PBS has announced they will feature a four-hour, two-part documentary on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, produced by Emmy-winning producer Helen Whitney.

The film is set to air on PBS stations April 30 and May 1 (2007) at 7 p.m., (check local listings for times and stations in your area) and will be the first-ever co-production of the Award-winning shows, "Frontline" and "American Experience".

The documentary, which took Whitney three years to put together after interviewing hundreds of people, will explore the origins and history of the church as well as the role of the church in today's society.

Whitney, who has done other memorable documentaries for "Frontline" like "Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero" and "John Paul II: The Millennial Pope", indicates she hopes the film will make people think about the error of old stereotypes.

"I hope that most of the stereotypes - ideally, all of them - will be blown away because so many of them are just based on ignorance -- ignorance about Mormon history, ignorance about Mormon theology -- ignorance," Whitney told the Deseret Morning News.

Sally Atkinson, a former BYU journalism student who now works in New York City for Newsweek, worked for Whitney for a year and a half as a researcher on the project. Because Whitney is known for spending lots of time on whatever her subject is, Atkinson said she thinks Whitney is the right one for the large task of documenting the Church.

"Even though I've been a member of the church all my life, it's still hard to imagine taking on a project of this scope," Atkinson said. "By weaving together diverse voices from inside and outside the church, Helen was able to create a respectful portrait of a complicated faith that will help people -- including ourselves -- learn more about us."

Part of Atkinson's appreciation for the documentary stems from Whitney's unfettered access to the church. Usually, the Public Relations department of the church allows restricted access to General Authorities and church archives. For this film, the doors of cooperation swung wide open.

"We've been fortunate to have a lot of cooperation from the church," Atkinson said. "We interviewed Elder Oaks, Elder Holland, Elder Packer and President Hinckley for this film. The church gave us unprecedented access and was very open and helpful."

The reason for allowing so much more access to the church seems to have been, at least in part, because of Whitney's success and notoriety as an award-winning and fair journalist.

"They [church leaders] had seen my films," Whitney said in a news release. "They realized ... that I was not going to approach them and be uncritical but I would be respectful, and it would be an intelligent film and searching."

The church had no say in what would be portrayed in the film.

The first two hours of the documentary focus on the church's history, from its beginnings in Palmyra, N.Y., and the persecutions in Missouri and Illinois, to the late 1800s when Wilford Woodruff issued the Manifesto ending polygamy, which in the documentary Whitney calls "the great accommodation."

"Why would they be so hated?" Jon Butler, professor of religion at Yale asked in the film. "It has to do with ... fear of unknown personal practices, polygamy, fear of unknown beliefs, the fear of power and hierarchy. Did the Mormons really think for themselves or did Joseph Smith think for them?"

The second half deals with more contemporary issues - the church in today's society, missionaries, temples, dissenters and apostates, family and humanitarian work, to name a few. Whitney calls the subject of the film "one of the great, neglected narratives of religious history."

Whitney neither gives the skeptical anti-Mormons and scholars or the LDS leaders absolute say on one particular issue or another. She lays out the story as it is and lets the viewer make his or her own decisions.

In one part of the movie, an excommunicated member argues that the church asks its members to rely too much on the Brethren and not enough on human intuition and "Mormon Intellectuals." In response, Whitney lets Elder Dallin H. Oaks defend the church's stance.

"The scriptures speak of prophets as being watchmen on the tower with the responsibility to warn when an enemy approaches," Elder Oaks said in the film. "The watchmen on the tower are going to say intellectualism is a danger to the church ... and if people leave their faith behind and follow strictly where science leads them, that can be a pretty crooked path."

It can be said any publicity is good publicity, but for the church, that isn't always the case. The firestorm of controversy surrounding "September Dawn," a film about the Mountain Meadows massacre that purportedly uncovers the "truth" about Brigham Young's role in the event based on "actual events," comes out around the same time as Whitney's documentary. Add to that Mitt Romney and his quest for the Presidency of the United States and the current political brouhaha over Dick Cheney's appearance at BYU commencement exercises, and you're bound to have lots of misunderstanding - and press releases clarifying church doctrine - sweeping through the news media.

Like almost anything involving church history of the Doctrine of the LDS church, opinions vary widely on Whitney's treatment of certain events in the church's past -- namely, polygamy and the Mountain Meadows massacre. PBS and Whitney have put an extremely tight lid on the project -- very few people, including the scholars who were interviewed in the production -- have seen any substantial part of the film. Despite that, some scholars who have seen it have expressed concern that too much time from the four-hour work was given to polygamy and Mountain Meadows and not enough on basic tenets of the faith. One scholar reported that Brigham Young is inaccurately portrayed in his role with what happened at Mountain Meadows. Because of concern, the church released a statement saying the documentary will cause debate.

"The big question that members of the church are asking is whether these programs will come close to capturing the essence of how Latter-day Saints define and see themselves," said Michael Purdy, of the Church Public Affairs Department, in the press release. "Will members look at these films and say, 'yes, that's me,' or will they look at it and say, 'even after four hours, they missed the point.' It comes down to both content and context and it is important that those closest to the faith see themselves in the portrayal."

Alex Baugh, professor of Church History and Doctrine at BYU, is one of many that think Whitney's film will be a good thing for the church.

"Award-winning media production personnel have basically said, 'The Mormon Church has captured our attention,'" said Baugh, who was interviewed and filmed by Whitney for the documentary. "It's intriguing. For Helen Whitney to want to portray to a national audience the history of the Latter-day Saints, what we believe, and who we are today is remarkable. It shows that the church is drawing a lot of attention in religious circles in America. I think the documentary will help to dispel a great deal of the misinformation, ignorance, prejudice and misunderstanding about the church and the LDS people."

However, the fact the documentary is airing on PBS has the drawback of not attracting a larger national commercial television viewing audience.

"PBS viewers are a somewhat different viewing audience," Baugh said. "For example, they are not as 'entertainment-minded' like those who watch reality television, game shows, sports channels or American Idol," Baugh said. "After all, public television is educational television, and viewers generally tune in because they want information, they want to learn, they want to understand."

Preview site on this program at PBS



Copyright Brigham Young University 17 Apr 2007