Joan Baez: I Am A Noise—the documentary covering the legendary folk singer’s 60-year career—premiered on October 6 in a limited run, but has recently been screened for a wider audience. The extension brought Lana Del Rey to Los Angeles’ Nuart Theatre to discuss the documentary with its star herself this weekend.
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Del Rey sat down with Joan Baez for a conversation about her decades-long career and to get her thoughts on the documentary, per a report from Rolling Stone. In her opening remarks, Del Rey called Baez “the toughest woman I have ever met,” and commented on the relatability of Baez’s experiences, from the struggles to the successes.
“The emotion you portray when you were 18 and now throughout the film is so relatable that it’s just been massively acclaimed already,” said Del Rey. “Just because of how specific your emotions were and how much solace people found in the vulnerability that you had in the film, which to me was the most unexpected thing.”
She also praised the cinematography and editing of I Am A Noise, declaring it a “classic film” and “absolutely striking.”
The Baez documentary spans her incredible career in folk music, but it also gets personal, addressing the decline of her mental health and her struggles during those years. Baez exploded onto the anti-war protest-folk scene in the 1960s when she was only 19 and endured debilitating panic attacks and anxiety early in her career. Baez gets candid in I Am A Noise, speaking emotionally about her mental health.
“The panic attack stuff started early,” she said, “and then the anxiety just heightened. I’d walk out on the stage, and they’d say, ‘Oh, she looks so peaceful.’ Exactly the opposite of what was going on inside.”
In an interview with The New Yorker in May, Baez elaborated on her experiences with anxiety. “I was always disciplined when I was younger,” she said. “I would tell myself to lighten up, but you can’t when you’re going from panic attack to panic attack. When I was light, it was wonderful; I had great capacity for silliness and enjoyment. But it couldn’t sustain itself.”
Baez also spoke about what she was most proud of in the film. “Seeing that tunnel and going through it and coming out on the other side,” she declared. “I mean, there are no phobias left, there are no panic attacks, the occasional ‘no,’ but nothing like the crippling stuff that it was for those years. So it takes work, but I would encourage anybody to deal with their demons at whatever level you possibly can.”
Del Rey was right: Baez is a tough woman, as shown in I Am A Noise. “On behalf of all female, passionate, empathetic singers, may I say that in that case, everyone here has witnessed a miracle,” said Del Rey. “And I’d like to thank Joan for being a blueprint in that way.”
She continued, “Because it’s nice to see someone’s trajectory from nervousness to letting everything happen on life’s timeline. It was life’s timeline. You never know when you’re gonna get to that point if you get to that point. And I just want to say thank you.”
Photo by MALI/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
