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 Legacy 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 Corianton: A Story of Unholy Love (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.