Sun Swing Studies Library

A Sampling of Institutional LDS Cinema: "On the Way Home" and "The Mountain of the Lord"

Written by Brent Leavitt

Editor's Note: This article was written in the Fall of 2004 and reflects some premature conversations on the topic. That understood, the conclusions derived are still presented for personal consideration and further discussion.

At BYU in our class “Mormon Cinema: Mirror of Our Times”, we have made a study of the commercial Mormon film movement since 1999 with the release of God’s Army. This distinction was made to be the significant starting point but built on what I believe was a false assumption. Similar to the claims of a new revolution in digital media, the Mormon cinema movement was a false façade of sorts enshrouded with ambiguity and uncertainty. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been producing and distributing films since the birth of the cinema itself.

If there was some aspect of the cinema that was uniquely new about this theatrical product, it was the most under looked element of the equation, the marketing of Mormon cinema. Marketing is what has become unique about the Mormon cinema movement of the last five years.

Never before has an LDS film needed to make money. Never before has a distribution system or a marketing campaign been needed to sustain such an endeavor. Always before each major film that was produced for the Church already had its market defined. A need existed so a film was made. A distribution system was already in place. None have had to recoup cost, or let alone try to make a profit.

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been watching movies and Church-sponsored movies for a long time. Perhaps to understand the nature of the market that is targeted by the “Mormon cinema” movement, an understanding is needed of where and how the target audience gets their sensibilities.

Viewers have been raised on numerous short films, produced or sponsored by the Church and a few longer format films. The selection of approved church material is numerous and readily available at any local church meetinghouse library or more modestly in the Church’s distribution catalogue. The standards of production value are high and each has had its contents approved by the general governing boards of the Church. These institutionalized films have four common points of access: purpose, production value, content, and ultimately, audience.