![\"BY](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2024\/10\/Photo-2-Brigham-Young-John-Donovan-Wilson-and-Mary-Ann-Angell-Twyla-Wilson-walk-together.jpeg\")
<\/a>The first episode of the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s new Becoming Brigham<\/em> video series is now up and accessible completely without charge. \u00a0See here<\/a>.<\/p>\n In connection with the launch of this initial installment in our series of mini-documentaries, I published an article today in Meridian Magazine<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cBecoming Brigham: The Video Series Premieres\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Incidentally, one of The Usual Suspects \u2014 my anonymous Mini-Stalker \u2014 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. \u00a0As Captain Renault might have said, \u201cI\u2019m shocked! \u00a0Shocked that Everybody\u2019s WC and members of his circle would find fault with a project that\u2019s associated with Dan Peterson!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?\u201d \u2014 the cynical (and therefore passive and ineffectual) Mr. Bennett, in Jane Austen\u2019s Pride and Prejudice<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Eventually, drawn irresistibly by the hope of his favorite target\u2019s 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<\/em>. \u00a0He\u2019s distinctly more clever and inventive than the Mini-Stalker is, but he\u2019s also more cold-bloodedly malignant, and he\u2019s still pushing his narrative \u2014 it\u2019s several years old now \u2014 that I profit lavishly and dishonestly from donations to the Interpreter Foundation. \u00a0Incidentally, you\u2019ll be interested to know that, this very afternoon, he pronounced you, the readers of this blog, \u201ccredulous boneheads.\u201d \u00a0He\u2019s a peach of a fellow.<\/p>\n The next opportunity on the calendar for my critics to gather fodder for their attacks will be our Becoming Brigham<\/em> fireside this coming Saturday, 31 January 2026, at a stake center in southwestern Orem.<\/p>\n I wrote here a few days ago about my sorrowful, but not entirely<\/em> sorrowful, reaction to the pending departure of the Sundance Film Festival from Utah. \u00a0(See \u201cMedia Matters.\u201d<\/a>). (For an illustration of why I\u2019m not altogether upset at the Festival\u2019s exit to Colorado, here\u2019s a recent piece in the Salt Lake Tribune<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cAt Sundance, a former stripper and a grad student play out an LDS couple\u2019s awkward wedding night:\u00a0Filmmaker draws on his upbringing in the faith and \u201chorror stories\u201d of newlyweds\u2019 intimacy for his short film \u201cTogether Forever.\u201d\u201d<\/a>). 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.<\/p>\n In response, a friend who has spent a career in making films sent me an email. \u00a0(I won\u2019t reveal his name here, lest his acquaintance with me be weaponized against him and his character by The Usual Suspects.) \u00a0He wrote to me as follows:<\/p>\n I should have thought of Zions Indie Film Fest<\/a> myself. \u00a0(After all, I\u2019ve attended it several times and \u2014 as a cin\u00e9aste<\/em> myself, albeit neither festooned with gold bling nor driving a Lamborghini \u2014 have even participated in it.) \u00a0Clearly, ZIFF is another<\/em> resource that could be used to help in creating a worthy successor to the Sundance Film Festival. \u00a0And, by the way, it\u2019s coming up on 23-28 February. \u00a0And this article, which appeared today in the Deseret News<\/em>, is also worth reading: \u201cUtah celebrates expanding role as national entertainment hub after milestone year in film:\u00a0Utah Film Industry celebrates milestone year as Sundance prepares to relocate\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Moreover, incidentally (and while on this general subject), I found a recent article in the Deseret News<\/em> quite interesting. \u00a0It emerges from the current activities up at Sundance: \u00a0\u201cViewers want faith in films, TV. A new study provides a road map for writers, directors, producers:\u00a0HarrisX showed more than 100 faith-related scenes to more than 12,000 people. Here\u2019s what viewers said about how they want to see faith portrayed\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Thanks to the pioneering research of the late Christopher Hitchens, we already know that religion poisons everything<\/em>. \u00a0Sometimes, though, it\u2019s good to descend from the macrocosmic level to take a detailed look at specific cases. \u00a0And that\u2019s what we\u2019ll do here, with the help of two items that have, appropriately enough, been retrieved from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122. \u00a0Both of these were originally published in the Deseret News<\/em>, and both shed an appalling light on how religion destroys athletes and ruins sports:<\/p>\n If you find yourself humming the great John Lennon anthem \u201cImagine\u201d to yourself, you can scarcely be blamed. \u00a0Think of how much better athletes would perform if they lived only for today!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 The first episode of the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s new Becoming Brigham video series is now up and accessible completely without charge. \u00a0See here. In connection with the launch of this initial installment in our series of mini-documentaries, I published an article today in Meridian Magazine: \u00a0\u201cBecoming Brigham: The Video Series Premieres\u201d Incidentally, one of The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":105110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[39583,38578,292,38527,782,39595],"class_list":["post-114595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-angel-studios","tag-becoming-brigham","tag-brigham-young","tag-sundance-film-festival","tag-utah","tag-zions-indie-film-fest"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a>\n
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(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n