The People’s Joker and Six Other Films That Were Stuck in Legal Limbo | Features

“Amazing Grace” (2018)

Aretha Franklin fans thought they’d never see it: the documentary Sydney Pollack filmed in January 1972 as the Queen of Soul recorded a live album in Los Angeles. The resulting record, “Amazing Grace,” remains the best-selling gospel album of all time, but the faithful craved the images that had been captured at the same time. Alas, Pollack’s cameramen had forgotten to use a clapper during the shoot, making it virtually impossible to marry the pictures to the sound. Consequently, the footage sat on a shelf for decades, seemingly destined to be one of the great what-could-have-been films.

But in 2010, a few years after Pollack’s death, momentum began to build to finally assemble the “Amazing Grace” documentary, supervised by producer Alan Elliott, who oversaw the laborious synchronization process. Unfortunately, when Elliott was preparing a 2011 premiere, he was stopped by a lawsuit from an unlikely person: Aretha Franklin. Although the singer had said she “loves” the movie, she claimed he’d used her likeness without her permission, blocking its release.

After decades of waiting for the “Amazing Grace” concert film, it would take another seven years—and Franklin’s death in 2018—for the movie to finally hit theaters. It was only then that Elliott revealed what Franklin’s lawsuit had really been about. 

“At a certain point her niece, who is now the executor of the will, came to me and said she had pancreatic cancer,” Elliott recalled. “And that sort of changed the viewpoint on it, to ‘Oh my god, why does she not like the movie’ to ‘Oh my god, we’ve made a eulogy for her’ and so of course she didn’t want the movie out. That became a decision that her family and I made which was not to put the movie out over the last three years because we didn’t want her to have to go through that.” 

Now out in the world, “Amazing Grace” is a fitting tribute to an incredible performer. Many of us thought we’d never see that film—but like so many of the examples on this list, it was worth the wait. 

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