Aretha Franklin reacts to blocking screening of documentary

A federal judge in Denver granted a temporary restraining order to stop the Saturday night screening.

Joe Boyd, one of the movie’s producers, told the Detroit Free-Press on Thursday: “We are operating under the existing contract between Aretha Franklin and Warner Bros, which has governed the use of footage from this session in the past”.

However, the U.S. District Judge said that the document appeared to only relate to her music recordings. She is arguing that fantastic Grace improperly used her likeness and name.

Over the years, Franklin has opposed the projection of this 80-minute film because the video’s director, Sydney Pollack, who died in 2008, apparently made some technical errors in trying to dub the sound with the images, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“The producers needed to get her permission”.

The film shows the making of Franklin’s gospel album “Amazing Grace”, featuring James Cleveland, which she recorded in 1972 for Atlantic Records.

Here, Franklin has pulled off the extraordinary feat of enjoining the distribution of the film pending further exploration of her legal claims.

Running September 4-7, its placement on the annual festival calendar has Telluride, in the US state of Colorado, overlapping with the Venice Film Festival (Sept. 2 to 12) and the Toronto worldwide Film Festival (Sept. 10 to 20). And yet otherwise indispensible film sites are posting multi-page 2016 Oscar predictions, which, while shining a welcome spotlight on smaller titles, also include movies – like Joy, Bridge of Spies, and The Hateful Eight – that have screened for no one.

Close call: After testifying over the screening, the show was cancelled three hours before showtime [seen is a grab from the trailer for the unreleased film].

“There’s a real, substantial likelihood that Ms. Franklin does not own the rights to the images in that picture”, attorney Cecil Morris said.

A few years ago, Telluride Film Festival director Julie Huntsinger and her colleagues had a heated discussion about whether the influential mountain festival featured enough films directed by and starring women.

A spokesperson for the festival announced the ruling to attendees Friday afternoon, and said the documentary Sherpa would take its place.