THIRTEEN’s American Masters explores fifty years of folk legend and human rights activist Joan Baez in Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound, airing October 14 on PBS.
Watch a Preview
Features rare performance footage and candid interviews with David Crosby, Bob Dylan, ex-husband David Harris, Reverend Jesse Jackson, Roger McGuinn, and more
Joan Baez made her debut appearance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1959. Fifty years later she returned to that same Rhode Island stage on August 2, marking her and the festival’s 50th anniversaries. She is presently on a worldwide tour in celebration of her 50 years as a performer and in support of her Grammy-nominated CD, Day After Tomorrow.
In the first comprehensive documentary to chronicle the private life and public career of Joan Baez, American Masters examines her history as a recording artist and performer as well as her remarkable journey as the conscience of a generation in Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound, premiering nationally Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 8 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings). The film coincides with the DVD/CD release on October 13th on Razor & Tie. This DVD/CD will feature the film with bonus content and an audio CD of music from the film. The audio CD contains rare live performances and studio recordings that span her career.
“From an early age, Joan Baez had the courage of her convictions,” says Susan Lacy, series creator and executive producer of American Masters, a six-time winner of the Emmy Award for Outstanding Primetime Non-Fiction Series. “Her artistry and her commitment to human rights make her a musical and political force as relevant today as when she first started.”
Following Baez on her 2008/2009 world tour, the filmmakers captured Baez in performance as well as in intimate conversations with individuals whose lives parallel hers. From a stop in Sarajevo, Bosnia to revisit the scene of Joan’s courageous trip to that war-torn city in the middle of the 1993 siege, to Nashville, Tennessee, where she joined Steve Earle to talk about their collaboration on Joan’s 2008 Grammy-nominated album Day After Tomorrow, the film allows viewers an unprecedented level of access to Ms. Baez.
Shot in high definition with a natural, filmic look, Joan is also joined on screen by, David Crosby, Bob Dylan, Roger McGuinn and Reverend Jesse Jackson, among others, to illuminate this extraordinary life. Rich historical archival footage – Baez’ controversial visit to North Vietnam, where she is seen praying with the residents of Hanoi during the heaviest bombing of the war; Martin Luther King Jr. outside a California prison where he visited Joan to offer his support after she was jailed for staging a protest; Joan at her first Newport Folk Festival in 1959 and Joan as a teenager performing at the historic Club 47 – is woven into the story so viewers can experience scenes from Joan’s life that have never been uncovered.
The grit of the film is Baez’ power as a musician – from her tentative teenage years in the Cambridge, Mass coffee houses to her emergence onto the world stage and the 50-year career that followed – Joan Baez is a musical force of nature and this film captures her strength as a performer and the influence she has brought to bear on successive generations of artists.
Related: watch Joan Baez perform her rendition of Pete Seeger’s classic “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” for the crowd at Pete Seeger’s 90th Birthday Celebration at Madison Square Garden, presented by GREAT PERFORMANCES.
Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound is a co-production Razor & Tie Entertainment and THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG. The film is produced by Mark Spector and Mary Wharton and directed by Wharton. Susan Lacy is the series creator and executive producer of American Masters.
American Masters is produced for PBS by THIRTEEN. To take American Masters beyond the television broadcast and further explore the themes, stories, and personalities of masters past and present, the companion Web site (pbs.org/americanmasters) offers interviews, essays, photographs, outtakes, and other resources. American Masters is made possible by the support of the National Endowment for the Arts and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding for American Masters is provided by Rosalind P. Walter, The Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation, Jack Rudin, Rolf and Elizabeth Rosenthal, The André and Elizabeth Kertész Foundation, and public television viewers. Additional funding for Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound is provided by The Michael & Helen Schaffer Foundation.
I’m a 21 chinese student living in shanghai and I love joan’s music
Thank PBS for this video so i can learn about the times and events that I would have never known otherwise
Joan has the most beautiful voice and heart and she moved me in so many inexplicible ways
she’s truly a great artist her voice and spirit are so poweful that it passed through generations and oceans reaching me ,a 21-year old chinese.
I hope I can see her live someday
Thank you so much for the beautiful story of Joan Baez. I had to wait for the second, late night, broadcast to find a quiet evening to take it all in. The musicality was so lovely and consistent throughout the many years which were being portrayed. Through peaceful times, loving times, war, protests, and tragedies that georgeous tone kept me attentive and there with my TV. I was just a few years behind her in age and was highly influenced by her in the folk music era. Much appreciation to all who contributed to this excellence. The program is an example of what is lovely, what is admirable, what is excellent and praiseworthy, and Baez’s life is well worth celebrating.
This programme was broadcast recently on Sky Arts here in Ireland. I only got around to watching it last night. An incredible piece of documentary filmmaking. I can understand her anguish at the Vietnam memorial as she had campaigned so vigorously against the draft, and to see all the names of those wasted lives etched in stone permanently, combined with her own experiences of being bombed by her fellow countrymen while she was visiting North Vietnam is bound to have had a traumatic effect. It has been said that “all it takes for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing”. Joan Baez can hold her head up high and know, and anyone who saw this magnificent film will also know too , that she tried and continues to try to do something to stop the triumph of evil.
I just understood the fundamentals of Joan Baez and her work as if that was enough or all I needed to know. I’m so pleased I chanced on PBS airing American Masters to learn more of the gift she is to human writes and musician. This was an Epic woman! Such a deeply engaging person yet so humble and simple at the same time. Among the things I took away from the film were to live in freedom truly comes at a cost. And that if you believe in something and love what you do and stand for you will lead a life worth living.