About
Liahona is an experimental documentary examining the culture, history, and lived experience of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, often referred to as the Mormon faith.
The film creates a portrait of Mormonism through documentation of LDS cultural dominance in Utah, the suppressed history of folk magic in the early church, landmark Mormon life experiences, and Sanders' personal history and connection to the church. Found media with the voices of outsiders and insiders illuminate a religion that intrigues many, but is seen as mysterious or inaccessible. Liahona shifts through perspectives on the faith -- from reverence to questioning, presenting the complexities of the vast institution of Mormonism contrasted with the tenuity of individual faith.
Liahona is an examination of how mysticism becomes mundane, the balance and the tension in Mormon life experience between the illogical and the pedestrian, the public face of Mormonism and gaps in accessibility. What is it about the Mormons that make them so distinctively different? Recorded on 16mm film, Liahonatraverses Utah, Nauvoo and Carthage, Illinois and Independence, Missouri to piece together this portrait of a faith.
Reviews
“An arresting, deceptively low-key indictment of Mormonism composed almost entirely of found footage.” — Tony Pipolo, ArtForum
“Sanders interpolates her found sounds and sights with original 16mm Bolex footage of landscapes and town streets, sometimes containing people posed as though waiting for something left up to us to fill in. Liahona encourages us to look not at costumes, but at faces, and bring ourselves to people whose lives could easily be ours. It does so even while shifting gradually from a study of Mormon life in general to one particular life, as Sanders' own voice enters the film's soundtrack to recite texts, sing songs, and ask her Mormon parents questions about their Church experiences.” — Aaron Cutler, Filmmaker Magazine
“An accomplished experimental feature... The wide-ranging Liahona is neither a straightforward indictment nor a reconciled embrace, but a story inextricable from its artist's own.” — Genevieve Yue, Reverse Shot
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Credits
Liahona
Credits Directed & Produced by
Talena Sanders
Camera, Edit, Sound Design by
Talena Sanders
Production Coordinator, Camera, Sound, & Research Assistance
Kate Schlauch Additional
Camera
Fern Silva
Additional Sound, Camera Assistance
Sean McCoy
Erin Espelie as voice of
Elizabeth Horrocks Jackson Kingsford
Tom Rankin as voice of
Ephraim Hanks
Jeremy Urekew as voice of
John Zaehringer