Just a few brief thoughts on the Joni bio last night on CBC:
I agree with the other posts so far that this was a richly detailed, lyrical
piece with lots of amazing, rare photos and clips.
I felt that her bout with polio should have received much more time since
her determination to overcome the disease was what really shaped her
personality and formed her spirituality. The archive shots of Saskatchewan
in winter in the 1940s were truly stunning -- and eerie. That shot of a
six-year-old Joni sitting in a chair in a corner, so alone, was haunting to
me. ("I'm sitting in some cafe.")
I thought the sequence about the lost child was also moving, with the image
of a young girl playing superimposed, ghostlike beneath the main image.
Again, this sequence could have been a bit longer, with perhaps some shots
of an old Toronto hospital and more voice-over details of what it was like
to have a baby out of wedlock at that time.
And those wedding pictures of Joni and Chuck -- she looked so beautiful,
ethereal. Hard to imagine that beneath her smile she was saying to herself
"I can get out of this."
Perhaps too much time on her affair with Graham Nash? This really needs to
be a three-parter!
The clip of Joni with Adrienne Clarkson and Paul Soles was a surprise. That
was from a show called Take Thirty, I believe, an interview/public affairs
show that was shown during the afternoon (if I recall correctly).
The concert footage of Joni in the green gown was shot at the Mariposa Folk
Festival in 1969, at which I was an audience member. I had seen the CBC film
documentary about that year's Mariposa, but was surprised to also see the
video footage of the same concert -- the shot of her singing Marcie. It
would sure be nice if the CBC showed this as a special concert.Just some thoughts, Jim
