Aretha Franklin forces documentary out of film festivals

TORONTO, Sept. 9 (UPI) -- A documentary portraying the making of Aretha Franklin's album Amazing Grace has been pulled from two major film festivals.

The singer filed a lawsuit against the filmmakers seeking "emergency injunctive release" over footage recorded over 40 years ago and was awarded the injunction by Colorado judge John L. Kane. Both the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals have been forced to cancel their screenings of the film due to the lawsuit.

A scheduled screening of Sydney Pollack's posthumous documentary at the Chicago Film Festival in October has also been cancelled, Variety reports.

According to Franklin, the film violates her intellectual property rights, among others. Specific footage of her shot for commercial purposes without her consent is reportedly the core of the issue in Franklin's case.

Footage for Amazing Grace was shot during the early seventies, when the "Respect" singer recorded the album at a church just outside of Los Angeles. Filmed by the late Pollack, and put together by producer Alan Elliot, the documentary was expected to make waves at the festivals and ultimately in the public sphere.

"We are extremely disappointed that Toronto audiences will not be able to see this extraordinary piece of art," representatives of the Toronto Film Festival said in a statement. "The footage in the film is truly a cinematic treasure of 20th century music and we hope global audiences will have opportunity to experience this film once a resolution is found."