Janis Joplin was that rare pearl with a raw, original voice like no other. And when Joplin died at the young age of 27 in October 1970 from an overdose, the music world lost a bright star in its firmament.
With the new documentary, Janis: Little Girl Blue written and directed by Oscar-nominated director Amy J. Berg, people will get a chance to see Janis Joplin’s story and music through her own words.
The movie will open on November 27 in New York and December 4 in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Afterwards, it will be shown nationwide.
Janis Joplin: The little girl blue
The iconic singer-songwriter was known for her high, husky, explosive voice as she sang blues, soul, gospel, country, and rock with undeniable authority and verve.
Born in Port Arthur in Texas in 1943, Joplin described herself as a misfit in high school as she got into folk music and painting. Though she briefly attended college in Beaumont and Austin, she dropped out and headed to San Francisco in 1963.
There, she found herself in rowdy Haight-Ashbury where she met guitarist Jorma Kaukonen of the legendary San Francisco rock band Jefferson Airplane and recorded some songs.
Though she tried to continue her college course as a sociology student at Lamar University, she eventually traveled to California in 1966, where she joined the Haight-based psychedelic-rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company.
After some success, she left the band and went solo. She put together her own band, the Kozmic Blues Band, and later performed at the Woodstock festival. Together with another band, the Full Tilt Boogie Band, she joined the Grateful Dead, the Band, and other artists for the Festival Express railroad tour through Canada.
Her last recorded album, Pearl, was released posthumously the following year after she died. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and posthumously given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.
The life of Janis Joplin
Marking the 45th anniversary of her death, the documentary Janis: Little Girl Blue will show Joplin’s evolution into a star with concert sequences and studio footage.
It will be narrated in her own words, from letters she wrote her parents throughout the years as read by musician/actor Chan Marshall, also known as Cat Power.
Likewise, it will feature interviews with music industry veterans, collaborators, and close friends like Clive Davis, filmmaker DA Pennebaker, Kris Kristofferson, and founding Grateful Dead member Bob Weir, as well as Joplin’s younger siblings, Laura and Michael Joplin.
“She mostly preferred men. But when she got really close to somebody, she was fine with that. She was just looking for love. She wanted to be adored and comforted and loved,” Berg told Rolling Stone.
More importantly, this labor of love by Berg will examine Joplin’s story in depth, presenting an intimate and insightful portrait of a complicated, driven, and often beleaguered artist.
Check out Janis Joplin singing “Little Girl Blue” in the video below, as well as the trailer for the upcoming documentary.
