Aretha Franklin has stopped the Telluride Film Festival from screening the late Sydney Pollack's film "Amazing Grace" that documented her legendary church performance in 1972.
Franklin filed a 10-page complaint (obtained by Deadline) on Sept. 4 in Colorado court to bar the release of the film by the National Film Preserve. She also asked for $75,000 in damages and to threaten future damages to deter further unauthorized screenings.
A federal judge in Denver granted a temporary restraining order to stop the Saturday night screening. Franklin issued this statement in response: "Justice, respect and what is right prevailed and one's right to own their own self-image."
A public commercial screening of "Amazing Grace" requires Franklin's permission, according to the complaint. The documentary film shot by Pollack, who died in 2008, shows the Queen of Soul's 1972 concert at the New Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles.
"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," the complaint reads. "It is also in direct and specific violation of the quitclaim agreement by which the footage was obtained from the Warner Brothers organization by Mr. Alan Elliott, the purported producer of 'Amazing Grace.'"
Franklin sued Elliot in 2011 for use of the footage. They worked out a settlement and "the lawsuit was resolved after Elliott agreed to not release the film," according to the recent complaint.
"Amazing Grace" is still scheduled to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 10.
"We're proceeding with plans to screen 'Amazing Grace' at TIFF," TIFF Docs Programmer Thom Powers told Deadline. "We haven't heard of any legal procedures regarding the film in Toronto."
