NON FICTION FILM
  • Home
  • News
  • Videos
  • Galleries
    • 2019 Tribeca Film Festival
    • Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
    • 2019 SXSW Film Festival
    • SXSW 2018 Gallery
    • 2019 Sundance Film Festival
    • Outfest 2018 Photo Gallery
    • Outfest 2017
    • Sundance 2018 Photos
    • 2017 LA Film Festival
    • 2017 Cannes Film Festival
    • Tribeca Film Festival 2017
    • SXSW 2017 Gallery
    • 2017 Berlin Film Festival
    • Sundance 2017 Gallery
    • 2016 Los Angeles Film Festival
    • Cannes Film Festival 2016
    • SXSW 2016 Gallery
    • Berlinale 2016 Gallery
    • Sundance 2016 Gallery
  • Filmmaker Gallery
  • About
  • Contact

Aretha Franklin documentary ousted from festivals in legal dispute

9/9/2015

 
Sydney Pollack's film on the singer's Amazing Grace album was to have played at Toronto, Telluride
Picture
Aretha Franklin delivering her famed gospel concert in Los Angeles, 1972. Photo: TIFF40
For more than 40 years fans have been waiting to catch a glimpse of footage from Sydney Pollack's documentary on Aretha Franklin. The wait continues.

Franklin successfully filed suit to prevent Amazing Grace from premiering at the Telluride Film Festival last week. It has now been yanked from the Toronto International Film Festival, where it was to have debuted on Thursday. 

We are extremely disappointed that Toronto audiences will not be able to see this extraordinary piece of art.
            
         --Toronto Film Festival
Pollack, who died in 2008, began his project on Franklin in 1972, filming a pair of legendary gospel concerts she gave in Los Angeles. Those concerts became the basis for her hit gospel album, Amazing Grace.
Producer Alan Elliott obtained the footage from Warner Bros. in a quitclaim deed and proceeded to finish the film. But Franklin's legal team argued before a federal judge in Colorado that Elliott needed the singer's permission to release the film.


Audio synching issues reportedly kept Pollack from completing the documentary as planned. 

"The footage wound up shelved in a vault and... remained one of the lost cinematic treasures of twentieth-century music," the Toronto International Film Festival said in touting the film, before the legal dispute erupted.
Picture
Aretha Franklin inside the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, where she gave two celebrated concerts in 1972. Photo: TIFF40
US District Court Judge John Kane sided with Franklin, issuing a temporary injunction to prevent the documentary from being screened at Telluride. [Read his ruling here]. The injunction expires on Sept. 18, but the judge noted Franklin was likely to prevail if the matter is further contested in the courts.

A screening reportedly set for the Chicago Film Festival in October has also been cancelled. 

Nonfictionfilm.com has reached out to Aretha Franklin directly for comment. We will update this space with future developments.

TADA! This is how we feel about @ArethaFranklin! RETWEET if you agree! #ArethaOnIdol pic.twitter.com/68ynZ7RgpF

— American Idol (@AmericanIdol) March 6, 2015

My #ArethaSings The Great Diva Classics Dance Remixes are out now on @iTunesMusic here! http://t.co/ecGDNvrAlY pic.twitter.com/2HS4ClDAQ2

— Aretha Franklin (@ArethaFranklin) February 4, 2015

.@ArethaFranklin backstage jamming, with maracas and all, with trumpeter Maynard Ferguson pic.twitter.com/ypNowN5AuW

— Legacy Recordings (@SonyLegacyRecs) January 5, 2015

    Author

    Matthew Carey is a documentary filmmaker and journalist. His work has appeared on Deadline.com, CNN, CNN.com, TheWrap.com, NBCNews.com and in Documentary magazine.

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • News
  • Videos
  • Galleries
    • 2019 Tribeca Film Festival
    • Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
    • 2019 SXSW Film Festival
    • SXSW 2018 Gallery
    • 2019 Sundance Film Festival
    • Outfest 2018 Photo Gallery
    • Outfest 2017
    • Sundance 2018 Photos
    • 2017 LA Film Festival
    • 2017 Cannes Film Festival
    • Tribeca Film Festival 2017
    • SXSW 2017 Gallery
    • 2017 Berlin Film Festival
    • Sundance 2017 Gallery
    • 2016 Los Angeles Film Festival
    • Cannes Film Festival 2016
    • SXSW 2016 Gallery
    • Berlinale 2016 Gallery
    • Sundance 2016 Gallery
  • Filmmaker Gallery
  • About
  • Contact