Religious Education Commons^™

The Second Wave: Home Cinema (1929-1953), Randy Astle, Gideon O. Burton

BYU Studies

The Second Wave differed from the First in various respects. For instance, by the 1930s the global film industry was well past its primitive pioneer era, and, within Mormonism, the increased sophistication of Second Wave films reflects this progress. In addition, technical advances (principally sound, but also color) renewed enthusiasm about the medium, both generally and among the Latter-day Saints. While this optimism did propel institutional and independent Mormon filmmaking toward some major projects, the decade of the 1930s—and to a lesser extent the 1940s— has generally been described for its lack of Mormon film production. Such a perception, however, …

The Third Wave: Judge Whitaker And The Classical Era (1953-1974), Randy Astle, Gideon O. Burton

BYU Studies

The Third Wave of Mormon cinema is unquestionably the age of Judge Whitaker. He represents the development of Mormon film from its pioneer infancy into classical maturity. The similarities to Hollywood’s classical era are numerous (with important exceptions). Most obviously, Mormon film finally left behind the multitasking artisanal mode of prior decades in favor of a studio-based industrial infrastructure featuring specialized workers. Equally important, the BYU studio produced films of an identifiable, consistent, and aesthetically and culturally conservative style deeply rooted in Hollywood norms. It supplied a steady stream of products to a vertically integrated distribution and exhibition network. Finally, …

The Fourth Wave: The Mass Media Era (1974-2000), Randy Astle, Gideon O. Burton

BYU Studies

The Fourth Wave deserves to be known as the Mass Media Era for at least three reasons. First, it was the first period dominated by video technology and various media besides traditional film; though I shall continue to use the term filmmaking, the majority of productions were now distributed electronically, even if they did not originate that way. Second, because of electronic distribution and the inexpensiveness and ubiquity of video, this era was marked by an incredibly wide dissemination of film compared with previous eras. Television, VHS, and satellite broadcasts revolutionized distribution by making obsolete the exhibition of an …

Finding An Audience, Paying The Bills: Competing Business Models In Mormon Cinema, Eric Samuelsen

BYU Studies

The Hollywood business model most filmmakers employ involves both a production company and a film studio. The two entities make a deal, and the production company shoots the movie before the studio promotes and sells the movie. Hence, films that don't attract the support of a studio often can't be advertised and distributed as widely. In many cases, the movies can't even be made without a studio's financial backing. In the Mormon film industry, some filmmakers have employed the usual Hollywood business model. Others have created their own studios to market their films, like Halestorm, and some filmmakers bypass the …

A Manifesto For "Fit For The Kingdom": Dean Duncan's Proposal For A Mormon Documentary Series, Gideon O. Burton

BYU Studies

Developments in Mormon cinema in the last few years have taken place not only with popular narrative feature films intended for theatrical exhibition. Independently produced documentary film, which actually has a stronger tradition within Mormonism, has also been growing. One group, a coalition of Brigham Young University faculty and students and independent filmmakers led by Dean Duncan of BYU’s Theatre and Media Arts Department, has been creating a series of documentary films entitled “Fit for the Kingdom.”

Toward A Mormon Cinematic Aesthetic: Film Styles In Legacy, Thomas J. Lefler, Gideon O. Burton

BYU Studies

Latter-day Saints aspire to movies that enhance, rather than undermine, their spiritual lives and that respect their religious convictions. However, discussion among Mormons about film tends to focus primarily on content—the presence of inappropriate content or the desire for more family-friendly subjects. Mormons are not alone in looking to film as a way of powerfully presenting religious themes and ideas. Biblical films, for example, have been a staple from the beginning of motion pictures. However, a film’s content is not its only religious dimension. Many films that portray ostensibly religious subjects, argues film theorist Michael Bird, “have too often erred …

The Mormons. Produced By Helen Whitney., Brian Q. Cannon, Mario S. De-Pillis, Richard E. Bennett

BYU Studies

The Mormons. Produced by Helen Whitney. Melbourne, Fla.: PBS Video, 2007

New York Doll. Directed By Greg Whiteley., Nathan Richardson

BYU Studies

New York Doll. Directed by Greg Whiteley. One Potato Productions, 2005

Angie. Produced By The Tom Russell Family., Randy Astle

BYU Studies

Angie. Produced by the Tom Russell family. Fit for the Kingdom, 2006

Full Issue, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Seeking After The Good In Art, Drama, Film, And Literature, Travis T. Anderson

BYU Studies

Not long ago, kids in tow, I burst in unannounced on my parents and found them absorbed in some ubiquitous TV sitcom. While we peeled off our coats and the kids started chasing each other around the house, I jokingly chided my mom for wasting her time on such mindless drivel. In reply, she playfully denounced my elitist taste and defended her show as “good, wholesome entertainment.” Well, it may indeed have been entertaining. And being a show that originally aired back in the early eighties and even then was aimed at an older demographic, it was relatively free of …

The Sixth Annual Lds Film Festival, January 17-20, 2007, Candy Eash

BYU Studies

The Sixth Annual LDS Film Festival, January 17–20, 2007. SCERA Center for the Arts, Orem, Utah

Active Spectatorship: Spiritual Dimensions Of Film, Sharon Swenson

BYU Studies

Menacing music signals something ominous. My three-year-old grandson, Gavin, looks up at me, and we hug each other closer under the quilt, shivering in anticipation. In the background is . . . something . . . and it’s getting closer and closer. What seemed like something small and close by is really something large and far away and getting closer by the second. Squeeze tighter; Gavin glances up at me and giggles, but I remain serious and calm, preparing for whatever might come. It’s a whale! Zooming toward us!

The Mormon As Vampire: A Comparative Study Of Winifred Graham's The Love Story Of A Mormon, The Film Trapped By The Mormons, And Bram Stoker's Dracula, James V. D'Arc

BYU Studies

Between 1911 and 1926, novels and films fueled anti-Mormon sentiment in Great Britain. Winifred Graham's novel The Love Story of a Mormon portrayed a mesmerizing polygamist deceiving and enslaving girls. Later, Graham's book was made into the film Trapped by the Mormons. Both the novel and the movie drew images from vampire lore made popular by Bram Stoker's Dracula. The Mormon villain in Trapped by the Mormons has come from a faraway land, promises the possibility of eternal life, and can mesmerize victims, like Count Dracula. Though sensationalistic, the film colored British audience's perceptions of Mormon missionaries as …

Poetic Parallelisms In The Book Of Mormon, Donald W. Parry

Maxwell Institute Publications

Poetic Parallelisms in the Book of Mormon: The Complete Text Reformatted comprises the entire text of the Book of Mormon formatted into historical narrative or parallelistic forms.

All of these forms and figures are designed to present the central message of the Book of Mormon—Jesus Christ and his gospel—in an unforgettable, understandable, artistic, and fascinating way.

"God Works In Mysterious Ways", Roger Terry

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Watermark: The Reservoir, Dixie L. Partridge

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

From This Ground: Where A Continent Divides, Dixie L. Partridge

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

The Doctrine Of Deification In The Greek Patristic Tradition. By Norman Russell, Jordan Vajda

BYU Studies

Norman Russell. The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek Patristic Tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004

"I Long To Breathe The Mountain Air Of Zion's Peaceful Home": Agnes O'Neal's Letter To Brigham Young From War-Torn Virginia, Fred E. Woods

BYU Studies

As the Civil War raged in America, thousands of Latter-day Saints hazarded the trip west through this war-torn land. For a variety of reasons, however, some Saints did not reach their desired haven in the Salt Lake Valley, which lay safely within the borders of Utah Territory. One was a Scottish sister named Agnes, who, at age thirty, embarked from her native town of Paisley. Accompanied by her husband, Hugh Campbell, and their three sons, Agnes crossed the Atlantic in the fall of 1845, bound for Zion.

Full Issue, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

On The Trail Of The Twentieth-Century Mormon Outmigration, G. Wesley Johnson, Marian Ashby Johnson

BYU Studies

This article gives an overview of a major history research project that is now coming to a close after twenty years of activity. It is the Mormon Outmigration Leadership History Project, sponsored by the Marriott School of Management. Its focus has been to study the great urban outmigration of the twentieth century, as members of the Latter-day Saint community moved from traditional Mormon lands to all four corners of the United States in search of employment and education. The project has compiled in-depth case studies of individuals and families who migrated to twenty “target cities” across the nation (table 1). …

The Bible In English: Its History And Influence. By David Daniell, Richard Y. Duerden

BYU Studies

David Daniell. The Bible in English: Its History and Influence. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2003

The Jesus Family Tomb: The Discovery, The Investigation, And The Evidence That Could Change History. By Simcha Jacobovici And Charles Pellegrino, Kent P. Jackson

BYU Studies

Simcha Jacobovici and Charles Pellegrino. The Jesus Family Tomb: The Discovery, the Investigation, and the Evidence That Could Change History. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2007

"The Great World Of The Spirits Of The Dead": Death, The Great War, And The 1918 Influenza Pandemic As Context For Doctrine And Covenants 138, George S. Tate

BYU Studies

At the dedication of BYU’s new Joseph F. Smith Building on September 20, 2005, President Gordon B. Hinckley said of President Joseph F. Smith, “It is my opinion that no man, save the Prophet Joseph only, has had a greater and better understanding of the origin and history of the Church and of its doctrines—not only concerning this life but also concerning the eternities.” Of the “Vision of the Redemption of the Dead,” which comprises Doctrine and Covenants 138, he said, “It is a document without parallel. . . . There is nothing quite like it in all of our …

Luggage For One Leaving, Dixie L. Partridge

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Pandemonium: A Review Essay Of Douglas J. Robinson, Who Translates? Translator Subjectivities Beyond Reason, Daryl R. Hague

BYU Studies

In 1975, Cambridge’s George Steiner published After Babel. That book, now in its third edition, is considered a classic for several reasons. For translation scholars, however, After Babel’s principal contribution is that it legitimized translation studies as a discrete academic field rather than as a mere appendage to comparative literature, linguistics, or language studies. Shortly after Steiner’s work was published, two other influential works on translation appeared: Louis Kelly’s The True Interpreter (1979) and Susan Bassnett-McGuire’s Translation Studies (1980). Together, these three works provided a historical and theoretical foundation on which translation scholars could build.

Pedestals And Podiums: Utah Women, Religious Authority, And Equal Rights. By Martha Sonntag Bradley, Andrea G. Radke-Moss

BYU Studies

Martha Sonntag Bradley. Pedestals and Podiums: Utah Women, Religious Authority, and Equal Rights. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2005

Book Notices, George Handley, Sarah Prete

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Pool Of Aspen: After Forty Years, Dixie L. Partridge

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.