HamptonsFilm, the home of the Hamptons International Film Festival, has announced that the third and final screening in the 15th annual SummerDocs Series will be “Joan Baez I Am a Noise,” a film by Karen O’Connor, Miri Navasky and Maeve O’Boyle. The film will screen on Saturday, August 13, at 7 p.m. at the Regal UA East Hampton Cinema. O’Connor and the film’s subject, Joan Baez, will be in attendance. (Note: This screening was originally scheduled July 22, but due to unforeseen circumstances, had to be postponed. Ticketbuyers will receive an email with options.)
“Joan Baez I Am a Noise” follows legendary singer and activist Joan Baez as she faces the end of a 60-year musical career and takes an honest look back and a deep look inward as she tries to make sense of her large history-making life. In doing so she reveals, for the first time, personal struggles she’s kept private. Neither a conventional biopic nor a traditional concert film, this immersive documentary shifts back and forth through time as it follows Baez on her final tour and delves into her extraordinary archive, including newly discovered home movies, diaries, artwork, therapy tapes and audio recordings.
Throughout the film, Baez is remarkably revealing about her life on and off stage — from her lifelong emotional struggles to her civil rights work with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 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.
“Joan Baez is a true musical force and an icon, and this documentary expertly captures the full breadth of her more than half-a-century career,” said HamptonsFilm Artistic Director David Nugent. “It is an honor to welcome her to the Hamptons to share the intimate details of her incredible story.”
Following the film, Joan Baez and Karen O’Connor will join the avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson for an intimate conversation. Anderson is a writer, director, composer, visual artist, musician and vocalist who has created groundbreaking works that span the worlds of art, theater, experimental music and technology.
“To have two pioneering creatives on stage together feels like a fever dream,” said HamptonsFilm Executive Director Anne Chaisson. “SummerDocs was created 15 years ago to celebrate what is now a most beloved art form — documentaries. We are ecstatic to end our 15th season showcasing a conversation between these two activists and engineers of social change.”
The 2023 SummerDocs series kicked off on June 26 with a screening of MTV Documentary Films’ “The Eternal Memory” directed by Maite Alberdi, followed on July 8 by Netflix’s “The Deepest Breath” directed by Laura McGann. In recognition of the landmark 15th annual series, HamptonsFilm will also present one of these films with the SummerDocs Audience Award, voted on by the Hamptons’ film-loving community.
Many past SummerDocs Series selections have gone on to be shortlisted, nominated and even win an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film, including “Navalny” (2023), “Fire of Love” (2023), “Summer of Soul” (2021), “Icarus” (2017), “Twenty Feet From Stardom” (2013), “Searching for Sugar Man” (2012) and “The Cove.” (2009). The series has also featured films from filmmakers including Sara Dosa, Fisher Stevens, Rory Kennedy, Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, Davis Guggenheim, Andrew Rossi, Chiemi Karasawa, Jesse Moss, Morgan Neville, Marina Zenovich, Louie Psihoyos and Steve James.
Tickets for the screening are $35 at hamptonsfilmfest.org.
Staff Writer on Jul 10, 2023