Aretha Franklin documentary blocked from Telluride film festival by judge

A federal judge in Colorado has granted an injunction to halt the opening night premiere of Amazing Grace, a documentary which features footage of the singer shot by Sydney Pollack in 1972

Amazing Grace, the highly-anticipated documentary about singing legend Aretha Franklin, has been pulled from the programme at the Telluride film festival following legal action by its subject.

On Friday – the day of its screening – Franklin filed a complaint against Telluride claiming that the footage “was taken with the express understanding that it would not be used commercially without agreement and consent by Ms Franklin”.

US District Judge John Kane, who serves in Colorado, imposed a temporary restraining order on the movie, meaning that its producers are blocked from showing it for a fortnight. A court spokesperson said there would then be another hearing as the litigation proceeds.

Earlier in the day, Telluride’s executive director, Julie Huntsinger, told press that the screening would proceed as planned. “[Franklin’s] lawyers are trying to stop us from showing the film,” she said. “Let’s just hope the paperwork that is filed has us covered. But [Franklin] should be proud.”

Joe Boyd, one of the movie’s producers, told the Detroit Free-Press on Thursday: “We are operating under the existing contract between Aretha Franklin and Warner Bros, which has governed the use of footage from this session in the past.”

The film, which uses footage from a 1972 concert by Franklin and was originally part of an unfinished film by the late Sydney Pollack, is also scheduled to show in six days time at the Toronto film festivals. Its documentary programmer, Thom Powers, told Deadline that they were still intending to screen and said they “haven’t heard of any legal procedures regarding the film in Toronto”.

Franklin’s complaint says that “allowing the film to be shown violates Ms Franklin’s contractual rights, her intellectual property rights, her rights to use and control her name and likeness, and represents an invasion of her privacy. It is also in direct and specific violation of the quitclaim agreement by which the footage was obtained from the Warner Brothers organisation by Mr. Alan Elliott, the purported producer of Amazing Grace.”

It goes on to note that four years ago Franklin sued Elliott over the same issue, and “the lawsuit was resolved after Elliott agreed not to release the film”.

The singer is also seeking at least $75,000 in damages, as well as further financial penalties to “deter similar future misconduct by others”.

Obama cries as Aretha Franklin proves why she's the queen of soul

Singing (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, Franklin brought a tear to the president’s eye and sent Carole King, the song’s composer, into meltdown
Regal: Aretha Franklin at the opening of the Mica and Ahmet Ertegun Atrium at Lincoln Center, New York. Photograph: Mike Coppola/(Credit too long, see caption) 

You want to know why Aretha is the indisputable Queen of Soul? Watch this. You want to know why hacks like me send her fan mail by the week pleading for an interview, knowing there is sod-all hope, but not resenting her one smidge? Watch this. 

Aretha is performing at the 38th Annual Kennedy Center Honors, held on 6 December in Washington and broadcast on CBS on Tuesday night. It wasn’t even Aretha’s night. Oh no. This ceremony was to award, among others, Rita Moreno, George Lucas and Carole King. Then up steps Aretha to sing the King/Goffin/Wexler 1967 classic (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.

Look at King, open-mouthed in shock and awe (the right kind of shock and awe) – and this is before Aretha’s even opened hers. Everything about Aretha is astonishing – the range, depth, control in her voice, the phrasing, the passion, the playing, the floor-length fur, the sparkling clutch purse. The more Aretha sings, the harder it is to believe that King is not going to die and go to heaven. President Obama is wiping away tears before Aretha’s even done with the first verse. Aretha is 73, looks wonderful, and might just be singing better than ever.
President Obama wipes away a tear as Aretha Franklin sings. Photograph: CBS

To top everything, she throws the mink to the ground with supreme elan. Nobody chucks a fur like Aretha. This is not the performance of the year, it’s the performance of the millennium. Long live the Queen.