Leonard Cohen Documentary Will Raise ‘Hallelujah’ at San Diego International Jewish Film Festival in La Jolla

Whether you’ve seen Leonard Cohen performing “Hallelujah” in person or just in a YouTube video, you can hear in his voice and see in his eyes how much the most famous song he ever composed meant to him. .

In the documentary Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, Journey, Song, directors, husband and wife, Dan Geller and Dinah Goldfine reveal how much this song meant to those who recorded or covered it, and to those who knew Cohen, who died in 2016.

Their film, which is streaming on Netflix, is one of 35 films screened at the 33rd San Diego International Jewish Film Festival at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center’s Garfield Theater in La Jolla starting Wednesday, February 15th. “Hallelujah” will be shown at 19:00 on Monday, February 20.

“Hallelujah”, which Goldfine says Cohen took seven or eight years to write, was first released in 1984 on his album Variable Positions. In later years it has been recorded by John Cale, Jeff Buckley, kd lang and Rufus Wainwright, to name but a few. Bob Dylan covered it in concert, as did Bono, Bon Jovi, Brandi Carlyle and Willie Nelson. Saturday Night Live alum Kate McKinnon memorably performed it on the show as Hillary Clinton after Donald Trump was elected president.

“[Cohen] knew he had written a lot of great songs, songs that are well known,” Geller said. (They include “Suzanne”, “Bird on the Wire” and “Sisters of Mercy”.) “But he clearly saw that this song became known around the world more than any other.”

The Geller and Goldfine documentary is not a retrospective of Cohen’s life from cradle to grave. Instead, it focuses on one song “Hallelujah”.

“We wanted to look at him in a way that he had not been explored before, to look at the spiritual and religious quest that led him through his whole life, with a song that is the most symbolic and reflects all these searches and aspirations. “Geller said.

Among those interviewed in the film were Cale, Wainwright and Judy Collins, who popularized Cohen’s “Suzanne”.

“[Cohen] knew that he had written many great songs, songs that are well known. But he clearly saw that this song became known all over the world more than any other.

— Directed by Dan Geller

For the filmmakers, “Hallelujah” is a unique song.

“I can’t imagine another song in the world that I could continue to listen to after so many years of listening,” Goldfine said. “A lot of these are spiritual issues. It will never be anything but a mystery.

“Every day I look at it differently, depending on what mood I wake up in.”

The film was inspired by Allen Light’s 2012 book, Holy or Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Rise of Hallelujah, and by Geller and Goldfine seeing Cohen perform the song at a concert in Oakland.

“When we saw him at the Paramount Theatre,” Goldfine recalled, “we were drawn to everything that was in him and in this song, and the way he performed it became an indelible memory.”

See the full festival schedule here. 2023sdijff.eventive.org/films.

San Diego International Jewish Film Festival

When: February 15-26 (virtually February 27-March 3)

Where: David and Dorothea Garfield Theatre, Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, 4126 Executive Drive, La Jolla

Expenses: Individual views start at $15; tickets cost 65 and 75 dollars.

Information: (858) 457-3030, lfjcc.org

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