Documentary: The Mormons

[stefan]

i know most folks already know about the recently shown Frontline/American Experience documentary on the mormons.

it's a certainly a worthwhile documentary to view, approx 4 hours in length.

it can be viewed on-line at

http://www.pbs.org/mormons/

[epek]

With out misunderstanding my typing, what do you honestly mean by worthwhile?

[stefan]

With out misunderstanding my typing, what do you honestly mean by worthwhile?

that it's good enough to spend the time and effort to watch if you are interested. (4 hrs is a long time for folks.)

[Sombeech]

I only caught about 10 minutes of this. I saw the woman who had been excommunicated, and the "chair happy" footage. It's like, good hell, quit showing those chairs.

Then I caught a little of the girl who was about to get married or something. She was driving me nuts, a little too excited. I decided to get back to working on the computer.

[stefan]

I only caught about 10 minutes of this. I saw the woman who had been excommunicated, and the "chair happy" footage. It's like, good hell, quit showing those chairs.

Then I caught a little of the girl who was about to get married or something. She was driving me nuts, a little too excited. I decided to get back to working on the computer.

okay ... well i would say don't base your impressions on those two moments.
they're not representative of the whole .

personally i think these types of shows should be watched in the proper sequence, as they are estabilishing a linear perspective.

[chickenlicken]

I thought there was an inordinate amount of time spent on the polygamist section. Even though they said that the church no longer condones poligamy, they then proceeded to interview a non-mormon polygamist family for 10 minutes.

[stefan]

I thought there was an inordinate amount of time spent on the polygamist section. Even though they said that the church no longer condones poligamy, they then proceeded to interview a non-mormon polygamist family for 10 minutes.

i think it's very interesting that many mormons are saying this. i didn't think it was an inordinate amount of time. polygamy is a contentious and important part of mormon history, IMHO it's unreasonable to believe that it should be downplayed in a documentary of this nature.

by the way the interview with the family is less that 4 minutes long. do you feel fundamentalists are somehow irrelevant to this documentary?

[chickenlicken]

I thought there was an inordinate amount of time spent on the polygamist section. Even though they said that the church no longer condones poligamy, they then proceeded to interview a non-mormon polygamist family for 10 minutes.

i think it's very interesting that many mormons are saying this. i didn't think it was an inordinate amount of time. polygamy is a contentious and important part of mormon history, IMHO it's unreasonable to believe that it should be downplayed in a documentary of this nature.

by the way the interview with the family is less that 4 minutes long. do you feel fundamentalists are somehow irrelevant to this documentary?

The irrelevant part is that they are not mormon, and they are being featured on a program called "The Mormons". The historical part of the polygamist era is just that historical and I have no problem with that, my problem is featuring a fundamentalist non-mormon family while documenting the mormon faith. It's like having a nature program called "Lion's, King of the jungle" then featuring crocodiles.

[stefan]

The irrelevant part is that they are not mormon, and they are being featured on a program called "The Mormons". The historical part of the polygamist era is just that historical and I have no problem with that, my problem is featuring a fundamentalist non-mormon family while documenting the mormon faith. It's like having a nature program called "Lion's, King of the jungle" then featuring crocodiles.

i'll bite ... a ever-so slightly better analogy (but by no means perfect) is a program called Human Evolution and talking about chimpanzees or neanderthals.
but i don't think either of these analogies are meaningful.
now one mistake, i believe, you make is saying: "while documenting the mormon faith." this is a documentary primarily about the people ... the faith, of course, is entwined and inseparable from the people. this is not a documentary specifically or purely on faith and, furthermore, this doesn't mean that including something you consider non-mormon is necessarily out-of-place. there are direct and indirect connections making it a relevant piece for this documentary IMHO ... and it by no means dwells on it (only one chapter of something like 24).

that being said, i do think the documentary does a reasonable job of separating the mainstream LDS church and fundamentalist/polygamous church, and showing the fundamentalists as an autonomous group with tenuous ties to and beyond the fringe of the tenets of the LDS faith. which would seem to be what the LDS church attempts to do on a regular basis with public relations and the media.

[rockgremlin]

I watched all 4 hours. I liked it. Very well done. I thought a lot of effort was made to make it as objective as possible.