AFTER a 90-minute hearing in a Denver federal courthouse, U.S. District Judge John Kane has granted Aretha Franklin’s emergency injunction motion to stop the film “Amazing Grace” from premiering Friday night at the Telluride Film Festival.

    The documentary had been scheduled to screen at 7:30 p.m. in Telluride. In the wake of the court ruling, the festival announced it would screen Jennifer Peedom’s “Sherpa,” a documentary about the Sherpas who assist climbers on Mt. Everest, in that screening slot.

    The legendary singer filed papers late Thursday over a film that uses Sydney Pollack-shot footage of her 1972 concert performance at the New Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles. She argued that the deal she originally had made with producers allowed them to film the performance but required her consent to distribute the film and that “Amazing Grace” improperly used her likeness and name.

    “In 2008, a producer named Alan Elliott obtained rights to the footage of the concert from Warner Bros. Studios via a quitclaim deed,” the ruling states. “The quitclaim deed makes specific reference to the need to get Ms. Franklin’s permission to use the concert footage.”

    Elliott didn’t obtain such permission, so Kane granted an order preventing the showing of the film for at least 14 days.

    “Amazing Grace” was scheduled to be shown Friday at Telluride and then again at the Toronto Film Festival on Sept. 10. (SD-Agencies)