Film

To read more from Daniel, visit his blog Sic Et Non.

Every week, it seems, there’s a new Hulu or Netflix miniseries focused on Latter-day Saints — and these productions never seem to be positive, friendly, sympathetic, or even balanced.  The latest of them — so far as I’m aware! — is Hulu’s Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke.  With his kind permission, I share something that Christopher Blythe posted a day or two ago on his Facebook page, about Devil in the Family:

I watched the new Ruby Franke docu-series on Hulu. It wasn’t terrible as far as these things go, but, for me, was often hard to watch. I was annoyed by the effort to contextualize my home (“Happy Valley” as the show repetitively called it the first fifteen minutes) and my people in ways that made them seem particularly other from the rest of America in all the worst ways. One of the first silly comments was a guy explaining that “Mormons go on missions to show the world how perfect their lives are.” Uhhhh…. I spent two years on my feet and it definitely wasn’t to convince people we were perfect. Lol. The basic theme of the show was that the faith had caused this once idealized family to seek the appearance of perfection, filled them with guilt, etc. I’m not saying the LDS context isn’t important – I’ve made my career writing about similar things – but I am saying that there is no direct line from LDS-ness to abusing your children, internalized guilt that allows manipulation from psychologists and spouses, or the belief that “woke children” are zombies. But mainly I am exhausted by show after show commercializing my people by stereotyping them as secret hypocrites who present perfection to the world but are actually mentally unstable and dangerous; easily manipulated victims of conmen; sexually repressed; and “in a bubble.” I became a Latter-day Saint 30 years ago and observe our culture professionally. I am convinced that I am surrounded by folks that have lived around the world, speak multiple languages, have overcome great challenges, and are personally and professionally innovative. Sure, I want us to be more mystical and less materialistic, but I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to claim a place among this group of believers.

Meanwhile, in other movie news related to Latter-day Saints, Witnesses is still available for free streaming, contrary to my expectations.  And Six Days in August can be streamed from several platforms, though not for free.  We probably shouldn’t leave it entirely to Hulu and Netflix to tell our stories for us.  They may not have the best interests of the Kingdom at heart.

Perhaps we should make some of our own movies?  Today, by the way, our core group of filmmakers captured an interview by John Donovan Wilson of Professor Gerrit Dirkmaat.  It’s for the Interpreter Foundation’s documentary series Becoming Brigham, which is now in the first stages of production.  I wanted to be there for the interview, which is based on his remarks to the eleventh annual birthday part of the Interpreter Foundation, “Sweeter Than Honey: Brigham Young’s Devotion to Joseph Smith’s Teachings After the Martyrdom.”  I regard the interview with Gerrit as a vitally important one for our project, but I was unable to make it.

Also on the subject of cinematography (which seems, for some reason, to be much on my mind of late):  I’m very pleased to see that the short film The Good Samaritan — a 45-minute dramatic re-creation of the biblical parable known by that name — won the Audience Choice award at the recent Zions Indy Film Fest.  James Dalrymple was the director, while Howard Collett was the producer.  I consider them both friends, have worked with both, and look forward, if it proves feasible, to working with them again in the future.  Howard, in fact, is our former neighbor and bishop, and is part of a very small — five-member! — reading group in which my wife and I also participate.

One last movie note:  I’m hoping to be able to watch this in the not too distant future:  “‘Sharing Aloha’: Emotion-rich new documentary about the Polynesian Cultural Center full of ‘magic’:The subjects of a new film by the director of ‘Meet the Mormons’ say he captures the miracles that Hawaii’s most-popular tourist attraction generates in their lives”