Janis: Little Girl Blue

With huge hits such as “Me and Bobby McGee” and four million albums sold following her death, blues singer Janis Joplin remains a role model for female rock artists to this day, including the singer P!nk. Joplin died of a heroin overdose in 1970 at the age of 27. This two-hour film packed with archive footage and interviews – with the star herself, her band, friends, ex-lovers and family members, including her sister Laura – provides the inside story on the human behind this wild and extroverted stage animal. The leitmotif is formed by extracts from the candid personal letters that Joplin wrote to her parents and loved ones, read aloud by singer-songwriter Cat Power. They reveal a woman yearning deeply for love; a woman wanting nothing more than to give herself to the world. As a child she was bullied, and as a teenager she never belonged with the pretty girls. Discovering her distinctive voice at the age of 17 seemed to mark the end of a difficult phase. We watch her as she performs with her first band, gets a standing ovation at the legendary Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, and lets loose at Woodstock in 1970. Sadly, her use of heroin was as constant as her success, and it proved to be fatal.