Folk singer and activist Joan Baez is the subject of a new documentary, Joan Baez I Am a Noise, which contains a gold mine of archival materials. — the new documentary about folk music legend Joan Baez — was supposed to chronicle the 82-year-old's final tour.
Baez never wanted the film to be a hagiography. In fact, she was determined for it to be an honest portrayal of her life and career "down to warts and wrinkles." She adds that making this kind of film wouldn't have been possible if her parents and sisters were still alive. "Some things were just too sorrowful to even think about," she tells Power. "My father saying, 'I wish we were closer. I love you. Goodbye, honey.' You know, each time I hear it, it's just heart-wrenching. My son as well — for all the years we've had to make up for it — when he was little, I saw the degree to which he felt that his mother's presence was a non-presence. Those were important things for me to hear.
"He was an extraordinary individual … nobody else could give us songs like that," she says. "I'll joke about him because he's a nutcase … but I have nothing bad to say."