Singer-Songwriter Janis Ian helped pave the way for modern songwriters. Where would today’s confessional singers be without ballads like “At Seventeen,” not to mention the groundbreaking classic “Society’s Child?”
A compelling new documentary, Janis Ian: Breaking Silence, directed by Varda Bar-Kar, opens at the Jane Pickens Film and Event Center on April 3. The film goes beyond the typical “rock doc,” exploring the full context of the singer’s work and times.
Best known for her 1975 Grammy Award winning hit “At Seventeen,” one of the most honest songs ever penned, Ian faced often overwhelming challenges through an almost 60-year career, always doing things her way, even if that meant setting a producer’s newspaper on fire when he ignored her. She even got booed offstage once, à la Bob Dylan, (courageously returning after a few minutes), just one of the career highs and lows she endured, bouncing back each time with a renewed sense of purpose. Without a doubt, she is a profile in courage.
I spoke to Ian by phone recently to learn more about the new film. She explained how the idea evolved. “People have been offering to do documentaries of my life since I was 16,” she said. “It’s not something that’s ever been of great interest to me. But as I got older, I started thinking, well, there’s a lot to pass on here. I started considering offers, and Varda contacted me, but my initial reaction was no, I don’t think this is a good idea.”
But Bar-Kar, best known for her short film Window, her viral video What Kind of Planet Are We On?, convinced Ian to move forward. “It was the start of COVID and she said, look, I’ll put on a hazmat suit and fly down,” she laughed. “And I said no, you won’t do anything like that. She sent me links to both of her previous films, which I thought were pretty wonderful, and I just started feeling better and better as I spoke with her. It gave me a visual of what it could be. I have been adamant that I didn’t want the whole film to be a puff piece. I wanted it to be about the times that I came up in as much as about me.”
The finished product certainly reflects Ian’s wishes. “I love the opening of the film where she goes into the Civil Rights footage, I thought that was that was really, really strong,” she explained. “I was pleased with that.”
Indeed, Ian was present at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, when she penned her most provocative song, “Society’s Child,” about an inter-racial relationship in 1965, when the subject was still taboo in many parts of the country. (This was several years before the Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court decision, which found laws banning interracial marriage unconstitutional.)
These days, Ian maintains a progressive political stance, and is quite busy on social media criticizing the current administration and promoting a forward-thinking agenda. Although times may be tough, she’s an optimist at heart, and is hopeful things will improve.
“I try to look through a long lens,” she explained. “So when I get discouraged by politics, like right now, I try to remember HUAC (House Un-American Affairs Committee) and I try to remember that the Klan had a rally at Madison Square Garden. Things change and things seem to go in a pendulum, swing hard one way, then swing the other way.”
Although the current political landscape is certainly challenging for artists, Ian pointed out that a lot has changed since the early 1960’s, a time when women could not purchase a home, obtain a credit card, or even open a bank account. “I think the film really captures the resilience of a lot of people in my generation, I mean, if the film is about anything to me, it’s about resilience,” she added.
Ian recalled facing pushback early in her career, after “Society’s Child” was released. “In the film, Arlo Guthrie talks about clubs that were afraid to book me because of the potential blowback,” she noted. “I found out years later that a radio station in Atlanta had been burned down for playing it.”
She recalled bringing home an acetate recording of the song. “My dad and I listened to it, and he said that I was going to have a lot of problems. I thought he was just being protective and overreacting, as it turned out, he was underreacting if anything.”
“I mean, I did what you do when you’re a kid and you’re faced with something absurd and frightening,” Ian continued. I just kept going and that’s all you can do. You know, I don’t really understand the part about courage because you just keep going… what other choices are there?”
Her perseverance is indeed remarkable – Ian never gives up. Singing about same-sex marriage in the 1990’s, she realized she could educate her audience along the way.
“I have a song called ‘Married in London’ that is about gay marriage and it’s very funny. I originally had it in the first half of my show, and I got walk-outs,” she explained. “People would get annoyed and leave. But when I put it into the second-half of the show, they already knew me, they knew I wasn’t going to preach at them. And they stayed. But it was interesting that the topic was still so hot-buttoned that people would actually take offense. I don’t think things change that much.”
She recalled her experience at the Newport Folk Festival in the late 60’s, where she was initially snubbed for being too young, and later, in the 1980’s, criticized by late producer Bob Jones for using a guitar pedal. “I used a wah-wah pedal and he was so furious that he wouldn’t let me go back for my encore,” she recalled. “And he told me I would never play Newport again. But then Tom Rush, who was playing Newport the next year heard about it, and I played with him.”
No doubt, the film is about perseverance, and how times change, thanks to the efforts of artists like Janis Ian. Click here for tickets to the April 3 screening at Jane Pickens.