Some of you may be wondering what on earth I’m doing here in Ohio. (My more unhinged critics will be eager to find in my presence here redundant further evidence of my corruption, viciousness, and dishonesty. Or something of that sort.)
Permit me to explain what I’m up to.
I’m here in the Kirtland area for a new Interpreter Foundation movie project. (Our previous effort, on the late Mormon composer and former Tabernacle organist Robert Cundick, is now essentially complete.) My classes are covered. We have a film crew with us, funded by a very generous donor. (My wife and I are here on our own nickel. I point this out for those unhinged critics again; if they’re to discover indicators of dishonesty and corruption, if not mean-spiritedness, it won’t be here. Not honestly, anyway.)
Our new project will focus on the brothers Richard Lloyd Anderson and Karl Ricks Anderson. The former, by far the most eminent authority on the witnesses to the Book of Mormon (and the author of valuable works on other aspects of Joseph Smith, earliest Mormonism, the gospels, and the apostle Paul) has long been a hero of mine. The latter, enduringly dubbed “Mr. Kirtland” by President Gordon B. Hinckley, has lived in northern Ohio for fifty years, where he’s served as a stake president and a regional representative of the Twelve and has long officiated as a stake patriarch. Although he spent his career in the corporate world and then, having sold off a company in which he was an owner, in teaching for the Church Educational System, he has become a historian and published several books (notably, for our purposes, Joseph Smith’s Kirtland and The Savior at Kirtland.)
We’re focusing on Karl Anderson during this trip. Yesterday, after participating in the ecumenical hymn-singing service in the Kirtland Temple that closed the annual meeting of the John Whitmer Historical Association, we attended sacrament meeting with the Andersons and then, over lunch at their home, discussed how we were going to approach this movie.
Filming is hard work. Today, again at the Anderson home, it took a long time to set up the cameras and the lighting and the sound system – fortunately (and wisely), the professionals didn’t really want my help on that — and then I spent hours interviewing Brother Anderson on camera. There were great stories, far more than we can possibly use in the film proper. Fortunately, we’ll be able to spin off a lot of short YouTube-type videos from our labors. Winding up “on the cutting-room floor” no longer necessarily entails that filmed material simply be lost or useless.
I’m excited about this project. And I hope that our film on Robert Cundick will make its public appearance in the reasonably near term.
In the evening, for a relaxing change of pace, my wife and I had some Chinese fast food and caught a showing of Jason Bourne.
Posted from Mentor, Ohio
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