Whisperings lds
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Many people at the festival were doing just that. I just happen to think there's a great opportunity to move in the other direction right now. It's a personal choice and there's room for growth on both sides. That shouldn't be read as an accusation that these talented people are abandoning the faith. Nevertheless, one of my general impressions this year from both the films and the presentations is a growing movement away from content that is easily identified as being influenced by LDS beliefs. I can only speak to those that I actually saw. I also need to say that, of course, I didn't see every film playing at the festival. Others, like Humble Pie, presented their Mormonness more subtly. Many of the short films were strongly Mormon, and some special screenings like The Book of Jer3 miah were profoundly so. And the lack of Mormon influence in narrative film was limited, too. Even those that don't go for a Hollywood look are becoming more and more polished. The production value of the films is, I think, on a steady incline. Now that's not a universally (or even widely) applicable statement, especially the "not as good" part. To paraphrase: regular movies, only made by Mormons, and not as good (if you know where this comes from please remind me, I couldn't find the source).
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They reinforced the other definition of Mormon film that I read somewhere. I'm not saying that should change, but I did feel that, particularly where narrative films were concerned, more of those films I saw were more secular, less influenced by LDS beliefs, and more generic than in the past. The festival itself certainly does not choose films according to how overtly Mormon they are. I realize that on this blog and in academic circles we have tended to take a very broad definition of LDS film, including films that were made by Mormons, regardless of content. That's partially because I found less " LDS- ness" in some of them than I had hoped. Some of the films both confused and disappointed me. Even when the films confuse or disappoint me, I still come away more committed. This is the event that inspires me and keeps me going when everything seems set against my efforts as a filmmaker. Getting back to the point, all I can do is give you my personal impressions of the festival this time around. I'm still not totally over the surprise, but it touched me in a sacred way that you could not have anticipated and I hope I managed to meet your expectations. Thanks, Katherine, by the way, for giving me that chance. So I had a chance to see things from a different perspective this time, which was good. It came as a bolt from the blue because I don't really consider my contributions to be of any significance to anyone but me, but as the topic was Mormon Film and New Media, and as I'm the only "active" poster on this blog at the moment, I can understand in retrospect. A few days before the festival, Katherine Morris invited me to give a presentation and be on the panel for the LDS Film Forum. The reason I didn't introduce that one is the other new opportunity I had. In addition to participating in the 24 hour competition and attending all day every day (except for the opening screening Wednesday night), I contributed as a volunteer member of the staff, providing the AV gear for the filmmaker presentations, recording those presentations, and introducing all but one of the sessions.
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I love the LDS Film Festival, and this year I was privileged to participate in ways that were new to me. So in order to relieve my own psychosis and hopefully retain a bit more interest from readers, I'm taking the short route.
WHISPERINGS LDS SERIES
The reason is that I felt obligated to finish that series before seriously doing anything else, and since it took most of the year to do it, I was pretty limited (artificially, I know) in what I could post about. Instead of doing a whole series of reviews like last year, I'm going to report just once on the festival, although certain topics will probably come up again in future posts.