As a filmmaker, Helen Whitney demonstrated that she is a very gifted artist. And like other gifted artists she interpreted what she saw through a set of lenses not necessarily possessed by the rank and file. As a film, The Mormons possessed exceptional production quality, lighting, music and mood. But sadly it completely missed the true spirit and tone of what it is actually like to be a day-to-day practicing Mormon. Instead the film portrayed a mood that was dark, sullen and even surreal at times. The mood and spirit I have experienced as a lifelong practicing Mormon is faith-promoting, peaceful, joyous, and even fun.

She also spent too little time acknowledging and expanding upon the very core of our beliefs: Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for mankind and that all our other beliefs and practices, including eternal families, Sunday services, temples, missionary work, etc., center on Christ. Finally, the film barely touched on another huge point: the real strength of the church is in the individual testimonies of its members and that Mormons believe that every person can received a personal testimony of the truthfulness of its beliefs directly from God.

What she did present was relatively balanced but she spent too much time on events, issues, and interviewees that do not give a clear picture and feeling of what it is really like to be a practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. — Dennis Wilkins, American Fork, Utah

In general, I felt this presentation was fairly balanced — including aspects of this faith which are common to most religions — which can be misinterpreted by "outsiders" to any of them. It was refreshing to have a treatment by media which did NOT include much of the usual "Mormon bashing" fostered by huge ignorance of the mis or uninformed or malevolence on the part of "blind" critics or those who have an agenda against the church.

Agreed, too much time was spent on "polygamy" (a term which does NOT convey the honorable intentions of those practitioners who entered into Plural MARRIAGE — with all it's commitments), especially adding in the material on the "fundamentalists" who are NOT "Mormons" and, therefore, quite irrelevant to this presentation. Equally, the lamentable Mountain Meadows incident (with the innuendo that Brigham Young instigated it — a totally specious, unproven claim.)

While it is interesting to hear the viewpoints of EX-Mormons, such are ALWAYS suspect, since only THEIR side of their story is available to the audience. More than likely, their slant about the church is "tainted" by their relationship to it — with all the emotional baggage they carry from their history with it.