Big Brother and the Holding Company: Nine Hundred Nights (2001)

Though its wildly successful career was brief, blues-rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company was one of the major groups of the 1960s San Francisco scene, along with the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. Led by the legendary blues diva Janis Joplin (a self-destructive powerhouse whose penchant for Southern Comfort and heroin led to her early demise), the band defined the excess and urgency of the decade. NINE HUNDRED NIGHTS uses some rare footage--including famed documentarian D.A. Pennebaker's live film of a Generation Club performance, some Monterey Pop concert footage, and intimate recording sessions--to tell the story of this short-lived, magical band.