Amazing Grace (2018)
(Sydney Pollack, Alan Elliott, US 2018, 89 min., DCP)
Amazing Grace follows Aretha Franklin as she records her 1972 live gospel album of the same name at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles. Accompanied by the Southern California Community Choir, directed by Alexander Hamilton, as well as James Cleveland, Cornell Dupree, Bernard Purdie, Chuck Rainer, and Poncho Morales, Franklin plays to a primarily African American audience. The film, directed by Sydney Pollack, was initially scheduled to be released in 1972, but due to difficulty in synchronizing the audio with the visual print, the film was relegated to a Warner Bros. vault until 2007. Producer Alan Elliott purchased the raw footage in 2007, attempted to synchronize it, and planned on releasing the film in 2011. However, Franklin sued Elliott for using her likeness without permission, so the film release was subsequently delayed. Elliot tried in 2015 to hold the film’s premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and the Chicago International Film Festival, but Franklin took legal action again. After Franklin’s death in 2017, her estate arranged to release the film in 2018 at DOC NYC before its worldwide release in April 2019.