Aretha Franklin seeks to stop sales screenings of 'Amazing Grace' doc

Aretha Franklin has amended her original complaint against Amazing Grace producer Alan Elliot, claiming he held a screening of the documentary for buyers.

Aretha Franklin has amended her original complaint against Amazing Grace producer Alan Elliot, claiming he held a screening of the documentary for buyers.

Franklin has declared her renewed intention “to stop the unauthorized release and showing for commercial purposes” related to the documentary Amazing Grace, which shows footage from a 1972 concert in which she performed at the Missionary Baptist Church, reports The Hollywood Reporter.

Previously, Franklin had been granted a controversial temporary injunction against the film at the Telluride Film Festival, and the injunction served to remove the film from the festival’s lineup. However, Franklin alleged in the amended complaint that Elliot held a screening in Toronto for buyers despite the injunction against it and that the screening “violates Ms. Franklin’s contractual and statutory rights, her rights to use and control her name and likeness, and represents an invasion of her privacy.”

The complaint requests a declaration of “the right to control the use of her name and likeness” and that “the footage of her 1972 gospel concert may not be used by Mr. Elliott without her explicit authorization.”

Furthermore, she is now seeking a permanent injunction against Elliot and “his agents, employees and all those working in concert with him, from publicly releasing or using for commercial purposes of the film” the footage from the gospel concert.

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