Aretha Franklin's "Amazing Grace" documentary set for early 2019 release.

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Back in 1972, Aretha Franklin went to Los Angeles to create what ended up becoming her best selling, double-platinum album which debuted her iconic music career.  This took place in Watts at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in front of a live audience over two nights.  The recording of which resulted into later becoming one of Aretha's greatest troubles.

The footage was recorded back in 1972 by Warner Brothers, Inc. as Franklin was recording her first  album "Amazing Grace".  In spite of this, no movie was ever released due to unknown reasons becoming one of Hollywood's most enduring mysteries.  A few years later, Alan Elliott, an Atlantic Records employee discovered the footage and he put all his detective skills to work so to salvage the film.  It was discovered that the initial director, Sydney Pollack, never got to combine the audio with the footage.  Elliott had to mortgage his house several times in order to be able to purchase the actual footage and edit it, not to mention all the expenses that all of Franklin's lawsuits incurred upon Elliott when the late Queen of Soul had taken legal action against the film, successfully preventing it from being screened at its world premiere as well as a number of film festivals back in 2015.  She had argued that the concert footage that is present in the documentary cannot be shown without her prior consent.

Soon after Aretha's tragic passing at age 76 last August, her family requested a private screening of the finalized footage and Elliott took this opportunity to make an agreement with her family who agreed to finally release the long-delayed documentary.

“Amazing Grace is the heart and soul of Aretha Franklin,” 
- Sabrina Owens (Aretha's niece)

After it's two sold-out premiere screenings at the DOC NYC documentary film festival last month, the documentary, titled "Amazing Grace" is planned to be released globally early next year by Neon after attaining its rights. The documentary is currently open for interaction at the Film Forum for a week so to qualify to be considered for a 2019 Academy Award.

Until next time



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