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In Search Of A Transcendental Film Style: The Cinematic Art Form And The Mormon Motion Picture, Thomas J. Lefler

Theses and Dissertations

This project is an effort to establish a paradigm for reading and tracing transcendence in film art and film propaganda. It addresses the intersection of aesthetic and spiritual planes which is supported by a long and complex tradition of art within religious worship. The study selects a single film as a microcosm of larger issues of cinematic representation and spirituality, in particular the theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). It makes a formalistic comparison of structural and and stylistic elements between a Mormon long-form narrative, Legacy (1994) with the classic Hollywood narrative on the one …