Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song

With moving testimonials from great artists for whom Leonard Cohen’s classic ‘Hallelujah” has become a personal touchstone and a wealth of never-before-seen archival material from the Cohen Trust, Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine fine documentary traces Cohen’s career while placing a special focus on his most famous song. Cohen worked on it for seven years before presenting it to his record company—and it was rejected! It was only after John Cale and Jeff Buckley recorded it that ‘Hallelujah’ began is climb to the classic status it has achieved. Including Cohen's personal notebooks, diaries and photographs, performance recordings and extremely rare sound recordings and interviews, ‘Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song’ features Cohen, Jeff Buckley, John Cale, Brandi Carlile, Eric Church, Judy Collins, Bob Dylan, Glen Hansard, Sharon Robinson and Rufus Wainwright, among others.

‘This generous documentary is… likely to be a source of illumination for both die-hard and casual fans, and even to people who love Cohen’s most famous song without being aware that he wrote it… That’s “Hallelujah,” of course… The directors, Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine, wrap a circumspect biography of the singer—loaded with archival footage and interviews with sundry friends and admirers, including a rabbi and a Canadian government official—around the story of the song… It’s quite a story.’—A.O. Scott, The New York Times