Gleeful sounds from memories of childhood

In the movie,Queen Latifah plays Vi Rose,one of a pair of strong-willed rivals in a rural Georgia gospel choir. The other is G G (Dolly Parton),whose grandson (Jeremy Jordan) is hell bent on dating Vi Rose’s daughter (Keke Palmer) and believes that if the choir were to sing pop,it would make it to a national competition.

“Dolly,who is very,very religious,would say that I have been a vessel for this entire thing,” said Graff,who is Jewish.

Parton attested: “He has been! God worked through him,that’s what I told him. I would joke,‘What is this,Jews for Jesus?’ ”

To Graff Joyful Noise is not a religious movie. “That’s not who I am,” he said. “For me,it’s a movie about the transcendent nature of art and music,and all kinds of high-falutin stuff.”

“It’s slightly more innocent than I wanted it to be,” Graff conceded of Joyful Noise,which is being distributed by Warner Brothers. Referring to a scene in which the teenage leads make out,he said: “There was a cut of the movie where it was slightly more risqué. The studio felt strongly that that was not what they wanted. So I had to trim it back. It is what it is.”

Graff,an openly gay 52-year-old whose directorial debut,Camp (2003),featured three main characters who were gay,doesn’t have misgivings about controversial material. “Obviously it’s not something that I as a filmmaker and artist shy away from,God knows,” he said.

Besides,he was able to express himself in other ways. Fearing that the sight of Parton,who has had a few nips and tucks since her last big feature-film role,in Straight Talk from 1992,would distract moviegoers,he suggested they have some fun with it. “I had to have that conversation very early on,” he recounted. Parton recalled,“I told him,‘You can say anything you want about me as long as it’s funny.’ ”

Parton wound up with lines like “God didn’t make plastic surgeons so they would starve.” She also insisted on getting in a few digs herself,she said,telling Queen Latifah’s character,“My doctor does good liposuction too.”

Like Camp,his latest film grew out of a fond childhood memory. Growing up in Bellerose,Queens,Graff would come home twice a week to find a Hadassah choir rehearsing in his living room,his mother drilling it to perform at nursing homes. “She was a taskmaster,” he said of his mother,Judy Graff,who died in 1987.

Joyful Noise is essentially “my mother’s story,starring Queen Latifah,” he said. “I know this is going to sound insane,but even though I was writing in Southern colloquialisms and African-American colloquialisms,I didn’t have Queen Latifah in my head when I was writing it. I had my mom in my head.” The film’s milieu was inspired by a national gospel choir competition he attended in Newark a few

years ago.

As Graff prepared for the release of Joyful Noise,an agent advised him to work up some ideas that aren’t musicals so he can avoid being pigeonholed. He replied: “How old do you think I am? I’ve got five more movies in me until I die.” Graff said he would make musicals as long as Hollywood will let him. ARI KARPEL