10 · 24 · 22 HALLELUJAH: LEONARD COHEN, A JOURNEY, A SONG; Independent Cinema That Brought Hope to the 20th FICM Share with twitter Share with facebook Share with mail Copy to clipboard Laura García Time has allowed independent directors, producers and screenwriters Dayna Goldfine and Daniel Geller to present their documentary Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song (2021), as part of the International Premiere Program of the 20th edition of the Morelia International Film Festival (FICM). Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song is a dissection of Hallelujah, the song that made composer, musician and poet Leonard Cohen see life differently. All while he composed one of the most hopeful hymns in the world. This documentary evokes Cohen's life through unpublished material, photographs, recordings, and the five notebooks in which he wrote Hallelujah, a process that took him around 7 years. The directors' approach to the music of the Canadian composer was during a concert in San Francisco. “The moment when he dropped to his knees and started singing this song. That's when we really knew that it was an unforgettable moment," shared Dayna Goldfine. Dayna Goldfine, Daniel Geller One of the main difficulties the directors faced while producing this documentary was never being able to set up an interview with Leonard Cohen. That, and getting the rights for the songs, which took them 18 months of negotiations with Sony Music. "Transcendental things come in their time," said Daniel Geller. “We knew that the challenge of not being able to interview him would make us reconceptualize the entire film […] Instead, what we decided to do was travel with Leonard Cohen, from the moment he decided to announce that he was not only a poet to the world but also a singer-songwriter,” added Goldfine. Hallelujah “is the most generous song, because it allows anyone who is listening to it or anyone who covers it to make it their own,” Dayna Goldfine reflected. Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, premiered in Latin America at the Cinépolis Centro in Morelia during the 20th FICM. It has also been presented at other festivals such as the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival; Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival 2022; Amsterdam International Documentary Festival 2021; Venice Film Festival 2021; among others. Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine hope that Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey will soon hit theaters in Mexico, in addition to already having an agreement to make the documentary available via streaming.
