Several months ago, Darius Gray and I made a hard decision to release the director we had employed for our documentary (NOT Richard Dutcher but someone else). It became obvious to us that we had made the right decision when we saw what edits the director (hereafter TD) had chosen for the trailer in light of all the interviews available to him.

For our last fundraiser, we had specifically requested something at the center of the trailer to indicate why an African American would choose Mormonism. TD said that the interviews hadn’t really garnered “testimonies,” but mostly defiance or defensiveness. (”I’m Black and I’m Mormon so get the hell used to it.” Or “I’m not an Uncle Tom” or “No white person will take away my salvation.”) From the looks of things, Black Mormons were faithful but slightly masochistic–and maybe in denial. (Actually, TD said on a few occasions that some of the interviewees were “in denial.” That should have been a clue right there–that he was judging rather than honoring them and letting them tell their own stories. He was editing them before he even started the process.)

Imagine my surprise when I actually listened to the interviews and heard one “testimony” after another. I was simply amazed at what had been included in TD’s trailer and what had been excluded–and how those choices colored the entire product.
We are re-doing the trailer now. It will be much better, much fuller, and truer to our vision.

Controversy simply was not the goal of our documentary. Controversy automatically comes with the race issue. We don’t avoid it, but we won’t make it the centerpiece either. We wanted (and want) to build bridges–between black converts and their families; between the Church and the black community; between white and black Latter-day Saints. We’re very big on truth and reconciliation.

Like Helen Whitney, we will be balanced; we won’t be pushing anything under the carpet. But we will honor the WHOLE story, and with Darius Gray as the soul of the documentary, black Mormons WILL recognize themselves in what we produce.

I am frankly grateful that Helen Whitney will open the conversation for us, and I’m eager to do justice to our subject and to everyone we’ve interviewed. But I have now seen in living color what a difference editorial choices make. (Not that I’m surprised; a writer’s or a historian’s editorial bias also make huge differences in the final product.) I will likely look at Helen’s work with the questions “What did she include and what did she NOT include?” in my mind.

I know she did not include Darius’s testimony, but she did include Betty Stevenson’s, and apparently she has footage of Mormons in Ghana. We’ll see how it all works.

Thanks for sharing your experience with this project in detail. We’re looking forward to the documentary. I’m sure that we’ll learn quite a bit. It will be interesting to see what the reaction of the membership will be.

I’m going to suggest having a thread run each night for responses. Sorta like the general conference threads without the simultaneity.