‘Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind’ – the new documentary celebrating the life of a Canadian musical legend – opens today via Virtual Cinema.
Directors Martha Kehoe and Joan Tosoni capture Gordon Lightfoot’s profound evolution from Christian choirboy to troubled troubadour, international star and beloved Canadian icon with 5 Grammy Nominations and over 10 million albums sold. Lightfoot’s hits including “If You Could Read My Mind”, “Sundown”, “Carefree Highway”, and “Rainy Day People” and Bob Dylan once said “every time I hear a song of his I wish it would last forever.” The film is an intimate and emotional examination of Lightfoot’s relationship to his music, featuring exclusive interviews with Gordon, while intertwining his indelible legacy and unpacking key songs within the cultural history of folk and rock music along the way.
Produced by Insight Productions, the documentary takes audiences from high school auditoriums in straight-laced, small town Ontario in the ‘50s to the coffee houses of Toronto’s Yorkville and NYC’s Greenwich Village in the ‘60s, through Gordon’s turbulent, substance-fueled arena shows of the ‘70s, and finally to the artist – older, wiser – in present day. Interwoven throughout the film are Interviews with multiple generations of Lightfoot fans, in and outside the music industry – from Steve Earle and Sarah McLachlan, to Alec Baldwin and Geddy Lee – as well as behind the scenes stories from members of his longtime band.
‘Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind,’ a CBC Docs and documentary Channel Original, is presented by Greenwich Entertainment and Insight Productions in association with Canada Media Fund, Slaight Communications, Telefilm Canada and the Rogers Group of Funds through the Theatrical Documentary Program and with the participation of the Canada Media Fund, the Rogers Cable Network Fund and the Rogers Documentary Fund. The film’s TVOD release date is set for August 21st.
