New film by ex-wife takes aim at FLDS

As a former polygamist wife, Laurie Allen said it gave her common ground with the people she was filming for her documentary on the Fundamentalist LDS Church in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.

"My family's homestead is three miles away. I went to school in Colorado City for two months when I was in the second grade," she said.

Allen grew up in the notorious LeBaron polygamous sect. Her great-uncle Ervil LeBaron ordered a series of murders from prison, where he served a life sentence for killing a rival polygamist leader. She said she is a cousin of Jacqueline Tarsa LeBaron, who was recently added to the FBI's Most Wanted list in connection with a series of murders in 1988.

In an interview with the Deseret Morning News, Allen said she became a plural wife, and after 18 years finally left. Attending college, she enrolled in film school. For a project, she began a documentary on polygamy and the FLDS Church.

"Something needs to be done about these fundamentalist polygamous cults. It's not about religion, it's not about polygamy, it's about the denigrating of women and mind control," she said.

Allen's film, titled "Banking On Heaven," touts itself as an inside look at one of the most controversial polygamous groups. It has played at small film festivals in the United States and Canada and is now being released on DVD. A segment on the documentary is scheduled to be featured on the TV show, "America's Most Wanted."

The film is the latest in a string of documentaries that have been released or are being filmed about the FLDS Church. Allen's film is generating buzz on the Internet, where blogs and chat rooms are sounding off on it, both pro and con. It was panned by the Hollywood magazine "Variety," which said "more agitprop (agitational propaganda) than balanced reportage, this somewhat amateurish feature nonetheless has more than enough shocking allegations to grab the attention."

Former members of the FLDS Church speak out about the group, including fugitive polygamist leader Warren Jeffs' sister, Elaine.

"What I'm afraid of is another Jonestown or another Waco," she said in the film.

Warren Jeffs is on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. He is facing criminal charges in Utah and Arizona accusing him of forcing teenage girls into polygamous marriages with older men. Federal prosecutors have charged him with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

The documentary vilifies Jeffs, and a number of ex-FLDS members attack polygamy and the religion's treatment of women and children.

"We were not allowed to read books, and I just had a thirst for knowledge," ex-FLDS member Pam Black said.