Well, it’s out

The first episode of the Interpreter Foundation’s new Becoming Brigham video series is now up and accessible completely without charge.  See here.

In connection with the launch of this initial installment in our series of mini-documentaries, I published an article today in Meridian Magazine:  “Becoming Brigham: The Video Series Premieres”

Incidentally, one of The Usual Suspects — my anonymous Mini-Stalker — had already posted his first derisive critique of the first episode at least two hours before its formal debut, and other members of his club immediately joined enthusiastically in on the merriment.  As Captain Renault might have said, “I’m shocked!  Shocked that Everybody’s WC and members of his circle would find fault with a project that’s associated with Dan Peterson!”

“For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?” — the cynical (and therefore passive and ineffectual) Mr. Bennett, in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice

Eventually, drawn irresistibly by the hope of his favorite target’s blood in the water, my anonymous Malevolent Stalker hisself showed up to express his decades-long disdain for me and to thumb his nose at Becoming Brigham.  He’s distinctly more clever and inventive than the Mini-Stalker is, but he’s also more cold-bloodedly malignant, and he’s still pushing his narrative — it’s several years old now — that I profit lavishly and dishonestly from donations to the Interpreter Foundation.  Incidentally, you’ll be interested to know that, this very afternoon, he pronounced you, the readers of this blog, “credulous boneheads.”  He’s a peach of a fellow.

The next opportunity on the calendar for my critics to gather fodder for their attacks will be our Becoming Brigham fireside this coming Saturday, 31 January 2026, at a stake center in southwestern Orem.

I wrote here a few days ago about my sorrowful, but not entirely sorrowful, reaction to the pending departure of the Sundance Film Festival from Utah.  (See “Media Matters.”). (For an illustration of why I’m not altogether upset at the Festival’s exit to Colorado, here’s a recent piece in the Salt Lake Tribune:  “At Sundance, a former stripper and a grad student play out an LDS couple’s awkward wedding night: Filmmaker draws on his upbringing in the faith and “horror stories” of newlyweds’ intimacy for his short film “Together Forever.””). In my blog entry, I expressed the hope that perhaps something more consistent with predominant Utah values might replace the annual Sundance event, and I suggested Angel Studios as a possible rallying point for conceiving such a replacement.

In response, a friend who has spent a career in making films sent me an email.  (I won’t reveal his name here, lest his acquaintance with me be weaponized against him and his character by The Usual Suspects.)  He wrote to me as follows:

I read with interest the portion of your “Media Matters” post on Sic et Non about the Sundance Film Festival.  I remember when it was called the Utah/US Film Festival.  In 1978 I was working for Schick Sunn Classic Pictures in SLC.  I was writing the script for one of their successful feature documentary films, “In Search of Historic Jesus”.

Over the years I’ve only attended a few screenings at what I’ve come to call the “Porn-dance” festival, and I’m not too sad about it leaving Utah.  And to the point of your article, perhaps the lib-tards’ move will make room for added emphasis on Utah’s other winter film event, the ZIFF, or Zion’s Indie Film Fest.  ZIFF is much more aligned with Utah values, and with Sundance out of the way, it may now get more of the attention and support it deserves.

I should have thought of Zions Indie Film Fest myself.  (After all, I’ve attended it several times and — as a cinéaste myself, albeit neither festooned with gold bling nor driving a Lamborghini — have even participated in it.)  Clearly, ZIFF is another resource that could be used to help in creating a worthy successor to the Sundance Film Festival.  And, by the way, it’s coming up on 23-28 February.  And this article, which appeared today in the Deseret News, is also worth reading: “Utah celebrates expanding role as national entertainment hub after milestone year in film: Utah Film Industry celebrates milestone year as Sundance prepares to relocate”

Moreover, incidentally (and while on this general subject), I found a recent article in the Deseret News quite interesting.  It emerges from the current activities up at Sundance:  “Viewers want faith in films, TV. A new study provides a road map for writers, directors, producers: HarrisX showed more than 100 faith-related scenes to more than 12,000 people. Here’s what viewers said about how they want to see faith portrayed”

Thanks to the pioneering research of the late Christopher Hitchens, we already know that religion poisons everything.  Sometimes, though, it’s good to descend from the macrocosmic level to take a detailed look at specific cases.  And that’s what we’ll do here, with the help of two items that have, appropriately enough, been retrieved from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™.  Both of these were originally published in the Deseret News, and both shed an appalling light on how religion destroys athletes and ruins sports:

• “‘I’m a lot more than just a soccer player’: How faith guides RSL forward Zavier Gozo’s life: The 18-year-old rising star appeared on the ‘All Those In Favor’ podcast”
• “BYU’s Parker Kingston talks faith, trusting God on ‘Faith Huddle’: Three seasons ago, Kingston found himself at a crossroads. Praying kept him at BYU”

If you find yourself humming the great John Lennon anthem “Imagine” to yourself, you can scarcely be blamed.  Think of how much better athletes would perform if they lived only for today!