By Naomi Pfefferman
In Varda Bar-Kar’s documentary, “Janis Ian: Breaking Silence,” the guitar-wielding singer and hit songwriter describes a memorable evening at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville back in the 1990s. There she chanced to hear a musician from a strip-mining town in West Virginia perform a song about the Holocaust.
“I walked out of there feeling so ashamed that I hadn’t dared to write it, because I grew up with stories of the Holocaust,” Ian confesses in the documentary.
Ian broke into the cultural zeitgeist at the age of 14 with her song, “Society’s Child,” and went on to become a Grammy Award-winning artist. She had relatives who had been persecuted by the Nazis, and so she wrote her haunting song, “Tattoo,” which spotlights the lament of a concentration camp survivor.
The gay icon has written a song about gay murder victim Matthew Shepard and has also penned songs about fraught subjects like incest and teenage angst.
Ian, who is direct, down to earth and lives with her wife, Pat, on Anna Maria Island in Florida, told Jliving that she always wanted to be a Lamed Vavnik.
“I thought that would be a great thing,” she said, “to die and find out that you had been one of the just people holding up the Earth. Lamed Vavniks are not supposed to know they are Lamed Vavniks, but I think it’s an aspiration.”
The documentary traces how Ian grew up on a chicken farm in New Jersey as a “red diaper baby.” As a toddler, she attended meetings of the Yiddishist-socialist Workmen’s Circle, or Arbeiter Ring, with her father, a civil rights activist who was harassed by FBI agents who came knocking at the door because of his leftist leanings. Ian said he would slam the door in their faces if they arrived without a warrant.
The family was also musical, with Ian’s father serving as the concertmaster and choir director for various Jewish ensembles. She noted that a book on Jewish folklore served as her nightly reading material.
Ian (née Fink) received her first guitar at age 13 as a gift. A year later, she burst into the popular culture with her searing song, “Society’s Child,” about a doomed interracial romance. Some listeners were so offended by the topic that they spat at Ian, sent her death threats and heckled her during concerts, shouting that she was a N—— lover. Most radio stations in the country refused to play the song.
Along the way, Ian, now 73, endured her additional share of setbacks. In the 1970s, there was an abusive ex-husband. Some years later, she lost all her money and possessions after an accountant committed fraud with her funds. She lived in a seedy room and could not afford to visit her mother, who lived far away and was suffering from multiple sclerosis. Ian was later diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome. And several years ago, she developed scarring on her vocal cords and could no longer sing publicly.
When asked how she persevered during all these troubles, Ian was matter-of-fact: “You just get through it — what else can you do?” she told JLiving. “I don’t know if you have another choice.”
The documentary tells Ian’s story through the lens of collage techniques, archival photos and films, as well as in-depth interviews with musical luminaries such as Arlo Guthrie and Joan Baez.
Ian could be fierce. “My parent believed in fighting back,” she told JLiving. “In fifth or sixth grade, I used to have a girl following me home, calling me a ‘Christ-killer.’ And my mother, who was a pacifist otherwise, taught me how to throw a right hook. The next day, I threw a right hook into the girl’s solar plexus, right where my mother had taught me.”
While Ian was playing a few songs for record producer George “Shadow” Morton, he sat there reading a newspaper with his boots propped up on his desk. Ian promptly whisked out her lighter, lit his paper on fire and stormed out of the room. Morton ran out to catch her before she fled, and he went on to work closely with the artist.
Since she was 16, filmmakers have clamored to make a documentary about Ian. But, she said, “When you’re 16, it seems pretty stupid to make a film about your life. You haven’t lived much.”
Ian changed her mind only after she was approached by Bar-Kar, who had earned a reputation for producing and directing powerful documentaries about musical subjects. The director’s 2020 film, “Fandango at the Wall,” for example, revolves around a transformative musical gathering at the border between the United States and Mexico.
“We got very lucky that that film got picked up by HBO soon after completion,” Bar-Kar said. “And I started thinking about what I wanted to do next. I celebrate my Jewish identity, and a big part of why I made this film was that I wanted to make a movie about someone with whom I closely identify, and being Jewish was part of that. I wanted to create a portrait of a Jewish artist who has made a significant contribution to the American musical canon.”
Bar-Kar said that at the time, there was a lot of discussion about identity and representation. “So I was thinking of myself and whether I felt represented,” she said. “And I was also thinking, ‘What if I make a film with someone with whom I felt aligned … which I’d never done before. And I knew I wanted to make another music film because I’m just very fond of the alchemy of music and film.”
Bar-Kar, who now lives in Santa Monica, thought back to her high school years in New York, when she received a record player and Ian’s 1975 album, “Between the Lines.” In a JLiving interview, she described how she listened to the album over and over again, crying every time she heard it. One reason is that Varda, at the time, had grown up on three continents by age 10 and felt herself to be an outsider among her peers.
“I’m an immigrant,” Bar-Kar said. “I’m a product of the Jewish diaspora. I remember feeling so seen and heard by Janis’ music. There was this very, very deep connection that I’d felt so many years before, and it just rose up.”
When the filmmaker approached Ian about a documentary, the musician recalled, “Varda and me working together made a lot of sense. I was very clear that I wanted the film to reflect the times as much as reflecting on me personally — the time’s effect on my work and my work’s effect on the times.” Bar-Kar went on to make a short film about Ian to convince her to participate in the feature-length documentary.
“I wanted a rounded picture,” Ian said of the film. “I wanted Varda to talk not only to people who like me but also to people who dislike me.”
Bar-Kar said she has been struck by Ian’s “defiant resilience” while struggling with the calamities she has endured during her six-decade career.
“We’re still recovering from two hurricanes here,” Ian said of life today in Florida. “Everything got washed away on the ground floor, including my brand-new studio. All my guitars are still in the shop. I don’t really have anywhere or any time to work.”
Ian’s plan for this year is to “pretty much step down and just work on writing,” she added. “Songwriters write songs, so that’s still in the cards.”
“Janis Ian: Breaking Silence” will open in theaters in Los Angeles on April 4. For more information, visit greenwichentertainment.com