Jeff Buckley's Mother to Attend San Francisco Documentary Premiere

A Cinematic Tribute to Jeff Buckley

When It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley premieres in Bay Area theaters next month, audiences will be treated to more than just a cinematic portrait of the late musician whose voice captivated a generation. They will also hear from someone who knew him best—his mother, Mary Guibert. As a central figure in the new documentary directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Amy Berg, Guibert is scheduled to appear in person for a Q&A following the opening-night screening at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco on August 8.

The film, which received critical acclaim after its debut at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, traces Buckley’s brief but luminous career. Best known for his haunting 1994 debut album Grace, Buckley delivered a singular vocal style that reimagined songs like Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and Nina Simone's "Lilac Wine" with stunning emotional depth.

Buckley drowned in Memphis' Wolf River in 1997 at age 30, leaving behind just one studio album—although many posthumous releases have arrived in its wake. The documentary offers a comprehensive look at his life and legacy, blending never-before-seen archival footage with new interviews featuring Guibert, Buckley's former romantic partners Rebecca Moore and Joan Wasser, and bandmates Michael Tighe and Parker Kindred.

A Legacy of Influence and Emotion

Musicians Alanis Morissette, Ben Harper, and Aimee Mann also appear in the film, with the latter calling Buckley "literally the best singer I've ever heard." There's footage of Paul and Linda McCartney visiting him backstage, and a quote from David Bowie describes Grace as "the greatest album ever made."

The documentary also emphasizes the mythology that has grown around Buckley since his death, but grounds it in the complexities of his real life. We hear how his father, the late folk musician Tim Buckley, abandoned him before he was born, yet still loomed over Jeff's creative psyche like a ghost.

Jeff was raised by Guibert, who recalls in the film that she first heard him sing from his bassinet. From a young age, music seemed to possess him. In 1991, when he reluctantly participated in a tribute concert for Tim Buckley, his performance was so electric that it marked the start of his own ascent.

Exclusive Concert Footage and More

As a bonus for theatergoers, all screenings from August 8-15 will include nearly half an hour of newly remastered solo concert footage from a 1994 performance in Cambridge, Mass.—a rare artifact pulled from Sony's vault that will be shown exclusively in theaters and never made available online or via streaming.

Jeff Buckley on Music, Love, and Legacy

More than two decades before It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley brought his story to the screen, the late singer shared raw insight into his art, his estrangement from his famous father, and the weight of being alive. In this archive interview, conducted just before the release of his debut album Grace, Buckley spoke about the forces that shaped his music.

On songwriting: "It's just about being alive, my songs. And about even emitting sound. It's about the voice carrying much more information than the words do. The little scared kid or the full-on romantic lover is being accessed."

On inspiration and rage: "I have notebooks everywhere I go. I'm always daydreaming. Or things that happen to me. Sometimes, when you get too smart for yourself, you start worrying about things that everybody should be worrying about but nobody worries about, and the weight is so overwhelming that you feel rage on a global level. And the whole world is so anti-life, especially a world ruled by men who don't want to sit, listen and understand what life is all about."

On sensitivity: "Sensitivity isn't being wimpy. It's about being so painfully aware that a flea landing on a dog is like a sonic boom."

On his father, Tim Buckley: "I met him one time, and a couple months later he died. But between that, he never wrote and never called, and I didn't even get invited to the funeral. There's just no connection, really. I wish I did get to talk to him a lot. We went out a couple of times. Robert Plant and Jimmy Page have much more influence on me than he ever did."

On his creative aesthetic: "My music is like a lowdown, dreamy bit of the psyche. It's part quagmire and part structure. The quagmire is important for things to grow in. Do you ever have one of those memories where you think you remember a taste or a feel of something, maybe an object, but the feeling is so bizarre and imperceptible that you just can't quite get a hold of it? It drives you crazy. That's my musical aesthetic, just this imperceptible fleeting memory."