Bob Dylan (C) and his backing group in 1966
© AFP/FileTORONTO (AFP) - Director Martin Scorsese presented never-before-seen onstage footage of Dylan and interviews with people close to him in his documentary "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan" about the American singer's life in the early 1960s.
Canadian music icon Cohen was honoured with two documentaries about him: a tribute concert that featured Rufus Wainwright and U2 in "Leonard Cohen I'm Your Man" and "Ladies and Gentleman, Mr. Leonard Cohen."
And, director James Mangold premiered his "Walk the Line" Tuesday about the man in black and his true love, with actor Joaquin Phoenix playing Johnny Cash, and Reese Witherspoon playing June Carter.
"People don't remember how good the music was (back then)... There's some real blood and guts in that music," Mangold said, whose biopic was the most acclaimed of the bunch.
"There was something really adventurous going on at that moment with young people lashing out."
Johnny Cash was "always riding this river of shadows in his writing that was so revealing about his feelings," Mangold said. He scratched "the edge of something really frightening and an ambivalence about violence and sadness that was really brand new to the world at that moment," Mangold said, referencing one of his lyrics about shooting a man in Reno to watch him bleed.
The movie, framed by Cash's 1968 Folsom Prison concert, is reminiscent of the 2004 blockbuster "Ray" about Ray Charles.
Phoenix and Witherspoon, who grew up in Nashville and said she wanted to be a country music singer at six years old, spent six months rehearsing their characters' songs -- including Cash's trademark deep voice.
"You learn so much about him through his lyrics," Phoenix said. "He conveys so much with just a few lines. That was the gateway into discovering John. I feel like I found the speaking voice through the singing voice and really learned a lot about him through his music."
The love story depicted in the new film covers their early years together before June Carter finally accepted Johnny Cash's 40th marriage proposal in 1968 in front of an audience on a stage 200 kilometres (125 miles) northeast of Toronto.
"They were each an antidote for the other. John had a hole in his heart... and June was an antidote... John was a real ambassador for her to the edge or away from a safe place as part of the first family of country music," Mangold said. "It's the most wonderful set of opposites you could ever encounter."
Together, Cash and Carter had a "very special dynamic" with "such truth and honesty and beauty," said Phoenix, who dined with the couple once before their deaths.
Cash died in 2003, four months after his wife.
Other movies at the festival included Stephen Woolley's "Stoned" about the Rolling Stones' Brian Jones who died in 1969, French director Emmanuelle Bercot's fictional "Backstage" about a teenager's obsession with a pop star, and the world premiere of "Brothers of the Head" which follows co-joined twin brothers on a quest to become 1970s British rock stars.
Japanese director Nobuhiro Yamashita's movie named after legendary punk band The Blue Hearts' 1980s hit "Linda, Linda, Linda" stood out among the country's recent wave of high-school-band movies.
Movie-goers also got a glimpse of the unfinished hip hop documentary "Dave Chapelle's Block Party" that features the Fugees, Kanye West, Mos Def, Erykah Badu.
Also on the menu, was a delve into the minds of heavy metal fans in "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey" that features interviews with Geddy Lee, Dio, Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie, Vince Neil, Bruce Dickinson and Tony Iommi.
Also featured were Jeff Feuerzeig's "The Devil and Daniel Johnston", the Canadian "mockumentary" titled "The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico", and a restored 1972 Liza Minnelli television show in "Liza with a Z".
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