HOW JOAN BAEZ FOUND PEACE

THE FOLK ICON TALKS ABOUT FAMILY, FORGIVENESS AND HEALING THROUGH ART

-  ILANA KAPLAN

For more than 60 years, Joan Baez hasn’t been afraid to raise her ethereal soprano voice, whether singing of love and loss or speaking up during the civil rights movement. So it should come as no surprise that her new documentary Joan Baez: I Am a Noise (in limited release Oct. 6) crafts such a stunningly candid portrait. “I had no idea how deeply people are affected by the fact that a famous entertainer will be as honest as I am,” Baez, 82, says of early reactions to the film, which looks back on her childhood trauma, prolific career and tumultuous love affair with Bob Dylan. “What I hear most is, ‘I can’t believe you said that.’” Now Baez is sharing how she learned to forgive and found peace while revealing painful details from her past. “I want to leave an honest legacy,” she says.