During the 1960s, as a teenager, acclaimed American singer-songwriter Janis Ian used to jam with Jimi Hendrix in Greenwich Village bars and partied with Janis Joplin, who jokingly called herself “the other Janis.” During the 70s, Janis befriended Bruce Springsteen as they simultaneously recorded albums at the same studio. In the 80s, she played duets with Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson in Nashville.

Janis Ian: Breaking Silence chronicles the singer’s epic life journey beginning with her Jewish childhood on a chicken farm in New Jersey; her youthful struggle with notoriety following her hit “Society’s Child” (about an interracial love); her ascent to fame with the single “At Seventeen” (about body shaming); and her release of the disruptive album Breaking Silence which she leveraged to come out publicly about her loving relationship with her wife Pat Snyder.  With access to Ian’s incredible body of music, her vast archive, family, friends, famed collaborators, and music journalists, the result is an in-depth musical film, told in three acts, with the intimacy of a home movie set against a sweeping historical context and presented through a contemporary lens.

This screening is held in the Historic Duncan Auditorium. This space utilizes open seating for this event, seat selection is not required.