Amazing Grace (2018)

Directed by

Alan Elliott, Sydney Pollack

Genre

documentary film, musical film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 29m

Rated

G

Rating

7.2 of 10 from 107 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This film shows Aretha Franklin recording her 1972 live gospel album in a Los Angeles church. She performs with a choir and a small band in front of a congregation. The movie captures the energy of that recording session.

reverentinspirationalintimateupliftingrawlive-performancedevotionalwarm

What happens

Amazing Grace is a 2018 concert film "realized and produced" by Alan Elliott. The film's footage was shot under the direction of Sydney Pollack, who does not receive directorial credit, just a "special thanks." Amazing Grace stars Aretha Franklin recording her 1972 live album of the same name. It co-stars James Cleveland, Alexander Hamilton, and the Southern California Community Choir, and features her father C. L. Franklin. The film was not released as scheduled in 1972 due to difficulty in synchronizing the audio with the visual print, and was relegated to a Warner Bros. vault until 2007, when producer Alan Elliott purchased the raw footage and attempted to synchronize it. The edited footage, 87 minutes in length, was planned for a 2011 release. However, Franklin sued Elliott for appropriating her likeness without permission, and the release date passed. Elliott made another attempt in 2015 to hold the film's premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, at the Toronto International Film Festival, and at the Chicago International Film Festival, but Franklin sued him again for reasons that have not been revealed. After Franklin's death in 2018, her family made an arrangement to release the film, which premiered at Doc NYC in 2018, before being released worldwide on April 5, 2019. The film has received critical acclaim. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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