'The Mormons' on PBS takes aim at stereotypes

"The Mormons" is not a film about Utah. Whitney traveled across the country, from New York to California; she sent a film crew to Ghana.

"Mormons are everywhere, and I wanted to make that point," she said. "There are more Mormons outside of America than in this country. And even within America, there are many Mormons outside of Utah. So only a small part of it was shot in Utah."

She spent three years working on the film, interviewing "hundreds and hundreds of people" ranging from LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley to everyday church members to those who are openly antagonistic toward the church.

She attended ward meetings and made visits with home teachers; she spoke with people who had been excommunicated.

"The Mormons" will no doubt displease anyone who doesn't want to hear a negative word about the LDS Church. At the same time, it's going to anger those who don't want to hear anything good about it.

The LDS Church was "absolutely cooperative" in the making of the film, said Whitney, an Emmy and Peabody Award winner who profiled monks in "The Monastery," profiled John Paul II in "The Millennial Pope" and looked at religion in the wake of terrorism in "Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero."

"They had seen my films. They realized ... that I was not going to approach them and be uncritical but I would be respectful," she said. "And it would be an intelligent film and searching."

Whitney's goal is not to recruit people to become Mormons, nor is it to discourage current or prospective members. She is hoping, however, that "The Mormons" will prompt viewers to examine their own beliefs.

"I would also like them to take a deep and searching look into their own religion and see the ways in which there are commonalities as well as uniqueness and difference," she said. "I think that by looking into the Mormon heart, you look into your own."

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