The Mormons: A Conversation with Helen Whitney In its write-up about the forthcoming documentary film series, The Mormons, the PBS website suggests that “Mormons have always had a peculiar hold on the American imagination, but few know who the Mormons actually are, or who they claim to be, and their story is one of the great neglected American narratives.” With this four-hour film meticulously researched and created by award-winning director Helen Whitney and set to debut on 30 April and 1 May as part of PBS’s The American Experience and Frontline series, Mormons will be neglected no more! This high-profile film covers everything from Church origins, scripture, persecution, exodus, and nineteenth-century controversies to today’s mainstreaming and emphases on families, missions, patriotism, and image, and how those play out in the lives of contemporary Latter-day Saints, both those who fit within the ideal and those who don’t. We are thrilled to have Helen Whitney join us for this session of clips from this and others of her films (The Monastery; John Paul II; Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero) and conversation with the audience about her experiences with “the Mormons”, the film and the Latter-day Saints and commentators she’s met during this journey over the past five years, which included visits to several Sunstone symposiums, Mormon History Association conferences, and many other LDS gatherings. You can learn more about the film series at www.pbs.org/previews/themormons.

HELEN WHITNEY