Saturday, July 11, 2020

"Amazing Grace"


The Mayfair Theatre at 8734 S. Broadway, then the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church, was the location for the shoot by Sydney Pollack of what ended up as the Aretha Franklin documentary "Amazing Grace" (Neon, 2019). It was originally intended for a 1972 release by Warner Bros. but never finished. Alan Elliott was given Pollack's blessing to finish the film and in 2007, after Pollack's death, he acquired the footage that Pollack had shot, with unsynchronized sound.

Elliott finished the film but Franklin never wanted the footage released and sued to block a private showing in 2011 and public screenings at the Telluride Festival in 2015 and other locations in 2016. After Franklin's death her family came to an agreement with Elliott to allow him to do a release in 2019. The premiere was at the church.

The photo by Tim Greiving is a view of the former theatre before the March 31 premiere of the film. It appears with "Aretha Franklin's 'Amazing Grace' Gets LA Premiere In The Church Where It Took Place," an April 2019 article by Mr. Greiving on the NPR website. Thanks to Donavan S. Moye for spotting the story.  

Wikipedia also has a story about the film.

For more about the theatre see the Mayfair Theatre page on the Los Angeles Theatres site.

On IMDb: "Amazing Grace"

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