Fit for the Kingdom (film projects)

By Dean Duncan, Ben Unguren

Reviewed by Randy Astle
On 7/21/2006

BYU Film Department project http://fitforthekingdom.byu.edu/

BYU film professor Dean Duncan, with other faculty and student participants (primarily Ben Unguren, currently, I believe, doing PhD film work at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts), submitted a proposal on Feb. 12, 2002 to BYU's Media Projects Committee. This was a standard grant application, but in the hands of Duncan--one of our most gifted thinkers in the realm of cinema--it turned into a manifesto for a revolution in LDS cinema, or, rather, how Latter-day Saints use cinema. The entire proposal should be published with only slight copy editing in the second of the two upcoming film-themed issues of BYU Studies (October-ish). Here is one paragraph from a rough draft of an introduction I wrote for that:

"Members of the Fit for the Kingdom movement—an informal ideological coalition that has primarily been spearheaded by BYU Theatre and Media Arts professor Dean Duncan—specifically desire to use prosumer or consumer level video equipment to create short documentaries that profile rank and file members of the Church. The films eschew narrative in favor of characterization; rather than formally bearing their testimonies the subjects exhibit their discipleship through regular activities within their daily surroundings."

The films on the website you cited are good examples of how such projects work. The theoretical idea behind it--which takes up most of the proposal--is that narrative films, feature films, films only about prominent or spectacular Mormons, etc., do not depict the depth and breadth of discipleship within the Church. It is better to examine the lives of those Saints "of the last wagon": the elderly, those who care for the handicapped, mothers, people fulfilling thankless callings, people building chapels, and in general people quietly going about achieving their salvation. This is to be done essentially entirely outside the commercial marketplace; Unguren, for instance, is currently working on a video of a New Jersey ward to be shown and distributed to members in that area, and if it strengthens their resolve to keep pressing forward, then it will have served its purpose. My own vision for it--as the backbone of the future of LDS film--is that it becomes--as Errol Morris might say--fast, cheap, and out of control. As digital origination (video cameras) and distribution (Internet, on-demand programming, etc.) proliferate, video will become the primary agent in uniting the global Church in a 1 Nephi 14:12-14 sort of way. The Saints in Paris can make a film that will be seen by the Saints in Perth, and those in Perth will make one seen in Cardston, and from there to Provo, to Helsinki, to Manaus, to Beirut, etc.: a world-wide cinematic web that destroys isolation and provides unity, that inspires and gives impetus as Saints see the work rolling forth, Standard of Truth-like, throughout the world (making it a powerful catalyst to kingdom-building in our own corners of the vineyard), and that in general strengthens testimony as it quitely bears testimony. The LDS contribution to this "cinematic web" will include fiction films, feature films, historical documentaries, etc., but I think the Fit for the Kingdom agenda will make up the bulk of it. I, for instance, am more interested in how Saints are building meetinghouses in India, how they responded to Katrina in Biloxi, how a new member in Okinawa is overcoming a Word of Wisdom addiction, or what it's like to be a single LDS mom in Glasgow than in what happens this autumn to the Steeds (although I'll go see that film too).

Mine's obviously a very favorable stance on the project. It has as yet received little to no funding and no distribution beyond the website. And it's still very Provo-centric, or at least American, though I believe Duncan shot some stuff in Colonia Juarez. I also believe it ties in to literature, by the way, as things become increasingly multimedia-based, particularly personal, family, and ward histories (interactive, with text, audio, and video). As journals and sermons have historically made up the bulk of LDS lit, so these things, which have a strong history in LDS film dating back to the first footage of Latter-day Saints in 1898, will make up the bulk of LDS cinema; it's a short step from blogs, email lists, and audio podcasting, to vodcasting. This global unity is what the makers of the Church in Action films in the 70s and 80s envisioned but were never able to achieve because of poor publicity and distribution, something now conquerable because of the grassroots and populist, accessible nature of the Internet.

If you've got eight minutes to look at just one film on the website, I suggest "Leroy Pratt" (aka "Crossings"), Ben Unguren's film about a crossing guard in Provo, done in 2001 or 02 on the cusp of the thing. And stay tuned for the BYU Studies issues, which I hope will provide a tremendous boon to quality of LDS-themed films.


Copyright 2006 Randy Astle