Joan Baez on her documentary and encounter with Bob Dylan

A new documentary about the 82-year-old folk singer-songwriter Joan Baez is set to be screened on Friday and Saturday at the Landmark Nuart Theatre in West LA. The documentary is titled "Joan Baez I Am a Noise". Throughout this year, she not only released a book of drawings but also spoke at the United Nations in Geneva. Pop musician Lana Del Rey will sit for a chat with the celebrated Baez on Friday too.

The musician recently divulged necessary information in a report by the Los Angeles Times, regarding her documentary, her inclination to make the most out of the present, and her avoidance of cosmetic surgery in a world that seduces most women to choose otherwise.

In response to a question associated with her having to speak candidly about the variations of trauma, she had to go through she said that it remains a part of her legacy, "Now, each time I see the film, I see more that I didn't know about myself. It's been an emotional ride and I am delighted with how it came out. Wrinkles and all. It's honest."

When asked if her documentary had elements she hadn't seen before, she said, "The old tapes with the therapist, I hadn't visited those for decades. Also, my mother kept everything. I kind of remember doing all of those old tapes when I was a child, but I didn't know they still existed."

In her film, she is seen saying, "Whenever someone gets famous at a young age, they never expect that it will end." Baez then elaborated in response to being asked if there ever was a point when she felt like it had ended, "In the 1980s, when the theaters and other rooms weren't full, I started blaming everyone else, but I was the one who was drifting away. I didn't have the machinery around me because I was anti-commercial for so long. It took a while for me to realize where I was, which was nowhere."

Many people remain unaware of the fact that Bob Dylan wasn't the one who helped make her career but it was contrariwise. To the question about what she feels towards Bob Dylan currently, she said, "You know, I don't resent any of it now. One day I was painting his portrait, of when he was really young. I put his music on and I had an epiphany. I cried for about 48 hours. I thought, 'Oh, my God, I was so lucky to know this guy and hear those songs and have those songs.' Bob was 22 or something. I was a kid too, but I had more ability to manage stuff than he had. I think that's fair to say. But I just don't have animosity now. I certainly did. It was awful. But that's done now."

As her role as an activist, Joan Baez was asked to speak about activism in the '60s and she stated, "Back then, there was glue. We did feel that we were with somebody, that we were together. The only thing I can think of for people who didn't live through that was when Obama ran for office. There was such a good feeling, like people high-fiving on the subway, that was the glue."

"It's a daily process of trying to live in the moment and accept what's still there. There's this beautiful creek at the bottom of the hill, from my home. I spend a lot of time down there and I keep hearing it say, 'Remember me like this. Remember me as I am now.' Instead of looking at it and thinking, 'Oh, my God, it's going to be dry one day.'," said the musician about coping with climate anxiety in view of her activism.

A pivotal facet of Joan Baez's documentary is the accentuation of her natural physical attributes. The American production does not do anything to conceal her intrinsic aged self with the use of technological edits like American productions normally do. In response to this observation, she said, "That's a good point. I belong to the no-facelift group. My sister Mimi used to say that her home remedy for aging was 'No, no, no, no, no, no'. But that doesn't actually work. I've certainly been tempted, but I let go of the idea. I also didn't want to look a certain way until it all dropped one day like, 'Here's the real you!'."

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As someone is old enough to claim that most or all of her friends, family and associates have passed away, she lamented saying, "It reminds me of my mother's old address book. At a certain point, it was nothing but chicken scratches because they were all gone. I've just gotta get used to the idea. I'm healthy, but you never know."

In response to being asked whether she would ever retire or not, Joan Baez said, "What's difficult for me, but I am working on, is to literally stop. When I do stop myself, I can actually look and see what's there, the blessings and the curses. But you're right. When the singing stopped, I just got blown out of a cannon with all of this other stuff. I just finished editing a book of poetry that will come out in the spring. It also includes poems I wrote in the '90s."