Janis Ian: Breaking Silence

In the mid-60s, Janis Ian, a teenage singer-songwriter from New Jersey, scores a controversial hit single called “Society’s Child,” about an interracial love relationship. The song launches her illustrious career but also ignites death threats, plunging her into an emotional tailspin–only to emerge from the ashes in the 1970s with an even bigger hit, “At Seventeen,” ahead of its time in confronting lookism and bullying. Janis overcomes significant obstacles–embezzlement, record industry misogyny, and heartbreak–to find love and produce an indelible body of searingly honest songs that earn her a devoted following and critical acclaim.

JANIS IAN: BREAKING SILENCE chronicles the life, music, and times of maverick singer and songwriter Janis Ian. In addition to rare historic TV and concert footage, it features interviews with industry friends and contemporaries Lily Tomlin, Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, Tom Paxton, Laurie Metcalf and Jean Smart. The film examines Ian’s teen years on the vibrant Greenwich Village folk scene jamming with legends Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. Her anthem about interracial love, “Society’s Child,” made her a star at 16 but also earned her radio bans across America. Her 1975 megahit “At Seventeen” was a comeback that took Ian to the height of fame and earned her many industry awards. But the joy was fleeting. In the 1980s, beset by financial difficulties, Ian moved to Nashville and reinvented herself in the music world, dedicating herself to a new life and mission.

The screening celebrates June as LGBTQ Pride Month and will be co-hosted by Eve Papp, President of the New Paltz Pride Coalition.