With under a month to go until its official release, the trailer for the long-awaited documentary, It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley, has arrived.
Directed by Amy Berg, the feature unravels the story of the mesmerizing musician whose life and career were tragically cut short at the age of 30 when he accidentally drowned in Memphis’ Wolf River in 1997.
First premiering at Sundance in January, the film will be released theatrically by Magnolia Pictures on Aug. 8 and then premiere on HBO and stream on HBO Max this winter as part of Bill Simmons’ Music Box series.
Ahead of its release, the documentary’s official trailer has now arrived, with haunting comments from Buckley pairing with intimate archival footage. “How would you like your fans to think of you,” an interviewer can be heard asking Buckley. “Just the music,” he replies. “Because when I’m dead, that’s the only thing that’ll be around.”
The documentary features never-before-seen footage from Buckley’s archives, and is complemented by intimate accounts from those close to the late musician, including his mother Mary Guibert, former partners Rebecca Moore and Joan Wasser, and former bandmates Michael Tighe and Parker Kindred. Other musician luminaries, such as Aimee Mann and Ben Harper also share their insight into Buckley’s life and legacy.
“It’s difficult to imagine a time when I wasn’t attempting to make the Jeff Buckley doc,” Berg explained in a statement. “It’s been on my bucket list since I made my first film in 2006. And maybe, since I first heard Grace in 1994. It changed my life forever. It literally became the ‘tear that hangs inside my soul forever.’”
Numerous attempts to immortalize Buckley’s story have taken place over the years, including one by actor Brad Pitt, who befriended Guibert in 2000 and floated the idea of a biopic.
In 2021, Guibert was announced as the co-producer of Everybody Here Wants You, a planned biopic which would see Reeve Carney portraying Buckley, though no updates on that project had been provided since.
Buckley was the son of Guibert and late folk musician Tim Buckley and after gaining notice as a session musician and captivating performer in Manhattan’s East Village he signed to Columbia in 1994 and released his debut LP, Grace. It initially got mixed reviews and only reached No. 149 on the Billboard 200 album chart, but the album is now considered a classic, one that Buckley would never follow up.
Though he never completed a second album, Guibert helped compile some of her son’s demos for 1998’s Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk, which reached No. 64 on the Billboard 200 and received a Grammy nomination for best male rock vocal performance for the single “Everybody Here Wants You.”
Watch the trailer for It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley below.
