Following its screening at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Janis Joplin documentary Janis: Little Girl Blue has been acquired by FilmRise for distribution in the United States.
The film was written and directed by Oscar nominated filmmaker Amy Berg (Deliver Us from Evil) and is set to hit theaters in New York on November 27 of this year and expand to Los Angeles and other select cities in December. Next year, PBS will broadcast the documentary as part of their American Masters series.
This will be the first major release about Joplin following her death in 1970. 1974 saw the release of the small-scale Canadian documentary Janis which exclusively used archive footage to chronicle the singer’s career.
After many failed attempts to get an official biopic off the ground, Janis: Little Girl Blue is the first definitive release about Joplin’s life. With support from the Joplin Estate, Berg uses previously unreleased footage and archived materials to tell her story. Singer Cat Power narrates and Joplin’s family and friends are interviewed.
Berg said of the musician:
[Janis] played an important role for women as a groundbreaker and the first woman of rock and roll. I am so pleased that FilmRise will be giving this film a platform so that more people can be introduced to this wonderfully talented and complex icon.
FilmRise is also set to domestically distribute the Steve McQueen documentary Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans this coming November.
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