Liahona

Filmmaker Talena Sanders uses an offbeat, non-narrative montage approach in this critique of the LDS faith and patriarchy culture. Her 16mm high-contrast imagery of Utah's striking terrain blends with vintage Latter Day Saints indoctrination films and soundtracks, hymns, rituals, pioneer-journal readings, and religious material culled from Salt Lake City thrift stores, and some narration. The word-picture mosaic suggests that prophet-founder Joseph Smith, who supposedly “translated” the Book of Mormon directly from God, was the equivalent of some medicine-show cult charlatan, and that the ambitious Brigham Young shunned the mysticism to successfully build a doctrine that would be followed by heroic, albeit much persecuted, disciples and pioneers. Captions inform viewers that despite the emphasis on physical/spiritual purity, Salt Lake City is a capital of cosmetic surgery, antidepressants, and Internet porn. Near the end, Sanders inserts autobiographical audio fragments, explaining herself as a filmmaker/artist raised in the “Temple,” who left rather than accept her assigned fate as housewife and baby-maker. While Mormon defenders could easily argue that any religion with a heritage of audiovisual kitsch and domineering elders could similarly be made to look unflatteringly daft, Liahona is an interesting experimental film with a bite. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)