The story goes that Jeff Buckley launched his music career from the shoulders of his dead father. The singer-songwriter’s father was Tim Buckley, a respected musician who died of a heroin overdose. In the spring of 1991, a group of cultural figures gathered in a Brooklyn church for a memorial concert honoring the deceased man, where Jeff Buckley also performed his father’s songs and propelled himself into the awareness of New York’s music tastemakers.
The critically acclaimed documentary It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley makes it clear that Buckley’s mother, Mary Guibert, was a far more significant figure in his life — he barely knew his father. Guibert is given considerable space in the documentary, as are the other women who influenced Buckley’s life: partners and peers in the music industry. The film spans from the artist’s childhood to his only studio album, Grace (1994), and his untimely death at just 30 years old.
Director Amy Berg – who received an Oscar nomination for her documentary Deliver Us from Evil (2006) – also brings Buckley himself into the film through archival material. The artist’s voice is heard in interviews and in answering-machine messages he left for his mother. And fortunately, also in the songs. In them, his voice takes on an otherworldly quality.
Kaisu Tervonen