ARETHA FRANKLIN

AMAZING GRACE (2019)
Starring Aretha Franklin, Sydney Pollack, James Cleveland, Reverand James Cleveland and C.l. Franklin. Directed by Sydney Pollack and Alan Elliott.

The never-before-seen music documentary capturing Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, as she records the most successful gospel album of all time, 'Amazing Grace' with James Cleveland and the Southern California Community Choir. Recorded at The New Bethel Baptist Church in Watts, Los Angeles in January 1972. 'Amazing Grace' is crafted from never-before-seen footage that captures an elegiac moment in American musical history whilst saluting the get-up-on-your-feet gospel heritage that transformed American music in the 1960s.

REVIEWS Amazing Grace - An extraordinary document on the power of music

MUSCLE SHOALS (2013)
Starring Rick Hall, Aretha Franklin and Keith Richards. Directed by Greg.

Located alongside the Tennessee River, Muscle Shoals, Alabama is the unlikely breeding ground for some of America’s most creative and defiant music. Under the spiritual influence of the “Singing River,” as Native Americans called it, the music of Muscle Shoals has helped create some of the most important and resonant songs of all time. At its heart is Rick Hall who founded FAME Studios. Overcoming crushing poverty and staggering tragedies, Hall brought black and white together in Alabama’s cauldron of racial hostility to create music for the generations. He is responsible for creating the “Muscle Shoals sound” and The Swampers, the house band at FAME that eventually left to start their own successful studio, known as Muscle Shoals Sound. Gregg Allman, Bono, Clarence Carter, Mick Jagger, Etta James, Alicia Keys, Keith Richards, Percy Sledge and others bear witness to Muscle Shoals’ magnetism, mystery and why it remains influential today.

Exclusive to ACMI Melbourne.