Leonard Cohen: Bird on a Wire

Leonard Cohen went out on tour in 1972. The tour took in twenty cities. It began in Dublin and ended in Jerusalem. Tony Palmer set out on the road with the party. Forty hours of footage were shot. The tour was troubled from beginning to end. Technical failures followed one after another. On some nights Cohen ended up confronting the audience. Beside the concerts the film shows what went on backstage. Songs, poems and press conferences sit side by side. After a long edit the film opened in 1974. It then disappeared and was taken for lost. In 2009 it was found inside rusted cans. The director restored it and brought it out again. Leonard Cohen and Bob Johnston appear in the hundred and six minute documentary. It is a British production Tony Palmer finished in 2010.