Proposition 8 Documentary To Debut At Sundance
(video: ChinoBlanco at YouTube)
Immediately after it was announced that Reed Cowan’s film detailing the Mormon’s meddling in California’s Proposition 8 would premiere at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, a website was thrown up calling for a boycott.
Nancy Van Valkenburg, writing at The Standard, filed this report:
At 2 p.m. Thursday, the 2010 Sundance Film Festival announced that former Utah newsman Reed Cowan would bring his new documentary to the elite festival.
By 5 p.m. Thursday, Cowan learned religious and anti-gay activists were organizing, discussing online whether they should gather at Park City to show their angry opposition to the screening.
Cowan’s film is “8: The Mormon Proposition.” It is described on the Internet Movie Database, www.imdb.com, as “a scorching indictment of the Mormon Church’s historic involvement in the promotion and passage of California’s Proposition 8,” the proposition that banned same-sex marriage in California.
“I know that it’s going to be protested,” Cowan said in an e-mail interview from his home base in Florida.
Funny how these gay-hating, Utah Mormons — who marched into California in 2008, bankrolled a ballot initiative to wipe out the existing right of gay and lesbian couples to marry, won by a slim margin, and got all prissy about post election calls to boycott Mormon and other businesses that backed Prop 8 — immediately resort to launching a boycott over a film critical of the church’s involvement.
Reed Cowan, the film’s director, said, “The chickens are coming home to roost. What happened in California began in Salt Lake City. And now we’re bringing it home.”
Fred Karger of Californians Against Hate, who figures prominently in Cowan’s film, writing at The Huffington Post, said of the film:
8: The Mormon Proposition will explain once and for all just how the Mormon Church operates, and how they have led the fight against marriage equality all across the United States since Utah became the first state to ban same-sex marriage in 1995. 29 states have followed Utah’s lead, and the Mormon Church has made sure of that.
The film also goes into great depth about how the Mormon Church has destroyed so many lives and families in its desire to impose its will on others.
Karger promises the film “will knock your socks off.”
According to the summary at The Internet Movie Database:
Through never-before seen documents, recordings & insider-interviews, 8: THE MORMON PROPOSITION, exposes the efforts of the Mormon Church and its members to halt nearly every piece of LGBT legislation on the desks of lawmakers from Hawaii to New York. 8: THE MORMON PROPOSITION makes these efforts a matter of record and challenges viewers to demand more of government officials in requiring religions more transparency in their efforts to influence public policy.
Little wonder they’re getting a bit fidgety in Salt Lake City, Utah.
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Here’s a copy of the Sundance announcement:
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Steven Greenstreet (801) 580-3103
EMAIL: Press@mormonproposition.com8: THE MORMON PROPOSITION SET FOR WORLD PREMIERE AT THE 2010 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL IN PARK CITY, UTAH.
Miami, Florida – DAVID v. GOLIATH PRODUCTIONS announced this week that their new and highly anticipated documentary, 8: THE MORMON PROPOSITION, a film by Reed Cowan & narrated by Oscar-winning writer of MILK, Dustin Lance Black, will debut its world premiere at the world renowned SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL in January 2010.
Reed Cowan saying today, “I’ve had a chance to talk to our film’s narrator, Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black about our SUNDANCE acceptance and he is thrilled. Our Executive Producer Bruce Bastian is thrilled and our other Producers, Steven Greenstreet, Emily Pearson and Chris Volz are also…over the moon. Additionally, our production staff which includes Richard Samuels and Brian Bayerl of Greendoor Productions and Jess Elwood our animator are also thrilled.
Months ago, in an interview with THE ADVOCATE magazine, SUNDANCE’s John Cooper said: “I think we’re going to see a lot more hard-hitting political documentaries. Prop. 8 was sort of a wake-up call. I can see that fire in the belly to finish this thing off, to get to the next phase in American life.”
Everyone involved with 8: THE MORMON PROPOSITION is honored to be a part of what Mr. Cooper was talking about. 8:TMP is indeed the hardest-hitting political documentary to be released in years. It is to Mormons and their anti-gay allies what Fahrenheit 9-11 was to the Bush Administration.
That’s why our team will have a ground presence in Park City and Salt Lake City the likes of which has never been seen before through our SLC manager Jacob Whipple. For that, we’ll be enlisting the help of thousands of people…details to come.
This is an important film. Our team believes it strikes at the heart of one of our country’s highest held values—separation of church and state. And mostly, this film is important because it honors in a very respectful and dignified way, those who felt the sting of prop. 8 and other legislation like it. This is their story. And with the invitation from SUNDANCE, it will now be the world’s to experience.
8:TMP TRAILER VIEWABLE AT:
www.mormonproposition.com
Click for Printable Version
Blacklisting!!! McCarthyism!!! How dare they try to deprive the filmmaker and theater owner of their livelihoods?!?!
The demonstrations are going to be pretty informative. To avoid the nasty publicity backlash it would undoubtedly receive, if the Mormon church appeared to be censoring a film about the Mormon church made and funded largely by Mormons, the leadership could issue a ban and order its followers to stay home.
But, I doubt any directive from the LDS leadership would persuade anti-gay groups like America Forever to pass on the opportunity to go for the attention the media is sure to bestow.
Who cares if all the Mormons of the world stay at home…you can be sure there will be lots of people who will flock to see this indictment of people who appear to be evil Morons rather than people who follow the teachings of Jesus. This religion is very destructive to those who do not follow in-goose-step with all their policies…