Banished to the Warner Bros. vaults in 1972 thanks to difficulties syncing audio tracks with film, Sydney Pollack’s document of the recording of Aretha Franklin’s “Amazing Grace” has finally made its way to the screen. With its focus searching and preserved outtakes, the footage has a haunting and experiential quality. Andrew Chan said it best: “There’s never been another performance film in which the on-screen audience seems just as aware of the event’s monumentality as the contemporary viewer is able to be in hindsight. Past and present meet in the light of this one certainty.” — Rachel Morgan
