Amazing Grace

Captured over two transcendent nights in 1972, Amazing Grace brings Aretha Franklin home to the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles for a legendary gospel performance. With the congregation singing, swaying, clapping, and testifying alongside her, Franklin transforms the church into a space of collective release and ecstatic communion. The film’s intimacy—its sweat, tears, and sheer physical presence—makes music feel less like something performed than something lived. Directed by Sydney Pollack and finally released decades after it was shot, Amazing Grace is a testament to an artist of earth-shaking talent, and a celebration of Black musical and spiritual traditions as a source of joy and collective power. All hail the Queen of Soul.