Aretha Franklin documentary ‘Amazing Grace’ to finally see the light

More than 46 years after it was shot,

Amazing Grace, the documentary about Aretha Franklin (pictured below), will finally be released, ending one of the most tortured and long-running sagas in documentary film. On Monday, the late gospel singer’s estate and film producers said that Amazing Grace will premiere on Monday at the DOC NYC film festival with the full support of Franklin’s estate. The film, largely shot by Sydney Pollack, captures Franklin’s performance at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles’ Watts neighbourhood in January 1972. The music from the two performances was released as a double live album in 1972. But Pollack’s footage proved virtually impossible to edit because the filmmaker failed to sync the sound. After acquiring the film’s rights from Pollack in 2007, producer Alan Elliott brought in a team to construct the film. Franklin first sued Elliott in 2011 for planning to release the film without her permission.

Amazing Grace nearly saw the light of day in 2015, but it was yanked at the last minute from the Telluride and Toronto film festivals after Franklin’s lawyers obtained an injunction against its release. Last year, Telluride executive director Julie Huntsinger told Variety that “[Franklin’s] resolve for it not being shown is so intense, and I don’t think any us really understand it all the way.” Franklin passed away in August. Pollack died in 2008. The late singer’s estate said

Amazing Grace was an important part of Franklin’s legacy. The film will be released in the United States this autumn, with a larger roll-out in likely to come next year, as the film doesn’t yet have distribution.