Third in a series of reports from the 2010 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

There was a public protest at the Sundance Film Festival’s world premiere screening of “8: The Mormon Proposition.” However, the protestors advocated better church and state separation. Exhibit A for the protestors’ position came from the Mormon-dominated Utah state legislature. An innocuous resolution congratulating Sundance on 25 years of existence turned into blackmail material once the legislators learned the festival would screen Reed Cowan’s Proposition 8 film. Sundance lived up to its official rebellion theme by refusing to disinvite the film. To date, the congratulatory resolution has not been introduced.

Attendees at the premiere screening included the filmmakers, narrator Duncan Lance Black, NCLR’s Kate Kendall, S.F. City Attorney Dennis Herrera, S.F. Mayor Gavin Newsom, and at least one guy who publicly admitted to voting for Proposition 8.

Cowan’s film was painful to watch for those of us, such as this writer, who fought against Proposition 8 and lost. What marriage equality advocates thought was a secular political issue was to Mormon elders the latest battle in a war waged to preserve the church’s conception of heaven. The decoding of Mormon theology and how it was applied against marriage equality provided one of the documentary’s more stomach churning moments.

More galling was learning that the Mormon Church’s covert war against marriage equality and LGBT rights in general had been going on for over three decades. Footage discussing the Mormons’ tactics used in an earlier fight to defeat marriage equality in Hawaii echoed the methods employed in the California fight. For example, in both fights the Church of Latter Day Saints covertly financed pro-straight marriage political front groups utilizing credible high profile spokeswomen. Cowan’s film shows public homophobe Maggie Gallagher and her vile National Organization for Marriage secretly suck on the Mormon financial/political teat.

Unsurprisingly, the Church of LDS’ institutional hostility towards the LGBT community also extends towards LGBTs within its ranks. Aside from homophobic slurs casually uttered in temple halls, there are stories of frontal lobotomies inflicted on unfortunately discovered gay Mormons and the suicides of such gay Mormons as Stuart Matis. Footage following a trio of homeless gay Mormon teenagers scraping together an improvised sleeping space reminds viewers of the link between religious intolerance and LGBT homeless youth.

Ironically, anger is the wrong response to a tale of the Mormons’ electroshock anti-gay therapy. The filmmaker noted in an interview that response is used by conservative Mormons as a pejorative rationalization for dismissing criticism. A better response would be pity. One pities those Mormons (and other religious conservatives) possessed of faith so brittle and so constricted that accepting LGBTs as equals is impossible for them.



Pretending climate disasters that destroy the livelihoods of people living in Africa doesn’t matter to the U.S. is no longer an option. Michael Nash’s documentary “Climate Refugees” methodically shows how forced migrations resulting from flooding, droughts, and other such crises sparks a domino effect ultimately threatening global development and security. This globe-hopping film uses wide-ranging expert interviews and footage from steadily submerging islands and other affected places to show how the answer cannot come from shipping off these displaced millions to cities and other areas ill-prepared to handle an increasing influx of refugees.

The urgency of the long-term problem depicted in Nash’s film finesses the artlessness of his film’s presentation of the material. His solid TV reporting style may not make the documentary memorable. But considering that this is the first general audience film to discuss the problem, it’s a necessary conversation starter. May “Climate Refugees” help start bringing people together to solve this worldwide problem.



Tanya Hamilton’s riveting first feature film “Night Catches Us” considers life in idealism’s ruins. Leads Anthony Mackie and Kerry Washington convincingly dominate the screen as former Black Panthers whose shared history and passions extend beyond the same former political cause. Hamilton also effectively uses the film’s setting of 1976 Philadelphia to show how its black characters cling to Panther ideals, embrace traditional law and order, or turn to criminal behavior.

Backed by vintage Panther footage and a good soundtrack from The Roots, Hamilton’s film neither retreats nor surrenders from its portrayal of the Panthers as both a force for social justice and a proud alternative to the daily cultural humiliations black people were expected to accept. Yet Hamilton also doesn’t turn a blind eye to the sometimes justified paranoia that undermined the Panthers’ effectiveness.

Jamara Griffin’s role as Iris provides a dramatic entrance into discussing the Panthers’ history. However, Hamilton’s film is less interested in providing a political critique than in seeing how personal choices are shaped by politics and vice versa, and her film is stronger for doing so.



High cage rattling comes from Chris Morris’ feature film debut “Four Lions.” His comedy concerns four London Islamics who want to become jihadis.

Viewers familiar with Morris’ penchant for controversial comedy will remember his notorious “Brass Eye” episode mocking British anti-pedophile hysteria. “Four Lions” finds humor in domestic Islamic terrorism by making its would-be jihadis idiots of varying dimness whose ability to create chaos requires head-thumpingly dumb luck.

Morris’ farcical slant isn’t that divorced from present-day reality. His research on everything from court transcripts to interviews with terrorism experts and Muslims revealed that the enterprise of terrorism is not immune to human folly and frailty. For example, notorious terrorist mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed “spends two hours looking for a costume that won’t make him look fat on camera.”

Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong’s script doesn’t shy away from the reality that Omar and his mates are out to kill both themselves and others. But their words also show how egotism and personal absurdities undermine the titular lions’ professed commitment to the cause. Omar (Riz Ahmed) and Barry (Nigel Lindsay) compete with each other to demonstrate who’s the more committed Islamic jihadi.

Is “Four Lions” just for the adventurous viewer? No. It’s a film for those who recognize how humor can defuse intimidation. Liking comic insults delivered in Urdu/Arabic helps as well.