Davis said LDS films need to appeal to audiences outside the LDS market, but they also need more support from inside. "I think the audience has gotten a little tired of ultra-low-budget Mormon movies, and I think they're beginning to suffer at the box office. And yet the audience hasn't yet demonstrated willingness to support higher-budgeted films.

"To make higher-budget movies work, we need to figure out a way to make $10 million at the box office and sell a million videos."

And, of course, it takes money to make money. "We should be thinking about the day we want to spend $45 million to make it and $35 million to market it, and let the fur fly. We're still quite insecure and timid in our filmmaking and marketing."

Meanwhile, Davis said, those outside the culture, for good or ill, will do it for us. "It's interesting how many people are beginning to throw Mormon characters in their movies. Whether or not we like it, we are being thrust onto the world stage.

"And when we don't convey ourselves on film or TV, when other people define us for us, they generally don't get it right. We end up being the Stepford Mormons or the hayseed Mormons or the polygamist Mormons, as opposed to being just regular people who happen to have faith in a certain religion."

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E-mail: hicks@desnews.com