Magnolia Pictures Acquires ‘Joan Baez I Am A Noise,’ Plans October Release Of Revealing Doc On Folk Legend
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EXCLUSIVE: Magnolia Pictures has acquired worldwide rights to Joan Baez I Am A Noise, the feature documentary about the iconic folk singer directed by Miri Navasky, Maeve O’Boyle, and Karen O’Connor.
Magnolia plans an October 6 theatrical release of the film, which premiered at the Berlinale in February. Joan Baez went from Berlin to SXSW and recently served as the opening night film of DC/DOX. It is the closing night film for the Hamptons International Film Festival’s SummerDocs series on July 22.
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“Neither a conventional biopic nor a traditional concert film, this immersive documentary shifts back and forth through time as it follows Joan on her final tour and delves into her extraordinary archive, including newly discovered home movies, diaries, artwork, therapy tapes, and audio recordings,” notes a release from Magnolia. “Baez is remarkably revealing about her life on and off stage – from her lifelong emotional struggles to her civil rights work with MLK and a heartbreaking romance with a young Bob Dylan. A searingly honest look at a living legend, this film is a compelling and deeply personal exploration of an iconic artist who has never told the full truth of her life, as she experienced it, until now.”
“I Am a Noise is a beautifully cinematic exploration into the incredible life of one of our most cherished performers,” Magnolia Pictures co-CEOs Eamonn Bowles and Dori Begley said in a statement. “This is singular filmmaking presenting the story of a singular life.”
Co-director O’Connor said, “Magnolia Pictures is the perfect home for Joan’s powerful and deeply moving story. Miri, Maeve, and I are thrilled to bring her fiercely creative and committed life to audiences across the globe.”
Baez, 82, gave her first public concert in Boston at age 17. Her songs of social protest, sung in a thrumming vibrato, came to define the early 1960s. She and Dylan would become romantically attached in the early part of that decade and Baez was among the first to record his songs. Their pivotal relationship and breakup has become part of the lore of that momentous time in American culture.
Deadline spoke with Baez just before the documentary’s world premiere. “In this film we covered everything. But it was a journey,” Baez told us. “I’ve never let anybody into my life like that.”
Among the revelations in I Am a Noise is the crippling stage fright Baez experienced early in her career, even as she projected an image of serenity and self-possession. She also recounts dim memories of possible sexual impropriety or abuse committed by her father against Joan and her sister Mimi. And for the first time Baez goes into detail about experiencing dissociative identity disorder, commonly referred to as multiple personalities.
“I’ve never talked about it,” Baez told Deadline. “This will be the first indication anybody ever had.”
Joan Baez I Am a Noise is directed by Miri Navasky, Maeve O’Boyle, and Karen O’Connor and produced by Navasky and O’Connor, and edited by O’Boyle. Executive Producers are Greg Sarris, Patti Smith, Josh Braun, Ben Braun, and Terry Press.
The acquisition deal was negotiated by Magnolia co-CEO Dori Begley and SVP of Acquisitions John Von Thaden, with Josh Braun, Ben Schwartz, and Matt Burke of Submarine on behalf of the filmmakers.
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