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Artist News Business News Legal
Injunction banning the screening of Aretha Franklin documentary made permanent
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 8 March 2016
The US courts have made permanent an injunction that bans the screening of a documentary featuring a 1972 performance by Aretha Franklin without the singer’s permission.
As previously reported, the film in question is called ‘Amazing Grace’ and documents Franklin recording the live gospel album of the same name. Franklin’s 1970s performance was filmed by the late director Sydney Pollack, but a technical error that occurred during the making of the documentary meant that the sound was never synchronised with the image, resulting in a silent movie that sat in a vault unseen until being completed only recently.
Producer Alan Elliott has since been trying to release the completed version of the documentary, but has met with resistance from Franklin herself, who says that her original agreement with Pollack means the footage can only be used with her express permission. The singer secured a temporary injunction to stop Elliott from screening the documentary last year, after the producer arranged to show it at some North American film festivals.
That injunction has now been made permanent, with judge John L Kane ruling yesterday that: “Absent further order of the court or specific written authorisation from Ms Aretha Franklin, defendant Alan Elliott, his agents, employees and all working in concert with the defendant, shall not publicly show, screen, project, display or otherwise release the film ‘Amazing Grace’, or the 1972 concert footage”.
But, says a legal rep for Elliott to The Hollywood Reporter, this week’s new ruling is just a formality, and talks between the producer and Franklin’s people are ongoing. Elliot still hopes that a deal will be reached, eventually, allowing the film to be shown. And, indeed, a joint motion filed with the court by both sides in the legal dispute said they were still “optimistic that the stars will eventually align” and allow the film to be screened, though “there is, at present, no assurance that a final resolution will be reached in the near term”.
