It’s been less than 6 months since legendary singer Aretha Franklin passed away. However, later this year, a long-awaited project featuring Franklin will finally see its release, after 46 years of being held up, and just in time for an Oscar campaign.
Variety is reporting that the long-in-development Aretha Franklin concert film, “Amazing Grace,” is finally going to be released to the public, over four decades after the performance wowed audiences. The film, which chronicles a gospel concert the singer performed in 1972, was originally directed by Sydney Pollack but was kept in the vaults at Warner Bros. for decades after the technology at the time was unable to synchronize her recorded vocals to the film. Instead, the performance was released later that year in the form of an album, and to this day, serves as the best-selling gospel album of all time.
Producer Alan Elliott, a friend of Pollack, was able to purchase the unused footage from WB but hasn’t been able to secure the rights to release the film. Originally planned for a 2015 festival run, the film was held up when Franklin herself, wouldn’t sign off on the film’s use of her image. This legal issue was the source of conflict between Franklin and Elliott, as the latter argued that the rights were secured when the footage was shot in 1972. However, the legal issue lingered until Franklin grew increasingly ill.
Elliott then showed the finished film to the members of the Franklin Estate, who reached an agreement with the producer. Now, 46 years after the concert, audiences will get the chance to see the legendary performance from one of the most iconic singers of all time.
Sabrina Owens, the late star’s niece and executor of her estate said, “In recent weeks, Alan presented the film to the family at the African American Museum here, and we absolutely love it. We can see Alan’s passion for the movie, and we are just as passionate about it. It’s in a very pure environment, very moving and inspirational, and it’s an opportunity for those individuals who had not experienced her in a gospel context to see how diverse her music is. We are so excited to be a part of this.”
“I think the movie stands by itself, so it would have a good run whether it’s next year or it was two or three years ago,” says Elliott. “But obviously, her singularity and her absence are really felt right now, so I think there is that energy toward rediscovering things that she did. And I feel that this performance is really her crowning achievement — and I think she felt that way too. As much as anything, I wish she had been here to be a part of it, especially since she said she loved the movie.”
“Amazing Grace” is being positioned as a late-entry in this year’s awards season. The concert film will premiere at this week’s DOC NYC festival and will be followed by a limited run in Los Angeles and New York. After that, the distributor plans on a nationwide run sometime in the early part of 2019.
Here’s the trailer for the film that was released in 2015, before the film was pulled from the Toronto International Film Festival: