Last month, Aretha Franklin and her legal team set into motion a halt on a documentary called “Amazing Grace” which documented the preparation and concert of her 1972 performance at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles. The concert was turned into a live album that is still the best-selling live Gospel album of all time with 2 million copies sold solely in the U.S.
Franklin’s lawyer Arnold Reed called the doc’s release an infringement on Franklin’s brand. "What we have here is a case of individuals who are hell-bent on exploiting the name and likeness of a world-renowned musical icon, at all costs,” Reed said in a statement. Reed and Franklin won a similar legal action back in 2011.
Well, it looks like they succeeded: Producers have withdrawn the film from the Toronto Film Festival in order to avoid a looming legal battle if they proceeded to the show the film.
The Toronto Film Festival said in a statement Tuesday that it is “extremely disappointed that Toronto audiences will not be able to see this extraordinary piece of art.”
Do you think the world will ever see this film?
