Director Sydney Pollack filmed the singer in concert at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles back in 1972, as she recorded her live album Amazing Grace, but he struggled to sync the sound and video footage and subsequently decided to dump the film.

Pollack died in 2008, but producer Alan Elliott recently set about restoring the documentary, also titled Amazing Grace, and was preparing to unveil it at the Telluride Film Festival on Friday night.

Franklin filed her complaint in U.S. District Court in Colorado on Friday, claiming the footage was "taken with the express understanding that it would not be used commercially without agreement and consent by Ms. Franklin".

The documents go on to state, "Allowing the film to be shown violates Ms. Franklin's contractual rights, her intellectual property rights, her rights to use and control her name and likeness, and represents an invasion of her privacy."

A judge had yet to rule on the matter as WENN went to press, but, during a press conference on Friday (04Sep15), festival boss Julie Huntsinger insisted the Amazing Grace screening was "still on".

She told reporters, "(Franklin's) lawyers are trying to stop us from showing the film. Let's just hope the paperwork that is filed has us covered. But (Franklin) should be proud."

Amazing Grace is scheduled to screen at Telluride on Saturday (05Sep15) and Sunday (06Sep15), too, while it is also included in the line-up for the Toronto Film Festival in Canada next week (begs07Aug15).