Mountain
Meadows film pulled from Idaho festival Too violent?
Its director says local LDS Church members pressured Spudfest organizers
By Sean P. Means The Salt Lake Tribune Salt Lake Tribune It's the professor
vs. Mary Ann. A fledgling Idaho film festival, founded by former Gilligan's
Island co-star Dawn Wells, has pulled a University of Utah professor's
documentary about the Mountain Meadows Massacre from its lineup. Organizers
of the first Spudfest Drive-In Film & Music Festival, starting Wednesday
in Driggs, Idaho, say filmmaker Brian Patrick's Burying the Past: Legacy
of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, is too violent for the family-oriented
event. Patrick said festival officials told him last week that they
received calls from members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints threatening to picket the film or boycott the festival. They
said, 'The local bishop and church authorities here are up in arms,'
Patrick said Monday. These people have said the film is hateful and
mean-spirited, and they don't want their people to see it and, if [the
festival] is going to show it, there's going to be big trouble. Patrick
countered that his award-winning film - which details the 1857 incident
in which a group of Utah Mormons killed 120 Arkansans headed to California
- is a balanced presentation, featuring independent historians and those
representing the LDS Church. The church even helped me make the film,
he said. Patrick got a call Thursday from an attorney on SpudFest's
board, saying the film would be pulled. SpudFest's publicist, Kim Wells
(no relation to Dawn Wells), said organizers did not hear complaints
from LDS members. It's just not family-friendly, Wells said of Patrick's
film. After the board of directors of the festival saw it, they said
because it's about a massacre, frankly, it is too adult for a family
film festival. Another film on the SpudFest schedule, the Utah-made
World War II drama Saints and Soldiers, had to undergo minor editing
to avoid an R rating for its wartime bloodshed. Wells said the festival's
board of directors watched both films, and The violence in 'Burying
the Past' was more disturbing than the violence in 'Saints and Soldiers.'
Also, Wells said, Saints and Soldiers is scheduled for evening screenings,
while Burying the Past was slated for daytime shows. movies@sltrib.com
WHEN MORMONS
ATTACK (2004-08-04) There is a huge uproar over a film that was
set to be shown next week at the "SpudFest" Film Festival in Idaho.
Gilligan's Island actress Dawn Wells ("Mary Ann") has been promoting
her Film Festival "SpudFest" which is taking place in Victor, Idaho
August 3-8. The film in question is a documentary entitled "Burying
The Past -- Legacy of the Mountain Meadows Massacre." The film has won
10 awards and has played in over 15 film festivals. "SpudFest" organizers
received numerous phone calls from angry Mormon protestors planning
to carry signs and picket all three screenings of "Burying The Past"
that were scheduled for August 4th, 5th, and 7th. The Mormons also notified
festival directors that they were advising all members of the Mormon
faith to boycott the entire festival. The protestors are Mormon Church
Authorities, Bishops, and Church members who have never even seen the
film, but are nonetheless offended. "Burying The Past" has been suddenly
pulled from the festival with organizers now claiming publicly that
it had to be taken out because it wasn't "family-friendly." Director
Brian Patrick received uneasy phone calls from Executive Producer of
"SpudFest" Ted Weiant last week informing Patrick of the angry Mormon
threats, and expressing great concern. "SpudFest" attorney Steve Wright(also
of Mormon faith) then called Patrick four days before the film was set
to play, and told him that due to the Mormon protests and threats they
were probably going to have to pull the film-that they did not want
to offend the locals. Patrick suggested to Wright that the festival
should get a few of the Mormon Church authorities and protestors together
and show them the film, since they have never even actually seen it,
and may not be as offended after having actually viewed it. The festival
declined to follow up on the suggestion. The festival pulled the film
publicly stating that the film wasn't family-friendly, though they chose
to keep the R rated war film "Saints & Soldiers" on their program.
The following is
a synopsis of the film that has the Mormons' panties all twisted: On
September 11, 1857, a wagon train of 120 immigrants bound for California
were slaughtered, under a white flag, by Utah Mormons in one of the
worstmassacres in American history. This moving story, kept out of history
books and schools, exposes the Mormon Church's coverup of the massacre
through theactual testimony of a young girl who survived, interviews
with descendants ofthe victims, forensic archaeologists holding bullet-hole-riddled
skulls accidentally unearthed at the site of the crime, and a funeral
held 145 yearslater. Descendants of the massacre, haunted by the tragedy
to this day,struggle to reconcile with the descendants of the perpetrators
and find forgiveness