Janis (film)
Janis is a 1974 Canadian‑American documentary about rock singer Janis Joplin. It was directed by Howard Alk, with writing by Alk and Seaton Findlay, and uses only archival footage of Joplin. The film’s cinematography is by Michael Wadleigh, with additional work by D. A. Pennebaker. Universal Pictures released it in the United States on October 18, 1974, and it runs 96 minutes. The spoken language is English.
The documentary gathers material from across Joplin’s career: rehearsals, her June 25, 1970 appearance on The Dick Cavett Show, and footage from Woodstock in 1969 (including a moment where she dances with a band member during an instrumental break). It also includes an April 1967 black‑and‑white interview made before she became famous. Much screen time is devoted to her 1969 European tour, including an interview in Stockholm and the excited reactions of fans in Frankfurt.
Laura Joplin, Janis’s younger sister, appears in news footage from Janis’s high school reunion in August 1970 in Port Arthur, Texas. The reunion footage was part of a long press conference Janis gave, and the Goodhue Hotel in Port Arthur (where the reunion occurred) has since been demolished.
The film had a limited theatrical run in the United States—Universal released it in one San Francisco theater for about fourteen weeks and then reportedly shelved it to focus on bigger projects. It has served as a major source of footage for later documentaries and TV programs about Joplin, including a color London interview from 1969 that is included in the film.
Janis received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Documentary Film in 1974 and won the Canadian Film Award for Best Theatrical Documentary in 1975. It has been released on video in various regions and was added to Hulu’s catalog in 2011.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 11:48 (CET).