Janis: Little Girl Blue is a poignant look at the life and career of one the great female icons in rock and roll, Janis Joplin. Directed by Amy Berg, the documentary focuses on a series of letters written by Joplin to her mother (narrated by Cat Power) throughout her meteoric rise to the top between 1966 to 1970. The film also telling interviews by those that loved her spirit, like Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead, along with those that knew her behind the bombastic energy she delivered on stage. Watch Dick Cavett's tongue and cheek anecdotes about Janis when she wasn't on his television show or D.A. Pennebaker give a play-by-play behind her performance at the Monterey Pop Festival.
The film, unlike Howard Alk's 1970 documentary, succeeds not only with Joplin's letters being the narrative thread throughout the film, but the use of rare footage by D.A. Pennebaker shows a different side to the Queen of Psychedelic Soul. During the Cheap Thrills recording sessions in 1967, Pennebaker filmed Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company molding their version of the Gershwin brothers' "Summertime" into a jarringly sweet hybrid of soul and acid rock. The footage showed Joplin not as a boozy, drug-addled diva but as someone musically intelligent and tenacious in getting the right note and the best take on a song.
In addition to Pennebaker's raw footage, film of Joplin's last days adds an emotional weight, such as when she's feeling uncomfortable in front of the press during her return to her hometown of Port Arthur, Texas, the town she fled from after her difficult childhood. Janis: Little Girl Blue does succeed in giving another perspective to Janis Joplin that shies away from the mythical ethos she gained after her death by managing to have her voice and her letters float above the speculative nature surrounding her short-lived life.
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