A week before the 200th anniversary of his birth, a film biography of LDS Church founder Joseph Smith debuted Friday for local media and hundreds of church employees in the building that bears his name.

Crowds lined up early and often at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building's Legacy Theater before and after the media showing, anxious to catch a sneak preview of the film that will open free to the public today. Advance reservations are required, and most time slots have already been snapped up for the first few weeks of the film's run.

The two-year film project, titled, "Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration," portrays key events in the life of the man church members believe restored Jesus Christ's original gospel to the Earth and translated a seminal work of scripture, the Book of Mormon.

Digitally produced video and audio capabilities allow special effects in the film that are new to the Legacy Theater. They immerse viewers in a story line that Smith himself said once he would not have believed had he not lived it.

His early boyhood in Vermont is portrayed, including scenes depicting an operation on one of his legs, endured without the use of modern anesthesia.

Producers sought to be realistic in their portrayal of this and other intense scenes "without going over the top," according to T. C. Christensen, co-director and cinematographer. "It is the same approach we used with the violence," inflicted on early Latter-day Saints and Smith himself, who was once dragged from his home by a mob to be tarred and feathered in the dead of winter.

"We tried to give a feeling of it without really showing it in detail. You see just little clips filmed in a way" that lets viewers understand the evil motives of those who hounded Smith and the early Latter-day Saints in the church's infancy.

Two scenes — one in the Sacred Grove where Smith said he saw God and Jesus Christ, and the other during his stay in Liberty Jail — feature dark cinematic techniques that Christensen said he felt best represented the reality of Satan's attempts to dissuade Smith from the work he said God had called him to do.

The 68-minute film also includes liberal doses of laughter and slices of everyday interactions Smith had with his early followers, particularly children.

Other key scenes portray the death of Smith's older brother, Alvin; the appearance of heavenly messengers, including John the Baptist and the apostles Peter, James and John; the organization of the church; construction of both the Kirtland and Nauvoo temples; Smith's frequent imprisonment and threatened execution by a Missouri mob; interaction with Jane Manning James, believed to be among the first African-Americans to join the church; his journey to Carthage and his martyrdom there at age 38.