Alan Elliott is a man of perseverance. After working with Warner Brothers Records, along with Steven Bochco, and on the infamous television musical ‘Cop Rock,’ Elliott sunk his teeth into Sydney Pollack’s (Out of Africa, Tootsie) abandoned project, ‘Amazing Grace.’

The documentary presented Aretha Franklin and a choir at the New Bethel Baptist Church in Watts, Los Angeles, January of 1972. After Pollack’s successful film ‘The Way We Were’ launched Barbra Streisand’s film career, the studios promised Franklin a similar journey. For various reasons, the film fell apart.

Decades later, Elliott decided to pick up the pieces. Specifically, these pieces were boxes and boxes from Pollack’s private collection. To the buyer’s surprise, the films were disorganized, not linked in terms of audio and visual, and utterly a complete mess.

In this interview, the composer turned director discusses discipline, why insanity is necessary for a creative mind, the responsibility of a filmmaker, why creativity is so personal, the modern infrastructure of the music business in terms of making and publicizing art, a favorite moment with Mick Jagger, and his ongoing fascination with the Queen of Soul.

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