film is a valuable account of an
unlikely heroine who overcame incredible odds to achieve fame and some
fortune. It gives us a fleshed-out
picture of the artist as well as the person revealed in her letters; interviews
with family, lifelong friends, and lovers; and recording sessions and concerts. Berg achieved a wonderful balance
between biography and music, and in the discussion session post screening said
that she hoped people would come to know Janis better from listening to her
music as much as her biography. She
won applause at the end of the discussion when she said she wanted to
counteract the tendency to regard female rock stars differently from
males. That is, when people like
Jimi Hendrix are talked about now, it’s about their accomplishments, whereas
with Janis and Amy Winehouse, for instance, the subject is more about
overdosing on drugs.
The emphasis on letters Janis wrote to capture
some of her personality was a wise choice, as well as the film being narrated
by Cat Power, whose voice resembles Janis’ so much even Cat’s band members
heard the voice of Janis during Cat’s readings in the film.
An enlightening account of the life and
person of an artist: Janis Joplin
Grade: A By
Donna R. Copeland
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