Pacing the Cage: The Feature Documentary – which debuted in
a significantly shorter version on Vision TV and is now available in its full
65-minute version on DVD – is a compelling look at Bruce Cockburn, one of Canada’s
greatest songwriters and guitarists. Written and directed by Joel Goldberg, and
produced by Goldberg and Bernie Finkelstein, who has been Bruce’s manager since
the beginning of his career, the film examines Bruce’s life and music from
several angles and perspectives the influences of his spiritualism and
activism.
Much of the filming took place during Bruce’s 2008 solo tour
which formed the basis for his 2009 live album, Slice O Life: Live Solo, which I referred to in my Sing Out! magazine review as “the live
Bruce Cockburn album I’ve wanted for years,” and at a couple of benefit
concerts in 2009. While the film includes magnificent performances of several great
songs, including “Pacing the Cage,” “All the Diamonds” and “Lovers in a
Dangerous Time,” it is the insights provided in the interview segments with
Bruce and several astute observers – including Bernie, Colin Linden, who
produced Slice O Life and several others of Bruce’s albums, Sylvia Tyson,
Michael Ondaatje, and Romeo Dallaire – that make this a worthwhile film.
Along the way, we hear Bruce explain the spiritual quest
that led him to his own interpretation of Christianity, as well as his activism
in the service of causes he supports. He also reveals his anxiousness as a
performer when in one moody sequence he agonizes over what he felt was a show
filled with errors that would have been imperceptible to anyone but himself. (I’ve
seen Bruce play countless times since 1970 in venues ranging from tiny
coffeehouses to major concert halls and big outdoor festivals and have never
known him to give anything less than a stellar performance.)
I’ve interviewed Bruce several times for newspaper and
magazine profiles and he did an extensive radio interview with me in 2002. I’ve
always found him to be a thoughtful, contemplative person to talk to – and someone
who is unafraid to discuss difficult subjects. In the film’s most striking
moment he expresses regrets about mistakes he made and not appreciating his
role as a parent at the time his now-adult daughter was a small child; mistakes
he hoped he wouldn’t make again now that he is once again – in his 60s – the parent
of a young child.
Pacing the Cage: The Feature Documentary is time well spent,
certainly for Bruce Cockburn fans in particular, but also for anyone interested
in an enhanced understanding of a particularly creative soul who has spent a
lifetime in the pursuit of spiritual, political and musical truth.
--Mike Regenstreif
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