Nowness has invited a global roster of filmmakers and artists to present visual interpretations of Leonard Cohen’s life and lyrics in a new and exciting collaboration with the Leonard Cohen Estate and Sony Music Canada. “Happens To The Heart” is the first official single from the folk legend’s last original and unreleased album, Thanks For The Dance, which has been reimagined for film by award-winning director Daniel Askill.

Known for his transportive and emotionally-charged visual storytelling, Askill pairs Cohen’s resonant baritone poetry with the physical and emotional undressing of a young explorer who finds spiritual catharsis after meeting a mysterious monk in the woods. 

“I wanted to make something that spoke to Leonard’s years as a zen monk,” says the director, who was inspired by the musician’s dedication to Buddhism and the five years Cohen spent living at California’s Mount Baldy Zen Center. “This film is a quiet, symbolic narrative that charts the letting go of ego and the trappings of fame.” 

Bunny Kinney, Nowness creative director says, “our ambition with this series of short films is not only to uphold and celebrate Leonard Cohen’s incredible artistic legacy with new visuals, helmed by some of the most exciting image-makers working today, but to also further explore Cohen’s work and the core thematics of his music: from love and loss to artistic expression itself, identity, self-reflection, transformation and transcendence.” 

Offering creative insight into the hidden machinations of Cohen’s life, Askill invites viewers to contemplate their search for enlightenment in a film—as the director describes—“that aims to speak universally of any transition we go through in life.”

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