Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song

Leonard Cohen spent the greater portion of his career writing and perfecting one of the music world’s most beloved hymns, “Hallelujah.”

This documentary by the same title chronicles the spiritual journey of the artist and his painstaking commitment to the craft of song writing. The film also explores how the song took on a life of its own as a popular cover sung by the likes of Jeff Buckley, John Cale and Rufus Wainwright. Younger audiences will recognize the song from DreamWorks’ Shrek. 

Approved for production by Leonard Cohen just before his 80th birthday in 2014, the film accesses a wealth of never-before-seen archival materials from the Cohen Trust including Cohen’s personal notebooks, journals and photographs, performance footage, and extremely rare audio recordings and interviews.

“The documentary’s account of the song’s fate, indebted to Alan Light’s book The Holy or the Broken, is a fascinating study in the mechanics and metaphysics of pop-culture memory.” (NY Times)

more info at this website: www.sonyclassics.com/film/hallelujah