“We have a tremendous responsibility as members of the church. I think we are going to have to learn to be more aggressive. I think we have to learn to be a little more effective in our ability to share what we know to be true with the world.”
Several comic actors play wacky geeks in “When in Rome,” and according to one national movie critic, “Jon Heder as a goofy street magician is the funniest of the bunch.”
That comes from A.O. Scott in last Friday's New York Times review. And it may be faint praise in the context of this truly awful farce, especially since the rest of “the bunch” — Dax Shepard, Will Arnett and Danny DeVito — are so decidedly unfunny.
But it's nice to see Heder being singled out for a decent notice in the Newspaper of Record. Especially since, if you've only seen the trailer, you might not even realize Heder is in the movie.
The actor is, of course, a local favorite, thanks to “Napoleon Dynamite,” which was co-written and directed by Salt Lake resident Jared Hess, and which in 2004 became one of the biggest hits to come out of that annual party in our own backyard, the Sundance Film Festival.
It was Heder's first feature film, immediately providing him with the kind of breakout role that actors who've been laboring in movies for decades would kill for.
Heder is also a local favorite because he's a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a rare commodity in Hollywood. In fact, a few years ago, he told USA Today, with a bit of chagrin, that he sometimes feels like an unofficial “ambassador” for Mormons because of his high profile.
Several comic actors play wacky geeks in “When in Rome,” and according to one national movie critic, “Jon Heder as a goofy street magician is the funniest of the bunch.”
That comes from A.O. Scott in last Friday's New York Times review. And it may be faint praise in the context of this truly awful farce, especially since the rest of “the bunch” — Dax Shepard, Will Arnett and Danny DeVito — are so decidedly unfunny.
But it's nice to see Heder being singled out for a decent notice in the Newspaper of Record. Especially since, if you've only seen the trailer, you might not even realize Heder is in the movie.
The actor is, of course, a local favorite, thanks to “Napoleon Dynamite,” which was co-written and directed by Salt Lake resident Jared Hess, and which in 2004 became one of the biggest hits to come out of that annual party in our own backyard, the Sundance Film Festival.
It was Heder's first feature film, immediately providing him with the kind of breakout role that actors who've been laboring in movies for decades would kill for.
Heder is also a local favorite because he's a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a rare commodity in Hollywood. In fact, a few years ago, he told USA Today, with a bit of chagrin, that he sometimes feels like an unofficial “ambassador” for Mormons because of his high profile.
If you’ve ever seen an LDS film that brought your soul to a higher plane, odds are T.C. Christensen had a hand in it. As a writer, director, producer, and cinematographer, he has helped add professional gloss, creative warmth, and spiritual sincerity to projects such as The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd, The Work and the Glory, Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration, The Touch of the Master’s Hand, Gordon B. Hinckley: A Giant Among Men, The Mouth of Babes, Forever Strong, Emma Smith: My Story, Only a Stonecutter, and many more. After enjoying the spirit and truth of many “Mormon Movies,” but not necessarily the quality of the filmmaking, I have come to expect that when Christensen’s name is in the credits, I’m in for an artistic treat as well as a spiritual banquet.
An LDS apostle told a gathering of college-age church members Sunday night that they are fighting a battle that has been going on “since before the foundation of this world.”
Shortly after Brigham Young had arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, he encouraged the Saints to bring “all kinds of mathematical and philosophical instruments, together with all rare specimens of natural curiosities and works of art, . . . from which, the rising generation can receive instruction; and . . . we will soon have the best, the most useful and attractive museum.”
The Museum of Church History and Art • David M. Whitchurch
Over the years, several LDS museums have been located in various places around the city. In 1980 President Spencer W. Kimball announced the location and the plans to build a new 63,500-square-foot museum. This cultural treasure was opened to the public in 1984 and includes depictions of Church history and art from its origins to the present day.
A group of LDS brothers have joined the music scene, singing their way into Latin pop culture. Manitú, originally from Colorado, is a pop, R&B and alternative band that consists of three brothers, Marcos, 19, Lukas, 21, and Lex, 24. The group also employs a drummer and guitarist who are not full members of the band. They released their first CD, Un Mundo Nuevo/A New World, in June 2009 and recently moved to Mexico City to work with Sony Music.
The Sanchez brothers started playing music at a young age, first separately and then together.
After performing at an impromptu talent show at a family reunion, they agreed to form a band, which they dubbed Manitú, after Manitou Springs in Colorado. An uncle in attendance commented that he knew a producer in San Diego, and urged them to audition for him. The brothers got in contact with Kiko Cibrian, one of the premier music producers in Latin America, who agreed to work with them and produce a CD.
“At the beginning, a record deal was the last thing on our minds and was never really important,” commented the group. “We were so overwhelmed to be working with a producer of that caliber that we never really thought that far into the future. Our main focus was just to put together great songs.”
But with talent comes opportunity. After becoming involved with Cibrian, the group compiled enough songs to create a CD.
Manitú presented their tentative CD to Sony Music and Westwood Management, who were immediately impressed by the group and offered to back the project. “More than anything we were extremely excited Sony wanted to be involved,” said Lukas. “It’s really an amazing feeling when somebody who isn’t a parent believes in you enough to support you and help you reach out to people and share your music with them.”
Visitors will step into history upon entering the newly completed Mormon Battalion Historic Site in San Diego, which opened to the public on 30 January. Formerly known as the Mormon Battalion Visitors’ Center, this new exhibit, operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has received not only a major facelift but a new name and many technological additions to give visitors, young and old, a chance to experience hands-on a little of Battalion life.
“Music that recalls the sweetness of Ingrid Michaelson and the quirk of Regina Spektor, Mindy Gledhill will leave you floating like a scoop of vanilla cream in a strawberry soda.”
Are you an artist who happens to be a Mormon or a Mormon who is also an artist?
To a certain extent I think that’s just semantics. I’m a Mormon who’s aspiring to be an artist. I know that my faith informs my work, but I also feel that my work informs my faith. I feel that these projects that I’m working on have strengthened my faith.
And not just LDS-themed projects, or projects that have LDS ties to them. My faith was strengthened by working on the Small Fortunes project, but I also do feel that my faith strengthened that project.
So, it’s hard for me to separate the two. It really is a conflation of those two ideas of work and faith. I know that being Mormon helps me be a better storyteller, a better filmmaker.
It may seem to be at odds because there are a lot of movies that I won’t go see, that everyone in the business tells me I have to see. I made a decision early on that there are certain films that I’m not going to go see and I don’t go see them.
That can be a drawback in trying to be a well-rounded filmmaker and storyteller. However, the benefits that my faith brings to me as a storyteller and as a filmmaker far outweigh any drawbacks that may come.
Just the upbringing that I’ve had, and frankly the strength of the Spirit?—?learning how to follow those really subtle promptings, which, throughout our life we’re taught. When you’re on the set and working with an actor and being able to discern if there was truth communicated in that performance or if there was a little bit of falseness to it, I rely not only on my talents and abilities, but I rely on the Spirit to do that. So as an LDS filmmaker I know that it helps me.
“One way or another, we're going to put this movie in front of as many voters as possible across the nation,” Greenstreet says by phone from Park City, where the annual celebration of indie cinema and studio dealmaking has been underway for the past week. “The people in California went to the ballot box with misinformation and lies orchestrated by billions of dollars raised by a church.”
“I think we've been quite narrow-minded in the ways we have thought about Joseph's accounts. And I mean that both by believers and non-believers, by those who accept the accounts as divine narratives and those who are critical of them as nonsense,” Harper said.
If you’ve ever seen an LDS film that brought your soul to a higher plane, odds are T.C. Christensen had a hand in it. As a writer, director, producer, and cinematographer, he has helped add professional gloss, creative warmth, and spiritual sincerity to projects such as The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd, The Work and the Glory, Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration, The Touch of the Master’s Hand, Gordon B. Hinckley: A Giant Among Men, The Mouth of Babes, Forever Strong, Emma Smith: My Story, Only a Stonecutter, and many more. After enjoying the spirit and truth of many “Mormon Movies,” but not necessarily the quality of the filmmaking, I have come to expect that when Christensen’s name is in the credits, I’m in for an artistic treat as well as a spiritual banquet.
One of the feelings of the spirit is the peace, the feeling of peace or joy and I think that’s in Galatians, talks about the fruits of the spirit. A lot of artists may not describe it that way—I do because I feel like as members of the Church we have an understanding of the Spirit and how it works and and I’ve recognized as I’ve been out and I have that kind of feeling of intense joy or peace or you feel like your spirit is animated and that’s when I get that desire to want to record it or try and make something of it. It’s almost like you see it before it –I see a scene and then I have just this incredible emotion about it and this emotion carries me through as I have to work and solve all the problems to make the image come to pass. But it’s that spark, that elated feeling that carries me through the process.
“It is the top story of settling the West,” said Sherree Roundy, a board member with the Escalante Heritage/Hole in the Rock Center, “the most difficult [wagon train].”
The LDS Church on Saturday confirmed it has purchased the KJZZ studio building west of the Salt Lake City International Airport, a deal that represents its third noteworthy real estate acquisition in recent weeks.
A first novel for K.C. Grant, 39, has landed this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints author success in just a few weeks since its release.
“Abish: Daughter of God” (Covenant, $16.95) already has scored a ranking in the top six for books sold at Deseret Book and Grant said a few Deseret Book stores already have sold out of her novel.
The Prophet Joseph Smith was prepared to restore Jesus Christ's church not only through visitations from the Father and the Son and other heavenly beings, but through his own study and prayerful inquiry. Added to those was his desire to do God's will.
An exciting “first event” occurred last fall in Nauvoo, Illinois—the first semester of Nauvoo Study Program. In time, this study program will become Nauvoo University, a four-year institution. Evan Ivie, former director of BYU’s Semester at Nauvoo, is spearheading the effort.
Winners at the 2010 LDS Film Festival were announced Saturday evening following four days of screening and competition. The festival was held at the SCERA Center for the Arts in Orem, Utah.
Many people are frustrated with Hollywood-produced films that don't measure up to Christian values. Hollywood studios often defend their choices by explaining that a profitable market for Christian films doesn't exist.
Thierry Fischer's entire first season as Utah Symphony music director will be performed this weekend.
The orchestra announced it had hired the Swiss conductor a couple of weeks into the current season, in which he was scheduled to conduct only one pair of concerts.
Most church members — especially out of Perry's state of Utah — have likely never heard Perry's name, but they certainly have heard her music as evidenced by the touching footage of 800 children in Accra Ghana singing Perry's “I Love To See The Temple,” at the temple dedication there in 2004. Kathleen Hinckley Barnes, former President Gordon B. Hinckley's daughter, recounted how emotive that experience was as she was there with her parents at the time of the dedication.
When 47-year-old painter Brian Kershisnik retreats to his Kanosh studio in an old, sandstone dance hall, he doesn't invite models along. He paints with oil, and from his imagination alone.
Never mind labels of “style.” The Provo artist's work is about maintaining a consistent method that produces consistent results. That means producing a large rotation of works, many of which remain unfinished for months, before he discovers the emotional center necessary for each one to be declared finished.
All he really knows for certain is that each work is a narrative. “But I don't always know myself what that narrative is,” the painter said. “You work toward that moment when a painting starts to breathe. I feel like a participant,
ck'd Up” is not so much a don't-try-this-at-home flick as a don't-try-this-if-you-value-your-life film.
The antics and tricks in this nine-minute short — directed by Christian Serge Nelson and screened at the 2010 LDS Film Festival on Jan. 22 — are unbelievable and performed by a guy in a wheelchair.
en, just wait until you see him in person. He will be performing along with Chelsie Hightower, Thayne Jasperson and other television dance stars at Vibe Center for the Performing Arts' “MOVE” show in Provo.
On Feb. 4 Historic Nauvoo will commemorate the famous river crossing known as the “Mormon Exodus.” The public is invited to witness or join in a symbolic march down Parley Street to the riverfront.
It was on Feb. 4, 1846, that early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began to cross the icy waters of the Mississippi as they set off on their trek west to the Rocky Mountains.
When the Mormon pioneers headed West under duress in 1847, they had reason to feel bitter at their treatment by the world's foremost liberal democracy. For years, Americans had chased, robbed, beaten and killed them.
Joseph Smith, seeking redress for his people, earlier had gone to Washington, D.C. The towering statesmen of the day who received him acted like, well, Washington politicians.
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