''Meet the Mormons'' is a 2014 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

directed by

Blair Treu Blair Treu is an American film director. He directed ''Little Secrets (2001 film), Little Secrets'' and ''Wish Upon a Star''. More recently he has teamed up with Brigham Young University (BYU) professor Stephen F. Duncan, KBYU-TV and BYU Televisio ...

and produced by

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ch ...

(LDS Church). The film documents the lives of six devout Mormons living in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, Costa Rica, and

Nepal Nepal (; ne, :ne:नेपाल, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in S ...

. The LDS Church donated all net proceeds from the theatrical release of the film to the American Red Cross.

Production

The film was originally designed for viewing in the Legacy Theater in the

Joseph Smith Memorial Building The Joseph Smith Memorial Building, originally called the Hotel Utah, is a social center located on the corner of Main Street and South Temple in Salt Lake City. It is named in honor of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. I ...

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

, but after screenings with test audiences, LDS Church leadership decided to release the film first in theaters across the United States. According to

Jeffrey R. Holland Jeffrey Roy Holland (born December 3, 1940) is an American educator and religious leader. He served as the List of presidents of Brigham Young University, ninth President of Brigham Young University (BYU) and is a member of the Quorum of the Twe ...

, the film is "not a proselytizing effort but informative" and is an "opportunity to share who Mormons really are". The film is financed and distributed by the LDS Church, a first for the church. It is shot in documentary format and will be translated into 10 languages.

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

singer-songwriter and actor David Archuleta sang the track "Glorious" for the film.

Featured people

The film features Jermaine Sullivan, "The Bishop", and his family. Sullivan is an African-American who is an academic counselor at the

University of Phoenix University of Phoenix (UoPX) is a private for-profit university headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. Founded in 1976, the university confers certificates and degrees at the certificate, associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree level ...

. He was

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

of a

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

when the film was made, and now serves as a

stake president A stake is an administrative unit composed of multiple congregations in certain denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement. The name "stake" derives from the Book of Isaiah: "enlarge the place of thy tent; stretch forth the curtains of thine ha ...

. The film also covers Sullivan's wife and children.

Darius Gray Darius Gray is an African-American Latter-day Saint speaker and writer. Gray was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in 1964. He attended Brigham Young University for one yea ...

was among the associates of Sullivan interviewed. "The Coach",

Ken Niumatalolo Kenneth Va'a Niumatalolo (born May 8, 1965) is an American football coach and former player. He is the former head coach of the Naval Academy from 2007 to 2022, accumulating the most wins in program history. Niumatalolo played college football at ...

, head football coach at the

United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy ...

. "The Fighter", Carolina Muñoz Marin, an MMA fighter from Costa Rica who had a chance to go pro international, but she and her husband decided it would separate their family too much. "The Humanitarian", Bishnu Adhikari, a man from

, with a degree in engineering who is the country director for Choice Humanitarian in Nepal. The organization works to improve the living situation in rural parts of Nepal. "The Candy Bomber",

Gail Halvorsen Colonel Gail Seymour "The Candy Bomber" Halvorsen (October 10, 1920 – February 16, 2022) was a senior officer and command pilot in the United States Air Force. He is best known as the "Berlin Candy Bomber" or "Uncle Wiggly Wings" and gained f ...

, the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

pilot best known as the "Berlin Candy Bomber" who dropped candy to children during the

Berlin airlift The Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, roa ...

from 1948 to 1949. "The Missionary Mom", Dawn Armstrong, her story is chronicled from the birth of a son when she was a teenager, abandonment by his biological father, meeting her current husband - who had both her oldest son and her deceased next oldest son sealed to him when they were married in the temple, to her oldest son leaving to serve a

mission Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

Release

''Meet the Mormons'' was released on October 10, 2014, in the

by Purdie Distribution and

Excel Entertainment Excel Entertainment is an Indian production company, founded by Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar in 1999. Based in Mumbai, they mainly produce Hindi films. In 2017, they released India's first original series for Amazon Prime Video – I ...

. The LDS Church donated all net proceeds from the theatrical release of film to the American Red Cross. Beginning January 2015, the LDS Church began showing the film in all of its visitors' centers and historical sites.

Theme song

The theme song from the documentary was "Glorious" originally written and recorded by Stephanie Mabey. It is found in her album ''Wake Up Dreaming'' released on August 1, 2012. For the film version, the song was sung by David Archuleta, a finalist in

season 7 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

of ''

American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to Ap ...

''. The Archuleta version was released as a single in English language accompanied by a music video. An alternative Spanish version as "Glorioso" was also released again sung by Archuleta.

Reception

On review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the film has an approval rating of 18% based on 11 reviews, with an average rating of 5.2 out of 10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

the film has a score of 29 out of 100 based on reviews from 6 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". The film has been criticized as propaganda. (als
RogersMovieNation.com
version of same article) Critics felt the documentary lacked information about Mormon history, its tenets, and its controversies. Producer Jeff Roberts responded to these reviews saying, "Most reviewers wanted the movie to be controversial, but we wanted to tell stories about those who make up our base." Some reviewers praised the movie for its "slick" cinematography. The film grossed $2,509,808 in its opening weekend, placing it outside the top 10. , it is listed 34th in revenue-producing documentary films.

References

External links

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Meet the Mormons 2014 documentary films 2014 films 2014 in Christianity American documentary films Films directed by Blair Treu Documentary films about Mormonism Films produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Sponsored films Films scored by Sam Cardon 2010s English-language films 2010s American films