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46 Years Later, Aretha Franklin's 'Amazing Grace' Resurrected by Modern Day Tech

Amazing Grace—a documentary film about #ArethaFranklin  two-night performance January 1972, which turned into one of the best-selling gospel albums of all time—makes its long-awaited debut with screenings at the DOC NYC festival. Although the 46-year delay was due in part to negotiation issues with Franklin herself, there was another reason entirely that a documentary shot by legendary director #SydneyPollack took so long to appear: The audio wasn’t synced correctly. Which, in 1972, was a catastrophic problem. “In 1972, even with the most compact 16mm film, you’re dealing with a big reel that goes through a camera slot,” explains Amazing Grace producer Alan Elliott. Back then, film crews used a clapperboard in order to be able to line up video footage with the audio. “You would put a 10-minute film canister on the mag, roll it up, and then clap it at the top, and record all the way for 10 minutes.” Clapping would presumably have been complicated during a live performance, but