Janis Ian: Breaking Silence
Varda Bar-Kar
2024, 114 mins.
“I’m still standing here”
Being just one year my senior and both of us devoting most of our lives to music, how fascinating that I had never heard of this singer-songwriter icon until viewing this wide-ranging film (not surprising given that most of my musical pursuits were on the classical and traditional jazz sides).
The creator of such hits as “Society’s Child” and “At Seventeen” (to name just a couple), is lovingly presented from babyhood to maturity. Along the journey are a covey of recollections/interviews/testimonials ranging from early adopter Leonard Bernstein (replete with his own dulcet tones), Joan Baez, Lily Tomlin and Arlo Guthrie as well as insights and recollections from recording collaborators and several love interests of both sexes—the last culminating in a Toronto marriage to Patrica Snyder. Ian’s motto, deftly set to music “Love where you can and fuck all the rest” readily sums up her life off and sometimes on the stage.
Like all of these music-bio pics, neophytes and avid fans will be disappointed by the inclusion of so many memorable songs, but virtually none of those being heard from stem to stern. Without a doubt, Ian has remarkable talent for crafting haunting melodies and telling lyrics (How can love be wrong?), but the musical gem (demanding an immediate search of the archives) is Nina Simone’s all-too-brief cover of “Stars” (see/hear for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=995S1v-yHE4.
An unrepentant civil right advocate (surprisingly at first as “Society’s Child” broke down black/white barriers, for some; coming out—at last—as a lesbian later in life), able to survive the all-too-common ups and downs of a storied career (from a cheating manager to fickle labels and serious health issues), Ian’s life and work are to be admired and cherished by all who know truth when they hear it. JWR
We Are Guardians
Chelsea Greene, Rob Grobman, Edivan Guajajara
2025, 84 mins.
“Without the forest we are nothing”
Here’s a film that ought to be required viewing for all elected or public officials (alongside any other human being that gives a whit about the planet) so that one and all might possibly learn just what is at stake for all of us if our life-continuing natural habitats are systemically destroyed in the name of worldwide profit and greed.
It’s a fascinating mix of onsite Indigenous guardians battling unscrupulous loggers/poachers with largely ignorant Brasilia-based politicians led, for most of the production, by Jair Bolsonaro then happily eclipsed (finally) by Lula da Silva.
Lots of situations are deftly documented (from the guardians sporting arrows to the illegal loggers just wanting to make a buck then live to tell the tale). But too many of us, thousands of miles away, will just say, “Oh what a pity”, completely (some purposely) oblivious to the fact when one of Nature’s Co2’s strongest deterrent loses its “mojo”, the rest of planet will come ever closer to its last breath.
Ignore this timely warning at your peril! JWR