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<\/a>Fellow pilgrims, tomorrow \u2014 2 February 2026 \u2014 is one of the most important dates of the year and is the inspiration for perhaps the greatest film ever made. \u00a0Prepare yourselves accordingly. \u00a0Observe it with the appropriate reverence and solemnity.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow is also the day on which the second episode of Becoming Brigham<\/em> will go up online. \u00a0It\u2019s an episode that I really like, so I hope that you\u2019ll watch it. \u00a0(I trust that you\u2019ve watched Episode 1<\/a> by now. \u00a0If not, please repent and get with the program!)<\/p>\n And, while films are on my mind: \u00a0This story caught my interest a couple of days ago for more-or-less personal reasons: \u00a0\u201cJoe Rogan skips Golden Globes after refusing to pay entry fee for podcast award nomination: Podcast host declined to pay for an award nomination before Amy Poehler took home the inaugural prize.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n A while back, I mentioned here that Interpreter\u2019s 2024 theatrical film Six Days in August<\/em><\/a> 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 appeared on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: \u00a0\u201cSix Days in August Wins Three Global Media Awards.\u201d<\/a>)<\/p>\n Inevitably, the announcement was met over at the Peterson Obsession Board with mockery and derision. \u00a0They pointed out that a Telly isn\u2019t an Oscar, that Tellys aren\u2019t presented at the Cannes Film Festival, and that, anyway, we hadn\u2019t won gold <\/em>\u2014 thus, in a certain sense, joining such failed \u201cBest Picture\u201d Oscar nominees as the following in the dismal category of Worthless and Abject Losers:<\/p>\n Most damagingly, they then proceeded to allege that we had simply bought<\/em> our Tellys and that, accordingly, the awards were not only meaningless but actually, accurately 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 our 2021 theatrical film Witnesses<\/em> won a bronze Telly. \u00a0But I knew for a certainty that the Interpreter Foundation had submitted neither Witnesses<\/em> nor Six Days in August<\/em> to the Tellys, and I knew that we hadn\u2019t paid any submission fees. \u00a0(Being president of the Foundation, I have full access to our financial records.)<\/p>\n It turns out that it was the folks at Redbrick Filmworks who had submitted Six Days in August<\/em> for consideration by the Tellys and who had paid the entry fee. \u00a0And why on earth not<\/em>? \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 submitting a film for consideration doesn\u2019t guarantee that it will an award. \u00a0And, as it happens, in the words of one of the principals at Redbrick:<\/p>\n That\u2019s why the story about Joe Rogan caught my attention. \u00a0For a slightly fuller discussion of this matter, see my 11 June 2025 blog entry \u201cIn Defense Of My Friends.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n From the Deseret News<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cUtah could soon add another state holiday: Good Friday:\u00a0Sen. Keven Stratton said making Good Friday a holiday is part of an effort to recognize \u2018the great religious diversity that we have here in the state\u2019\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n I want to go on record as strongly favoring this proposal, SB193. \u00a0I\u2019ve written to Senator Stratton (kstratton@le.utah.gov<\/a>) and to my own state senator in its support.<\/p>\n In my particular case, I\u2019m not thinking primarily about considerations of religious liberty \u2014 important as religious liberty is<\/em> \u2014 nor about Utah\u2019s religious diversity (although state recognition of Good Friday would, no doubt, be a positive gesture toward the state\u2019s Roman Catholic population and many other Christian groups). \u00a0Rather, I regard Easter as the most significant religious holiday on the annual calendar, and I also regret that it has been seriously neglected. \u00a0Making Easter weekend a long<\/em> weekend would go at least some distance toward redressing what I see as a theologically unjustifiable imbalance between Easter and Christmas. \u00a0It would give people more time, if they chose to use it so, to contemplate the meaning of the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it would be a reminder of those two deeply important events. \u00a0(Yes, yes, I know: Most would probably use it merely for barbecuing and waterskiing, or whatever.) \u00a0Having Good Friday as an ordinary workday, though, unnoticed and unobserved, obscures the significance of the events that it commemorates.<\/p>\n I was pleased back in April 2023 to hear the General Conference admonition from Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles<\/a> that we pay more attention than we typically have in the past to the celebration of Easter. \u00a0I would like to see more of us placing greater personal and family focus on Easter, and not relying merely upon a single annual sacrament meeting to serve that purpose.\u00a0 I\u2019ve written more than once on the topic, in (for example) these Deseret News<\/em> columns:<\/p>\n The Easter holiday commemorates an event of absolutely vast \u2014 perhaps literally infinite \u2014 significance. \u00a0I\u2019ve always loved what the Prophet Joseph Smith had to say on the topic:<\/p>\n \u201cThe fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it.\u201d\u00a0 (quoted in B. H. Roberts, ed., History of the Church,<\/em> 3:30)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u00a0 Fellow pilgrims, tomorrow \u2014 2 February 2026 \u2014 is one of the most important dates of the year and is the inspiration for perhaps the greatest film ever made. \u00a0Prepare yourselves accordingly. \u00a0Observe it with the appropriate reverence and solemnity. Tomorrow is also the day on which the second episode of Becoming Brigham will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":31715,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1363,4747,39613,2905,788,782],"class_list":["post-114655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-easter","tag-good-friday","tag-keven-stratton","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-mormon","tag-utah"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a>\n
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