Reaction to the film will vary with the audience, he said. "Will it serve as a means to add to the bitterness and prevent healing? Maybe yes and maybe no. I really don't know."

"I've always felt that bringing it out into the open was much better than trying to conceal the event under a carpet. Unless this (new film) is abusive and mean-spirited, but I don't think it will be that. It's a mainstream film, and I don't think they'll attack the LDS Church. It's already being billed as a group of renegade Mormons who were apart from the church and went against Brigham Young's advice. So, I think they'll try to do their best to not offend people," Patrick said.

Patrick expects continuing interest in the subject for the foreseeable future. The History Channel has recently done two one-hour programs on the massacre, and public television station WGBH Boston is doing its own version, he said.

"It's just a great human story and a great story of the American West that is as fascinating as they possibly can get. The fact that it's been kind of kept under wraps for so long — either people didn't know about it or steered away from it — that's one of the reasons why now there are a lot of people all at once trying to get it out there and possibly exploit it."

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