{"id":7841,"date":"2010-02-21T20:16:44","date_gmt":"2010-02-22T04:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=7841"},"modified":"2010-02-21T22:18:39","modified_gmt":"2010-02-22T06:18:39","slug":"8-the-mormon-proposition-reed-cowan-steven-greenstreet-2010-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=7841","title":{"rendered":"8: The Mormon Proposition (Reed Cowan\/ Steven Greenstreet, 2010): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Mathew Roscoe<\/a>, at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Documentaries about current, intensely divisive political issues are very heavy and dangerous territories. This festival has been blessed with multiple high quality documentaries, each sure to open the audience\u2019s eyes. While I do not mean to put down or deny the bravery behind the making of the other excellent documentaries Green and The Cove, what sets those films apart from 8: The Mormon Proposition<\/a> is that those film\u2019s subject was, in a matter of speaking, not as controversial. While they certainly made brave moves and they did take risks, I saw they were not as controversial because almost no one would disagree with the film\u2019s standpoint. I feel I can safely say that the staggering majority of the audience will easily agree that excessive deforestation and the savage slaughtering of dolphins is bad. This documentary, however, ventures into what is still a highly taboo and intensely debated territory: Same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n

This movie is a \u201cscorching indictment\u201d on the Mormon\u2019s promotion and involvement behind the passage of Prop 8 and the alleged foul play behind the campaign, with additional focus on the Mormon Church\u2019s historic crusade against LGBT rights. The primary subject\/interviewee is a gay couple that was married during that brief period of time when same-sex marriage was legal in California. Both were born and raised in a Mormon family. His family adamantly disowned one when he came out, whilst the other\u2019s family actually left the Mormon Church to support their child\u2019s relationship, thus being exiled from all of their extended family. While this couple\u2019s experience with the Prop 8 campaign forms the backbone of the narrative, the film is fleshed out with interviews with victims of homophobia, archival footage of church leaders and politicians, and a focus on the history of the Mormon Church. In spite of the various subjects, the documentary\u2019s excellent editing seamlessly weaved the topics together whilst never losing focus of the overall point<\/p>\n

With such a bitterly controversial issue, it is key to watch this film with as open of a mind as possible. Members on both sides may be intrigued or challenged by the material, and the viewer\u2019s personal bias will be key.\u00a0 The majority of the audience was pretty clear on their feelings, as they occasionally hissed at some of the outspoken homophobes and applauded the couple whenever they triumphed. But in spite of the strong stance I take on the issue, I am not one to write off the other side as mindless or evil. The film does vilify the Mormon Church, but at the same time, the film did try to make it clear that the enemies were not the religious or conservative people as a whole, but just the hateful bigots that even the church tends to distance itself away from. The film was very honest and controlled in its delivery, and all it was really missing was interviews with the leaders on the \u201cother side\u2019 (Which the filmmakers tried to do, but the leaders refused). The material they have is very insightful and sometimes shocking, especially during a brief chapter that focused on homosexual teenagers that struggle to live on the streets after being disowned by their families. This film will likely move even those who supported Proposition 8. In fact, apparently during the end of a Sundance screening, a devout Mormon stood up and apologized for her Church\u2019s actions after viewing this film.<\/p>\n

Time will tell whether this film will affect the outcome of the current court challenging of Proposition 8, but it has certainly affected the audiences it has been able to reach, and with its recent acquiring of a distributor, its audience will only grow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Mathew Roscoe, at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Documentaries about current, intensely divisive political issues are very heavy and dangerous territories. This festival has been blessed with multiple high quality documentaries, each sure to open the audience\u2019s eyes. While I do not mean to put down or deny the bravery behind the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,3,131],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-documentary","category-films","category-santa-barbara-film-festival-2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/607"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7841\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}