Janis (1974)

Interesting facts

Janis is a 1974 Canadian-American documentary film about the rock singer Janis Joplin. The film was directed by Howard Alk with much assistance from Albert Grossman, Joplin's manager. It was available on videocassette in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s, but DVD versions have been released only in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. In late 2011, it was added to Hulu's movie collection for online viewing. Part of the film soundtrack is included on the 1975 album Janis.

Production

Laura Joplin, the star's younger sister who contributed to the hit off-Broadway play Love, Janis (which was based on Laura's book of the same name), is seen and heard talking to Janis in television news footage from the ten-year reunion of Thomas Jefferson High School's class of 1960. Janis had graduated with the 1960 class of this high school in Port Arthur, Texas.

Though 1974 is listed as the year of the film's release to cinemas and its copyright year, a Washington Post review indicates that DC-area moviegoers had their first chance to see it in March 1975. Post critic Tom Zito opined that the film's total lack of narration and a dearth of captions, with all the talking done during Joplin's lifetime, made it tedious.

This film remains a major source of footage for basic and premium cable TV documentaries about Joplin—projects that do include narration and sound bite interviews with those who knew Joplin. When documentaries include film clips of Joplin at her 1970 high school reunion, the 1974 documentary Janis is the source. Color film of an eloquent interview with Joplin in London in 1969 (outdoors with the sounds of car engines) also originates from Janis.

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