“Difficult job it’s been looking at this face and listening to #JeffBuckley music for the last 6 years…” reflected director Amy Berg on Instagram in December, as she confirmed the release of her film It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley.
The long-awaited full-length documentary on the late artist, who drowned in 1997, debuts this month at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. It’s showing alongside other tempting music docs including Questlove’s Sly Lives! (AKA The Burden Of Black Genius) and early-’70s portrait One To One: John & Yoko.
According to Buckley estate “gatekeeper” Jack Bookbinder, the film has been in the works since Berg finished her 2015 Janis Joplin documentary Little Girl Blue. “Amy spent a good chunk of her life immersed in Jeff ’s work, and building a relationship with Mary [Guibert, Buckley’s mother],” says Bookbinder. “She’s got a great reputation, and trust was established.”
Buckley’s estate also sought the opportunity to set the record straight. “My sole purpose for appearing in the film is to say, there was no foul play, no drugs or alcohol in Jeff ’s system, no suicide,” says Bookbinder’s colleague, former tour manager Gene Bowen. “Rolling Stone’s story just days after Jeff died should have published the autopsy but instead left an air of mystery. Jeff only went into the [Mississippi] river because he saw the beauty of the water and went for it.”
It’s Never Over… – named after a lyric in Buckley’s Grace album ballad Lover, You Should Have Come Over – promises previously-unreleased live footage, voice messages and sketchbooks, plus animated sequences. But Berg’s comment, “Difficult job”, is reflected in the experience of Buckley drummer and film interviewee Parker Kindred, who has seen the finished version.
“There’s great footage, like Jeff playing [downtown NYC cubbyhole] Sin-é, and pivotal moments like Jeff meeting Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan,” says Kindred. “But if I told the story, I’d talk to more musicians, who Jeff hung out with and leaned on. I’d want to know more about the rumour that Jimmy Page might have produced Jeff ’s second album. This is more of a movie about relationships with women, from his mother [Mary Guibert] to [first girlfriend] Rebecca [Moore] to Joan [Wasser, AKA Joan As Police Woman]. It starts with three women crying, which sets a tone.”
Other key voices including Columbia A&R man Steve Berkowitz, the late Hal Willner, and Buckley’s aunt Peggy Hagberg were, significantly, not invited to contribute. Also absent is former manager Dave Lory, who was sacked by Guibert following Buckley’s death. “I’m the only one that knew Jeff that well during the four years we were together,” Lory claims.
Neither Guibert nor any spokesperson for the film could be reached for comment. “No one will ever get it right because we all have our own perspective on the person,” says Bowen, who adds, “there are beautiful things in the film, like Jeff ’s sense of humour – no one could do impersonations like Jeff, from Bugs Bunny to Cher.”
“It’s all heartbreaking,” Kindred concludes. “Jeff was so young. And he had so many layers. The way the film goes to emotional places – all relationships torture us! I just want to know what made Jeff live.”
It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley premieres at the Sundance Film Festival, which runs from January 23 to February 2, 2025. Guibert, Bookbinder and Bowen’s non-profit initiative Road To Recovery can be contacted at roadrecovery.org
Main photo: David Tonge/Getty