{"id":110690,"date":"2025-06-11T13:00:18","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T19:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=110690"},"modified":"2025-06-11T13:19:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T19:19:19","slug":"in-defense-of-my-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2025\/06\/in-defense-of-my-friends.html","title":{"rendered":"In Defense of My Friends"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Lake<\/a>
At Lake Atitl\u00e1n, in Guatemala, which some scholars have identified as the Book of Mormon\u2019s \u201cWaters of Mormon.\u201d From left to right: Larry Ainsworth (a member of Interpreter\u2019s board of directors), Brant Gardner (a noted scholar of the Book of Mormon and now an Interpreter editor), Steve Densley (Interpreter\u2019s executive vice president), and an unidentified vagrant who photobombed the scene and then escaped, running and hopping and laughing maniacally.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An important new entry in an important series of blog posts has just gone up on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: \u201cThe Heartland Versus Mesoamerica Part 9: Population Density and Social Complexity,\u201d<\/a> by Brant A. Gardner<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Fernsten<\/a>
Three men in a river, on the set of the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s \u201cWitnesses\u201d film project early in the filming process at Genesee Country Village, in New York: From left to right, Russell Richins (producer), James Jordan (assistant director), and Mark Goodman (director)
(Still photograph courtesy of gaffer Rhett Fernsten)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cA lie,\u201d Mark Twain (along with a number of others) is incorrectly alleged to have said, \u201ccan travel all around the world before the truth has got its boots on.\u201d<\/p>\n

I doubt that the handful of merry madcaps over at the Peterson Obsession Board who have dedicated their lives to lying about me and all my evil but ridiculous works have, even remotely, such reach. \u00a0Still, though, and despite the fact that I do so without any real hope of curing them of their willful delusions, I think it occasionally worthwhile to openly contradict some of their false allegations. \u00a0I do it again today:<\/p>\n

Yesterday, in a blog entry entitled \u201cSome Good News for the Interpreter Foundation,\u201d<\/a> I indicated that Interpreter\u2019s 2024 theatrical film Six Days in August<\/em> had just won three 2025 Telly Awards \u2014 silver awards in the categories \u201cNarrative Film\u201d and \u201cHistorical Film\u201d and the bronze Telly in the \u201cPeople\u2019s Choice\u201d category. \u00a0(A news release about the prizes has now appeared on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: \u00a0\u201cSix Days in August Wins Three Global Media Awards.\u201d<\/a>)<\/p>\n

I knew, of course, that my mentioning these awards would be met, at the Obsession Board, with mockery and denigration. \u00a0It was a certain as the rising of the Sun in the morning. \u00a0Utterly and entirely predictable. \u00a0It\u2019s what they do.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve pointed out that the Telly isn\u2019t an Academy Award, that Tellys aren\u2019t presented at the Festival de Cannes \u2014 I was shocked to learn this \u2014 and that, after all, we didn\u2019t win gold<\/em>. \u00a0They\u2019ve also gone on to allege that we simply bought the honors and that, accordingly, they\u2019re not only meaningless but actually, properly understood, quite embarrassing.<\/p>\n

Personally, I knew nothing of the Telly Awards \u2014 had never so much as heard<\/em> of them \u2014 until Witnesses<\/em> won a bronze Telly a while back. \u00a0I learned then that, if we wanted a statuette representing a win in the competition, we would need to buy it. \u00a0I also knew that the Interpreter Foundation hadn\u2019t submitted either Witnesses<\/em> or Six Days in August<\/em> for consideration for a Telly, and I knew that we hadn\u2019t paid any submission fee. \u00a0(As president of the Foundation, I have full access to our financial records.) \u00a0So I wrote to our friends and colleagues at RedBrick Film Works<\/a>. \u00a0Had they<\/em> submitted Six Days in August<\/em> for consideration? \u00a0Had they<\/em> paid a submission fee?<\/p>\n

It turns out that, yes, the folks at RedBrick Film Works had paid an entry fee for the Telly Awards competition. and that, yes, they had submitted the film for consideration. \u00a0It\u2019s their industry, after all. \u00a0They\u2019re professional filmmakers. \u00a0They have a right to submit a film for a possible award, and an interest in doing so.<\/p>\n

But it needs to be clearly understood that, at least according to our colleagues at RedBrick, the mere act of submitting a film for consideration and paying the accompanying fee does not, in any way, guarantee winning an award: \u00a0\u201cWe (as in the RedBrick contingent) have submitted films in the past to various festivals\/awards and gotten nothing in return (including the Tellys).\u201d<\/p>\n

It also needs to be clearly understood that, as one of the RedBrick folks informed me,<\/p>\n

\n
Paying to enter is the case with 99% of all industry awards and festivals (and not just in the film industry). In fact, the only award I am aware of in the film biz that does not require an entry fee is the Academy Awards. Even the Golden Globes and the Emmys require an entry fee. There is nothing out of the ordinary \u2014 or untoward \u2014 about the process.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I also looked up what the Telly Awards people had to say about themselves:<\/p>\n

The Telly Awards honor excellence in video and television across all screens. Founded in 1979<\/strong> to honor local, regional and cable television commercials, with non-broadcast video and television programming added soon after, the award has evolved<\/strong> with the rise of digital video to include branded content, documentary, social media, immersive and more.\u00a0 The Telly Awards today celebrates the best work in the video medium in an exciting new era of the moving image on and offline<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Telly Awards annually showcases the best work created within television and across video<\/strong>, for all screens. Receiving over 13,000 entries<\/strong> globally<\/strong> from 6 continents <\/strong>and all 50 states<\/strong>,<\/strong> Telly Award winners represent work from some of the most respected advertising agencies, television stations, production companies and publishers from around the world. The Telly Awards recognizes work that has been created on behalf of a client, for a specific brand and\/or company (including your own) or self-directed as a creative endeavor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So I\u2019m going to push back a bit against efforts to devalue the recognition that has come to our friends at RedBrick Film Works. \u00a0It\u2019s one thing to express consistent contempt for me and all of my rotten, immoral, mean-spirited, and ludicrous deeds. \u00a0I obviously deserve such scorn. \u00a0If I may, however, I want to register an objection to the breeziness with which the Usual Suspects over at the Obsession Board casually seek to inflict collateral damage upon others, for the crime of simply being associated with me.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve heard, by the way, that our friends at Emmaus Road Productions<\/a> also won a silver Telly for their film The Good Samaritan<\/em>. \u00a0I hope that\u2019s the case. \u00a0And, if so, these awards, taken together, mark a good development for Latter-day Saint filmmaking. \u00a0And also, if so, it won\u2019t be the first award that they\u2019ve captured. \u00a0(And thereby hangs a tale, to be told someday.)<\/p>\n

In the meantime, I encourage my Malevolent Stalker and his Mini-Me and the small band of their disciples there to submit their own<\/em> feature films for quality awards in the movie industry. \u00a0If they win anything \u2014 even something so lowly and contemptible as a mere bronze Telly \u2014 I promise to report on it here.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 An important new entry in an important series of blog posts has just gone up on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: \u201cThe Heartland Versus Mesoamerica Part 9: Population Density and Social Complexity,\u201d by Brant A. Gardner. \u201cA lie,\u201d Mark Twain (along with a number of others) is incorrectly alleged to have said, \u201ccan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":78180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[56,5183,114,277,28443,38831],"class_list":["post-110690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-book-of-mormon","tag-heartland","tag-interpreter-foundation","tag-mesoamerica","tag-six-days-in-august","tag-telly"],"yoast_head":"\nIn Defense of My Friends<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"  An important new entry in an important series of blog posts has just gone up on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: "The Heartland Versus\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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