Janis: Little Girl Blue

Janis: Little Girl Blue (2015) is a music documentary you can watch online on iFILM, built around the letters Janis Joplin wrote home over the years. Singer Cat Power voices them, so much of the story arrives in Janis' own words rather than a narrator's.

Director Amy Berg traces the long climb from Port Arthur, Texas — where classmates mocked the awkward girl — to the stages that made her one of rock's fiercest voices. The film walks it in order: the move to San Francisco, Big Brother and the Holding Company, the breakout set at Monterey, then the solo years. Alongside the rise runs the cost of it: addiction, loneliness, a hunger for affection no crowd could fill.

At 106 minutes, the film leans on archival footage and the people who knew her instead of talking-head certainty. It's the rare music portrait that keeps the person sharper than the myth. Stream Janis: Little Girl Blue online on iFILM.