“Hallelujah”- A Gallery of Performances and Interviews

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Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” is the subject of a new documentary by Dayna Goldfine and Daniel Geller. Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song opens in theaters exclusively in July and August, 2022. Read the review by Gaetano Kazuo Maida. 

We think you will enjoy seeing a selection from the dozens of musical stars and hundreds of amateurs (often on TV talent search shows), professional and community choirs, symphony orchestras, TikTok sensations, and many others who have found satisfaction with this beautiful music and its many verses to interpret.

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THE CREATIVE HIGH

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By C.J. Hirschfield

In 2020, more people in San Francisco died of overdoses than of covid-19—an almost impossible statistic to comprehend.

So a film featuring people living in that city who are in recovery from addiction is timely and hopeful; what is unique is that all nine of them have had their lives dramatically transformed by the “alternative high” they achieve through art-making.

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 IMPERFECT: Defying Expectations

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By C.J. Hirschfield

If you’re producing a mainstage musical with a large cast, you can pretty much expect that there will be moments of anxiety, frustration, self-doubt—and even romance. In the excellent and thought-provoking new documentary IMPERFECT, all of this happens–and more. The more is because the particular production of Chicago-The Musical that the film documents features a diverse– and disabled– cast, whose physical and neurological challenges add a complex dimension to the work they so clearly love.

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BEING A CENTURY OLD DOESN’T STOP BETTY REID SOSKIN AND ANNA HALPRIN FROM ROCKIN’ OUR WORLD

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BY C.J. Hirschfield

Writer Pearl S. Buck said that “To find joy in work is to discover the fountain of youth.”

Two of the remarkable Bay Area women featured in the 10th annual Legacy Film Festival on Aging have seemingly done just that, and they’ve used their collective 200 (!) years of rich experience to arrive at a place where they now choose to enlighten and inspire.

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Alice Street: A Mural Becomes a Movement

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BY C.J. Hirschfield

About my home town of Oakland, a recent Washington Post article wrote: “Protesters want to defund the police. Homicides and violence are spiking. In Oakland, ideology and practicality collide.”

It was a wonderful juxtaposition shortly thereafter to watch the excellent new documentary Alice Street, which shows Oakland at its multicultural, peaceful, protesting best.

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