Despite all the filmmakers’ flattering attention to its subject, “Joan Baez I Am a Noise” doesn’t make a viewer come away likingJoan Baez. There are reasons for this, not the least of which isBaez’sremarkable voice, which no normal human being could ever live up to.

She sounds like an angel. She also sounds like an era. Specifically, Baez sounds like the aspirations of the 1960s, the sonic embodiment of some of the most noble protests of her time. To hear her and then see this documentary is to come back to Earth with an actual person, who was and isn’t perfect, who has had her problems, and is, fundamentally — for better and worse — a performer. And in this case, “performer” is practically a synonym for show-off.

For an example of this, take the scene in which Baez is in a hotel in Paris, when she hears musicians drumming in the street below. She hurries outside, her camera crew following her, and soon, she’s out there dancing, and the tourists are recording her on their phones. Needless to say, no one else is dancing.

Now you could say it’s wonderful that, at 79 at the time of filming, Baez wanted to dance and could dance. But one can’t help but recognize the moment as contrived. Nor can one avoid feeling that maybe it’s not so great that at 79, under cover of expressing appreciation, Baez wanted to take over somebody else’s show.

Directors Miri Navasky, Maeve O’Boyle and Karen O’Connor were given extraordinary access to Baez. Not only were they allowed to follow her around on her farewell tour, but they were given papers, letters and audiotapes. Throughout the 1960s, Baez would sometimes send her family tape recordings rather than written letters, so we have the voice of Baez herself telling her story as it happened.

But there is such a thing as too subjective. The directors endorse Baez’s suspicion that she was sexually abused by her father, despite Baez’s own sketchy memories. It also takes at face value Baez’s accounts of her disputes with her sisters, Pauline and Mimi, the latter of whom aspired to be a musician. The impression that comes through is that the filmmakers were too in awe of Baez to press her — or to seek alternate opinions — and so we’re left with a sense of not getting the whole truth.

电影成功的B的一个帐户吗aez’s public life, which was fairly extraordinary. She’s 82 today and a bona fide survivor of early stardom. She was a luminary of folk music at 18, at a time when that was a big deal, who came of age right at the start of the 1960s. Baez used her public profile to advanceBob Dylan, who appears pre-stardom looking atypically open-hearted and friendly. That didn’t last, and neither did their romance.

Nearly 60 years later, Baez recalls on camera that he broke her heart, though to look at the young, scruffy Dylan here — well, let’s just say it: She could have done better.

The bottom line on “Joan Baez I Am a Noise” is that if you absolutely love Baez and her work, you will find nothing here to challenge your preconceptions and will probably learn some things you didn’t know.

But if you’re merely Baez-curious, this documentary will not satisfy and might even make youlesscurious.

Reach Mick LaSalle: mlasalle@sfchronicle.com