Mormon cinema

Mormon cinema usually refers to films with themes relevant to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The term has also been used to refer to films that do not necessarily reflect Mormon themes but have been made by Mormon filmmakers. Films within the realm of Mormon cinema may be distinguished from institutional films produced by the LDS Church, such as "" and "Testaments," which are made for instructional or proselyting purposes and are non-commercial. Mormon cinema is produced mainly for the purposes of entertainment and potential financial success.
Though Latter-day Saints have been involved in the film industry in various ways since the early 20th century, independent Mormon cinema is a relatively new phenomenon. Many scholars and filmmakers accredit Richard Dutcher's 2000 film "God's Army" with ushering in the modern Mormon cinema movement. Following the commercial success of Dutcher's film, Mormon producers and directors began to market distinctly Mormon movies to LDS audiences, especially those living in the Mormon Corridor. This began with a wave of Mormon comedy movies, such as "The Singles Ward" (2002) and "The R.M." (2003), that focused on the more comedic aspects of the culture surrounding the religion. Films within the Mormon cinema subgenre typically rely heavily on LDS themes and are marketed mostly toward Latter-day Saints, though there has been an effort to "cross over" into more general topics and appeal to a wider audience. Generally, Latter-day Saints produce and direct the films. Over the years, Mormon cinema has explored a variety of production methods: widespread commercial release, single-theatre release, and direct-to-DVD release.
Production of Mormon films has slowed since the early 2000s, but those in the niche industry continue to release movies covering distinctly LDS topics, such as Mormon missionaries and LDS Church history. Theological elements, such as man's ability to be close to God, remain present in Mormon films.
Defining "Mormon cinema".
There is debate surrounding what should and should not be classified as "Mormon cinema." For example, Don Bluth's animated films, such as "The Land Before Time" (1988) and "Anastasia" (1997), carry some themes and undertones that coincide with the director's religion but lack overtly LDS characteristics. Preston Hunter, one of the creators of ldsfilm.com, limits the definition of Mormon cinema to films released commercially. They must be made, according to Hunter, by members of the church, and feature "overtly Latter-day Saint characters or themes." This definition would exclude "Brigham Young" (1940) because its director, Henry Hathaway, was not a member of the church. That film, however, harbored obvious Mormon aspects; church leaders at the time even had a hand in its production. In the absence of definite criteria, the definition of Mormon cinema often shifts to reflect whatever is included in the annual LDS Film Festival.
History.
Early 20th-century Mormon films.
Prior to the advent of filmmaking, a major shift occurred in the LDS Church from isolationism to a period of growth. In the 1890s, the practice of plural marriage ended, and Utah became a U.S. state. This context provided Mormons with a reason to begin making films once the technology presented itself; they wanted to portray contemporary Mormonism to a wide audience. The church produced institutional films shortly after the industry was born. Independently, however, Latter-day Saints were somewhat hesitant to adopt filmmaking as a method of storytelling. The early 20th-century leaders of the LDS Church warned members against the potentially detrimental effects of cinema on society. However, the abundance of sensationalist pictures with anti-Mormon themes during the silent film era resulted in the desire on the part of Mormons to combat these portrayals with their own. By 1913, an article in "The Young Woman's Journal," a Latter-day Saint publication, declared that the new medium of film would "help the world at large to an understanding of our [Mormon] history." Subsequently, the 1920s saw a boom in theater construction in Utah and the number of Mormon moviegoers. By the 1930s and 40s, movies had become key component of Latter-day Saint life. Lester Card's "" (1931) was the first film within the Mormon niche to be commercially released, though it disappointed both audiences and investors. Twentieth Century Fox's "Brigham Young" (1940) was much more successful; a celebration was held in Salt Lake City on the film's release date, and "Brigham Young" became the film with "the largest premiere in American history to that point."
Silent film era.
Between the years 1905 and 1915, nineteen known movies portraying Mormonism were produced. These were not, however, made by Latter-day Saints; many were lurid tales of hypnotic missionaries and Western pioneer stories with storylines revolving around massacres or kidnappings. The LDS church worked with LDS and non-LDS directors alike to create films that painted the history of Utah and Mormonism in a more positive light, but "harsh depictions" of Mormons—such as those in "A Victim of the Mormons" (1911), "A Mormon Maid" (1917), and "Trapped by the Mormons" (1922)—overshadowed those church-produced films—such as "One Hundred Years of Mormonism" (1913) and "The Life of Nephi" (1915)—in the market. In 1930, however, the adoption of the Motion Picture Production Code (MPPC) required gentler treatment of religious subject matters; it prohibited films that featured "the ridicule of religious denominations, their leaders, or adherents." Thus, the production of anti-Mormon silent films slowed to a halt.
"One Hundred Years" was considered a large-scale production for its time; it was 90 minutes long and involved "a cast of over a thousand, an elaborate reconstruction of sections of [the city of] Nauvoo, and four concurrently running cameras". It told in detail the story of the LDS Church, beginning with the birth of its founder, Joseph Smith, and constituted one hundred scenes. In the realm of Mormon cinema, "One Hundred Years of Mormonism" "remains the single most important commercial film release of the silent cinema," mainly because of its being directly influenced by people who themselves had been Mormon pioneers. It was shown in theaters worldwide; cinemas in Buenos Aires, Sydney, Peking, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Paris, and London requested reels. Only a few minutes of the film survive today.
From 1916 to 1929, brothers Shirley and Chester Clawson made the first documentary-style films for the church. They recorded segments of the church's semiannual General Conference, shots of LDS landmarks (such as Temple Square), and scenes from the everyday lives of general authorities of the church. Most of their work was destroyed in a fire in 1929.
Growth and development, 1958–2000.
In the 1950s, the Brigham Young University (BYU) Motion Picture Department was created, and in 1958 it grew into the BYU Motion Picture Studio (BYU MPS). This was a major step towards greater autonomy for the Mormon cinema industry; though most of the work produced at the BYU MPS was non-commercial and church-produced, it paved the way for the creation of independent Mormon cinema. Overall, the LDS film industry became much more established from the 1950s-70s under the influence of David O. McKay and Wetzel Whitaker. In 1978, Spencer W. Kimball called for Mormon filmmakers to create "masterpiece[s] which would live forever."
The range of years from 1973 to 2000 has been called the "Mass Media Era" in Mormon cinema. Particularly in the years before the internet, the church encouraged its members to look to its "correlated"—that is, church-produced—films and filmstrips for information and faith-building entertainment. The films produced during this time mostly fit into that category; they were products of the church itself, not of its members independently. However, a growing number of Latter-day Saints began to work in the entertainment industry.
The birth of modern Mormon cinema: 2000-2006.
In more recent decades, Mormon-made and -themed films produced neither by the church nor by big Hollywood film studios have garnered recognition among LDS audiences. The Mormon cinema movement began in 2000, when director Richard Dutcher realized the potential for a Mormon niche within the film industry and commercially released "God's Army," a movie depicting LDS missionaries in Los Angeles. He wanted to improve the way Mormon characters were portrayed on screen. The film, which was produced on a budget of $300,000, grossed upwards of $2.5 million at the box office. "God's Army" was unique for the time in that it combined a number of unfamiliar factors: an LDS director, an LDS subject matter, a theatrical distribution, and a marketing campaign that targeted Mormon moviegoers. It earned Dutcher the title of "the father of modern Latter-day Saint cinema." "God's Army"'s release marked a major shift in the subgenre; it was not the first widely shown Mormon film, but it demonstrated the viability of such a film achieving relative commercial success.
Mormon comedies.
Observing the financial success of "God's Army," Kurt Hale and Dave Hunter founded Halestorm Entertainment in 2001 and focused the new company's efforts on making and distributing Mormon movies. Halestorm began releasing slapstick comedies with Mormon-centric humor in the early 2000s, including titles such as "The R.M." (2003), "The Home Teachers" (2004), "Baptists at Our Barbecue" (2004), "Sons of Provo" (2004), and "Mobsters and Mormons" (2005). The company kept production costs low by filming in its home state of Utah or in nearby Arizona or Idaho. Alongside Halestorm, Excel Entertainment (founded by former Disney executive Jeff Simpson) and Zion Films have spearheaded the production and distribution of Mormon cinema.
Films that rely heavily on the viewers' understanding of LDS vocabulary, social norms and self-deprecating cultural humor rarely find success among general audiences. This was true of satirical comedies "The Singles Ward" (2002), "The R.M.," and "The Home Teachers". "Singles Ward," branded "the first major LDS comedy," focuses on a subgroup of Mormon culture: young adults in Utah Valley searching for future spouses. In a discussion of these comedies, screenwriter and director Randy Astle writes that "many of the jokes and references [are] incomprehensible for Church members as close as Idaho, let alone India." The films also tended to lack depth, "[poking] fun at the faith without offering much insight." Director Richard Dutcher and reviewers Sean P. Means and Thomas Baggaley responded to the early 2000s' wave of Mormon films by expressing concern over the way the subgenre was headed. They worried about directors and production companies relying too heavily on Mormon-centric humor and the newness of Mormon cinema instead of producing quality films with worthwhile plotlines. These movies did, however, prove to be popular among Latter-day Saint audiences. Terryl Givens, associate professor of English, attributes this success to the desire of Mormon audiences to see their own "distinctive eccentricities" represented on the screen. He writes: "The popularity of these comedic films seems in part to derive from a people hungry for entertainment that validates their own cultural specificity. Like insiders to a private joke, Mormons can comfortably laugh at a genre that … promotes Mormon cohesion and reifies and confirms Mormon self-definition." In an interview, Will Swenson, director of "Sons of Provo," stated that "representation matters. People "want" to see themselves on-screen. And there are a ton of Mormons out there." However, by 2006, Halestorm discovered that the enthusiasm for Mormon-centric movies had died down. The niche was too new to support the many films that were being produced for it. So, Halestorm pivoted by rebranding a part of itself as "Stone Five Studios" and releasing its next comedy, "Church Ball" (2006), with less references to religion and Mormon culture. Richard Dutcher released a follow-up to "God's Army, States of Grace," in 2005, but some Mormon moviegoers disapproved of the film for its "not altogether positive depiction of Mormons." In 2006, author Dean C. Hale proposed that most Mormons simply do not take an interest in Mormon cinema. This, he said, may be related to the LDS Church encouraging its members to prioritize other aspects of life—such as family—before entertainment.
Efforts at mass appeal and growth.
LDS film directors have been attempting to appeal to a national audience since the early 2000s. The 2003 crossover film "," for example, avoided direct references to Mormonism. Its director, Andrew Black, sought to focus on other elements of the story, with Mormon culture as "just a backdrop." Professor Travis T. Anderson argues that LDS films revolving around universal human themes—such as "challenges, struggles, desire, and day-to-day experiences"—with just a splash of religious undertones achieve success in the movie market despite the Mormon cultural aspects they carry, which can seem strange to general audiences. He cites "The Other Side of Heaven" (2001), "Saints and Soldiers" (2003), "Napoleon Dynamite" (2004), and "New York Doll" (2005) as examples of such "critical and financial success stories in Mormon cinema." "Saints and Soldiers" gained recognition at multiple small film festivals; and the 2001 murder mystery "Brigham City", while not praised by audiences, received critical acclaim. The documentary "New York Doll" tells the story of a member of a rock band—who also happens to be Mormon—and the reconciliation of his two worlds. It demonstrates the commonly-held goal of Mormon filmmakers to bridge the gap between how Mormons are perceived and the concept of the typical American. Larry Miller, owner of the Utah jazz, invested millions of dollars into producing "The Work and the Glory" (2004) in an effort to tell the story of the history of the LDS Church. Mormon filmmakers have often made the argument that films with distinctly Mormon characteristics have the potential to appeal to general audiences. Additionally, LDS films have been featured in theaters around the United States. Mormon cinema has also been the subject of aesthetic discussion. Doc Films, a student film society at the University of Chicago, hosted a Mormon film series in 2007.
Some Mormon films were marketed differently to the larger market than they were to their niche audience. The national release DVD cover of "Brigham City," for example, featured "much more implied violence" than the cover released to the Mormon Corridor. When new films were released, their launch was often accompanied by the creation of a website dedicated to promoting the film. Most of the family-oriented films marketed to Mormon audiences never made it to theaters, but went right to DVD distribution through large and small e-commerce websites, such as Amazon and LDSVideoStore.com. Deseret Book Company and Seagull Book were at the forefront of Mormon DVD distribution. In general, the most successful Mormon films were those made with high-quality equipment and distributed by an entertainment company, such as Halestorm or Excel Entertainment.
As the Mormon film industry blossomed, so did commentary and criticism. In 2000, the Association for Mormon Letters created a film category for its AML Awards. That same year, Preston Hunter and Thomas Baggaley created ldsfilm.com, which became the central hub for discussions and announcements concerning Mormon cinema. The site provided a place for "a Mormon film community" to form, helping visitors stay apprised of upcoming LDS movies. Then in 2001, the first LDS Film Festival was held in Provo, Utah. Attendance more than doubled at the event's fifth year. The modern Mormon cinema movement was large enough to spawn celebrities, such as Kirby Heyborne, within the Mormon community. As of 2009, there were 4,591 entries of film or television shows in the Mormon Literature and Creative Arts Database. The term "Mollywood"—a portmanteau of "Mormon" and "Hollywood"—was used to describe the films of this era.
Present day.
Eric Samuelsen, associate professor of theatre and media arts, has noted that "many [LDS] films from 2005 onward have performed so poorly at the box office that the movement seems to have lost at least some of its momentum." In 2014, LDS actor Jim Bennett wrote in a "Deseret News" article that "the hunger [for LDS films] is still there but the novelty has worn off." Some scholars have argued that the quality of LDS cinema has plateaued due to both directors and audiences "ascertain[ing] what is morally wrong in films they see, and remain[ing] uninterested in seeking out, discriminating, or creating what is right (morally or aesthetically) in film." Publications such as "BYU Studies Quarterly, Irreantum, Sunstone, and " have featured criticism of LDS cinema. The Mormon blogosphere (sometimes referred to as the "bloggernacle") has also contributed film reviews over the years.
Mormon filmmakers have continued to produce movies centered around LDS missionaries, but often from new perspectives; "The Saratov Approach" (2013) was a thriller set in Russia, "The Errand of Angels" (2008) focused on female missionaries, and "Freetown" (2015) told the story of African missionaries escaping the First Liberian Civil War. On the subject of film, author Heather Bigley writes: "As American members [of the LDS Church] begin to think of themselves as part of a world-wide organization, efforts at self-definition abound." There have also been recent releases in the vein of LDS Church history, such as "The Fighting Preacher" (2019) and "Out of Liberty" (2019). The Mormon films released since 2005 have mainly been small, independent features. They are, however, arguably of a higher artistic quality than their predecessors, and tend to have a "moral of the story." There has arguably been more variety in Mormon cinema in more recent years. In March 2021, LDS filmmaker Barrett Burgin argued that films made by and about Latter-day Saints still have the potential to be marketable to a larger audience, but stressed the need to prioritize storytelling over a missionary message. He also identified some elements of LDS doctrine, culture, history, and lore—such as polygamy, violence, buried treasure, folk magic, and miracles—as marketable film elements. These, he said, range from "radically weird" to "clean-cut and conservative," and the intrigue surrounding that dichotomy could attract the interest of viewers.
The LDS Film Festival is still held annually in Orem, Utah, usually around the same time as the Sundance Film Festival. The 2020 festival commemorated 20 years of Mormon cinema: 20 years, that is, since the release of Richard Dutcher's "God's Army," the film credited with starting the movement. The subgenre has become an important part of cultural expression for Latter-day Saints. Director and screenwriter Randy Astle has argued that, "along with music and temple architecture, [film] is the most prominent Mormon art form". LDS films are commonly made in the Rocky Mountains, New England, New York City, and Los Angeles.
MPAA ratings.
One aspect of the culture of LDS cinema is heightened concern over MPAA film ratings. The leaders of the LDS Church have advised members not to watch R-rated films, but Mormons provide a substantial market for G- and PG-rated films. For example, a movie theater in Sandy, Utah was home to the highest attendance for viewings of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets;" and, as of 2011, Latter-day Saints constituted 69% of Utah's population. R-ratings are rare among Mormon-made films; they have been described as having "a 1950s sensibility about them."
Selected filmography.
Comedy.
Several comedies, mostly produced by Dave Hunter, have also been released. Because the humor of these films often relies on specifically Utah-centric Latter Day Saint culture, they tend to have a smaller audience than the other LDS subgenres, even among Mormon viewers.