In January 1972, Aretha Franklin performed at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles and the show was recorded and released as the album Amazing Grace..
That album went on to be the biggest in Franklin’s career, selling over two million copies, and remains the biggest gospel album ever released, but a film made of the performance by director Sydney Pollack has remained in the Warner Brothers vaults for 37 years after Pollock found the sound unacceptable.
In 2008, Pollock was gravely ill and thought again about the documentary, asking producer Alan Elliott to complete the film. Elliott worked on the film, adding backstory and historical information about the concert, and planned on premiering it in 2011 until Franklin sued and successfully stopped the showing.
Elliott once again pushed forward this year with six planned showing, three at this weekend’s Telluride Film Festival, where it was scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, and again at the Toronto International Film Festival with it scheduled for September 10, 12 and 20.
Early Friday, Franklin filed a ten page complaint against the National Film Preserve (aka The Telluride Film Festival) to stop the weekend showings saying that “Ms. Franklin has never given permission for the use of this footage in any commercial context and has not authorized the public release of the footage. The footage was taken with the express understanding that it would not be used commercially without agreement and consent by Ms. Franklin.”
Franklin’s legal papers lay out three counts including the issuance of an emergency retraining order and temporary injunction to stop the scheduled showings of the film while they seek a permanent injunction, to stop Elliott from using Franklin’s name and likeness, to stop the showing on an anti-bootlegging claim and to charge that the use of Franklin’s identity, name and likeness is a violation of the right of publicity causing her irreparable harm.
While this legal filing is specific to the Telluride showings, it is expected that a similar motion will be filed to stop the Toronto presentations.
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