Friday, January 19, 2007

From a Press Release

I found a link to the following press release in my email in-box:

PBS Documentary on the Church to Air This Spring
16 January 2007

PASADENA, California — Two PBS programs, American Experience and Frontline, have joined together to release a four-hour documentary on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Award-winning filmmaker Helen Whitney has spent the last three years interviewing hundreds of people for the film. The documentary will look at the origins of the Church as well as its role in contemporary society.

While the Church is the subject — not the producer — of the film, filmmakers were given access to all levels of Church leadership in the hope that the film will capture the essence of the Church and its members.

The Deseret Morning News interviewed Helen Whitney this past weekend about the documentary, which will air 30 April and 1 May [2007].

(The full article can be found over here.)

Now, if I am getting correct information (via a BYU radio soundbyte), Whitney is not Mormon. Which makes her agenda all the more appealing. Looking at her dossier, such a documentary appears to be of the finest public broadcasting caliber. And somehow, she seems trustworthy. (Apparently the Church thought the same thing, as they were "absolutely cooperative.")

I can't wait. Also interesting:

Helen has just completed research for a projected 6 hour series for PBS entitled: The Future of Faith.

Incidentally, here is a very curious coincidence. In doing research on this documentary, I came across another Helen Whitney -- Helen Mar Kimball Whitney -- not to be confused with the documentary filmmaker. This earlier Whitney was Mormon, and came out of Nauvoo. But the thing of interest, it appears this Whitney had a similar agenda. Consider the following statement from her autobiography:

...Until within a few years, the world knew nothing of our true history. Falsehoods were manufactured and sent out to serve the purposes of our enemies, and apostates have been their willing tools. The bitter prejudices felt by the outside world makes it almost an impossibility for them to believe or become acquainted with our faith and principles...

I can truly say that I feel an interest in the welfare of all, and if some of the incidents of my life could impress the minds of others as they have my own, I would feel amply repaid for writing them. There seems to be a great curiosity in the minds of strangers about the "Mormon" women, and I am willing, nay, anxious, that they should know the true history of the faithful women of Mormondom. In the brief sketches which have been given from time to time, the trials and sufferings of the Latter-day Saints have scarcely been touched upon.

Granted, it is a common pursuit of many a Mormon to "disabuse the public mind." Still, I found this a compelling coincidence.

In other news: Eckhart to receive award.

posted by Rhapsidiomite @ 10:41 PM
Permalink |