Janis Ian: Breaking Silence | Dir: Varda Bar-Kar | ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Most people know Janis Ian from her songs At Seventeen, Jesse and Fly Too High that were covered by, among others, Celine Dion, Roberta Flack, Nina Simone, Dusty Springfield and Bette Midler.
Now, at 73 years old and happily married to her long-time partner Patricia Snyder, singer-songwriter Janis Ian talks to Varda Bar-Kar about fighting for the right to love who you want. “It’s not about who you love, but if you can” her song lyrics remind us.
Ian was just 14 when she wrote Society’s Child about inter-racial relationships. Even though Bob Dylan had said times were a changing, her song was banned from most radio stations because of the ‘controversial content’ of inter-racial romance.
The child of Jewish chicken farmers in New Jersey had to learn how to deal with the backlash of expressing her beliefs in a simple song at a time when “it could cost you your life to express your love to the wrong person”.
Then there was Bill Cosby – the comedian who in recent years has faced a string of allegations about sexual misconduct. He decided to inform the media that 15-year-old Ian, who had never had a sexual relationship, was a lesbian as she wasn’t “suitable family entertainment”.
Being asked to leave school in year 10, at least she got to practice guitar riffs with Jimi Hendrix who was 9 years older and had also dropped out of high school. They would also take drugs and go club-hopping together.
Eventually Ian stripped away everything she had been taught she was and became true to herself. Ian did not officially acknowledge her sexuality until she revealed it on her 1993 album Breaking Silence.
With access to Ian’s vast archive, interviews with family, friends and collaborators and seamless re-enactments imagined by the director, Ian is finally able to tell her story.
This memorable documentary of singer, songwriter, freedom fighter Janis Ian: Breaking Silence is one of the highlights of this year’s Jewish International Film Festival at Luna Leederville. It screens on Sunday 15 December in a Festival that only runs from 14-22 December.
Lezly Herbert
