''Deseret'' is a 1995

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when ...

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

written and directed by James Benning and narrated by Fred Gardner. It chronicles the

history of Utah The History of Utah is an examination of the human history and social activity within the state of Utah located in the western United States. Prehistory Archaeological evidence dates the earliest habitation of Native Americans in Utah to about ...

from 1852 to 1992 by having the narrator read 93 news stories from ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' in chronological order over static shots of Utah. The title refers to the original proposed name for the state of Utah, the Jaredite word for "honeybee" in the

Book of Mormon The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which, according to Latter Day Saint theology, contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from 600 BC to AD 421 and during an interlude date ...

. The film was shown at the 1996

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

, receiving critical acclaim.

Overview

The film alternates between showing a series of consecutive shots with

voice-over Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non-Diegetic#Film sound and music, diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, th ...

—one shot for each sentence of the news story—and a single shot without voice-over. The first narrated shot of each news story has the date the article was published superimposed. The shots without narration separate one news story from the next, and these unnarrated shots get shorter and shorter as the film progresses, representing shorter delays between the events happening and being reported in the news. In addition, the evolution of journalistic language over the time period means that the length of the sentences also decreases, which results in an accelerating pace. The cinematography is in

black and white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

for the part of the film which corresponds to the 1800s and then switches to

color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...

for the 1900s. Only a handful of shots contain human beings. One of the shots accompanying each story shows where it occurred, either literally or figuratively. Out of the 93 news stories, more than half are from the first two decades or the last two, with 31 from the 1850s and 1860s and 26 from the 1980s and 1990s; this was a decision made by Benning to invite comparison between the eras. The first 24 news stories are about the establishment of

Mormonism in Utah The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah refers to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and its members in Utah. Utah has more church members than any other U.S. state or country. The LDS Church is also the ...

. Stories about the Native Americans in Utah are a recurring subject in the pre-1900 part of the film, and stories about radiation—both naturally-occurring and

fallout Nuclear fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave has passed. It commonly refers to the radioac ...

—are a recurring theme in the post-1900 portion. In the second half of the film, the news stories increasingly focus on

environmental issues Environmental issues are effects of human activity on the biophysical environment, most often of which are harmful effects that cause environmental degradation. Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment on t ...

including

toxic waste Toxic waste is any unwanted material in all forms that can cause harm (e.g. by being inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed through the skin). Mostly generated by industry, consumer products like televisions, computers, and phones contain toxic chemi ...

management, the

chemical A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wi ...

and

biological weapons A biological agent (also called bio-agent, biological threat agent, biological warfare agent, biological weapon, or bioweapon) is a bacterium, virus, protozoan, parasite, fungus, or toxin that can be used purposefully as a weapon in bioterrorism ...

facility

Dugway Proving Ground Dugway Proving Ground (DPG) is a U.S. Army facility established in 1942 to test biological and chemical weapons, located about southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, and south of the Utah Test and Training Range. Location Dugway P ...

near

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

, and the indirect consequences of

nuclear weapons testing Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, Nuclear weapon yield, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detona ...

in neighboring

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

Production

In preparation for the film, Benning spent six months reading every ''New York Times'' article about Utah he could find from the founding of the newspaper in 1852 to 1992. After choosing which ones to use in the film, he spent another three months condensing the news stories to a length of eight to ten sentences each, while retaining the original language. Benning chose Fred Gardner as narrator because he could read the text in a monotone voice, making the words rather than the voice convey the drama. Recording the narration took a few months, after which filming commenced. The imagery was recorded on 16 mm camera; Benning carried one camera for shooting black-and-white and one for shooting in color. Shooting on location in Utah lasted for approximately 120 days spread out over a period of 14 months. Editing the film took an additional nine months; the final film contains more than 600 shots.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Deseret 1995 films 1995 documentary films Films directed by James Benning 1990s English-language films 1990s American films