Wow. Just wow. This documentary chronicles the recording of Aretha Franklin's Grammy-winning 1972 album of the same name, her best selling album and the best selling live gospel album ever, with the Southern California Community Choir in Watts.
Originally to be directed by Sydney Pollack, the footage was shelved for 35 years because of the following, and I quote directly from imdb: "Director Sydney Pollack was totally inexperienced in shooting music documentary and shot without clapper boards snapping shut at the beginning of each take to help synchronize sound and picture in post-production. As a result of this mistake, even after months of work by experts, the 20 hours of footage couldn't be synchronized with the audio tracks. The choir director from the Watts recordings was brought in to try to lip-read the reels, but after months of work, only about 150 minutes of footage had been matched with sound, none of it adding up to a complete, useable song. Deadlines passed as the "Amazing Grace" album came out in June 1972, selling millions with no synergy. In August, Warner Bros. officially wrote off and shelved the movie. Pollack never gave up on the project, but constantly had other commitments. In 2007, dying of cancer, Pollack finally handed the documentary project over to producer and music enthusiast Alan Elliott."
Jack and I loved it and recommend it to all music fans. We saw it April 25, 2019.
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