Films about Mormon Women

The recent film festival film, The Errand of Angels, about female Mormon missionaries, has raised some interest in Mormon women as the subjects of film generally (pictured here is a shot from the recent Emma Smith: My Story [2007]). I thought it might be nice to enumerate some of the films that have focused more closely on LDS women, whether those films are theatrical, fictional, or documentary in nature. I've even included some filmed lectures about women. These are not exhaustive lists, but a good starting point. Many more films about or by LDS women can be found in the Mormon Literature & Creative Arts database, and I invite anyone to add suggestions of other films or categories.

Historical Mormon Women / Biopics
Mormon women are integral to the many historical treatments of Mormonism, but some films give them more focus than others.

• Pioneers in Petticoats (1969)
  About young women in Brigham Young's day but targeted to young women of the late 1960s. Created at the centennial of the Young Women program of the church and scripted by Carol Lynn Pearson.
• Polly: A One-Woman Musical (1993)
  Video adaptation of Steven and Janice Kapp Perry’s stage musical based on the life of Utah settler Polly Matilda Merrill Colton
• Eliza and I (1997)
  Biopic about the famous early Mormon poetess based on Elizabeth Hansen's one-woman play and directed by Richard Dutcher. (See also the filmed lecture about Eliza R. Snow by Jill Derr, below)
• The Fourth Witness: The Mary Whitmer Story (1997)
  Biopic about Peter Whitmer's wife.
• Woman, the Pioneer (1997)
  Innovative dance film choreographed by renowned dance educator Virginia Tanner and adapted for film by Caroline Prohosky.
• Emma Smith: My Story (2007)
  Gary Cook's recent biopic on the Prophet Joseph Smith's wife goes where no historical church film has gone before and was well received at the recent LDS Film Festival

Scriptural Women
A number of shorter films have dramatized the lives or experiences of women from the Bible.

• The Touch (1996)
  Based on the New Testament story of the woman diseased with an issue of blood.
• Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath (1997)
  The faith of a young widow is tested when Elijah, the prophet, beseeches her for the last scrap of food she possesses.
• The Sisters of Bethany (2002)
  Film about Mary and Martha when Christ comes to raise Lazarus.

Romantic Comedies
The Mormon "chick flick" is emerging with theatrically aimed feature films. Some of these are aimed at general audiences and have no explicit LDS content, others are Mormon by implication.

• Pride & Prejudice (2003)
  Mormon-esque adaptation of the Jane Austen novel
• Everything You Want (2005)
• The Dance (2007)
  Story by Carol Lynn Pearson
• Beauty and the Beast: A Latter-Day Tale (2007)

Contemporary Mormon Women
In recent years there have been many biographically-oriented documentary films that have examined the lives of lesser-known Mormon women and highlight their particular problems and issues.

• Reflections (1978)
  Independent LDS documentary film done in Southern California during the Equal Rights Amendment years
• Mormon Women and Depression (1979)
  An hour long documentary that appeared on the TV program "Dimension Five"
• Helpmates: Wives of General Authorities (1988)
• Mother Wove the Morning (1992)
  An adaptation of Carol Lynn Pearson's one-woman show. Considered very "new age."
• Utah Women Considered: Changing Lives, Changing Times (1995)
  One of three featured women is Mormon
• The Smith Family: A Lesson in Love (2002)
  A powerful documentary about an LDS family coping with the father's homosexuality and AIDS.
• Angie (2006)
  A Fit for the Kingdom Film about a Mormon mother dying of cancer and how her family deals with it.

Women's Issues Films
Mormons have been involved in making films either about the issues that Mormon women face or women in general.

• Empower Yourself: Women's Self-Protection (1996)
• Fashioning Women in Law (2003)
• A Modest Revolution: Today's Girls Say What They Really Think! (2006)

Filmed Lectures about Mormon Women
Some may not consider these to be "films" proper, but many lectures, devotionals, firesides, and conferences have given focused attention to Mormon women in recent decades. This is just a sample of many such presentations that have been filmed and/or broadcast.

• Young Women Fireside: A New Vision and Focus (1987)
• Considering Covenants: Women, Men, Perspective, Promises (Jeffrey and Patricia Holland, 1994)
• Men, Women and Mother Nature: Gender and Religiosity Informing Environmental Attitudes (BYU Devotional address, 2000)
• Remembering Eliza R. Snow (Jill Derr,2004)
• Public and Private: What Their Newspapers Reveal about Utah's Early Mormon Women Editors (Sherilyn Cox Bennion, 2004)
• Determined Disciples:  The Women Who Sustained Joseph Smith (Jill Derr, 2006)

 

Comments

[Candy Eash]

Gideon - thanks for compiling this list. It's nice to see women get acknowledged in film too. Here are two of my favorites films about Mormon women:

Feed My Lambs, a short film based on the 1989 conference talk The Summer of the Lambs by Jayne B. Malan and distributed in the Young Women's Leadership Training video.

Wives and Daughters of the First Presidency, which is a series of taped interviews on their lives.

[Jana]

There's the filmed version of the one-woman musical, "Polly", with Johanne Frechette Perry. It focuses on the life of a pioneer woman.

[Mahonri Stewart]

Although I don't think it is ABOUT women, the recently released straight to DVD "Singles Second Ward" had a strong actress, Erin Chambers, playing a more central female character than previous Halestorm films (taking up the narrating role that Will Swenson did in the first). However, the focus is still divided between her, Kirby Heybourne's character and her parents (I actually thought she was more interesting than Heybourne and wanted to see even MORE of her). The split focus weakened the narrative somewhat, but I thought it was a nice step in the right direction. Chambers was the strongest presence throughout the whole film, outshining everyone. Kind of reminded me of Bryce Dallas Howard's strong screen presence.

[Mahonri Stewart]

Although the film kind of charmed me, I must mention that the film had many of the cultural flaws of its predecessors. Although I think Erin Chambers alone was enough to make the film for me.