Award-winner is hoping to change movie scene by making uplifting films

Published: Sunday, Jan. 25 2009 12:00 a.m. MST

Filmmmaker Rick Stevenson is the recent recipient of the "Spirit of Windrider" award for making uplifting films.

Provided by Rick Stevenson

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Rick Stevenson has a mission. Actually, he has several. But everything is based on a single premise.

He wants the many better films currently being discarded by Hollywood to get to the public.

"There are a number of brilliant films the public never gets to see," said Stevenson, 53, a Seattle film director and producer. "The independents end up at the film festival, sometimes on video and maybe, once a year, we see something like Napoleon Dynamite that breaks through."

Stevenson is in Utah to pick up the "Spirit of Windrider" award given each year by The Windrider Forum, a coalition of Christian churches who meet annually at the Sundance Film Festival to honor those involved in creating and producing uplifting films.

Windrider Forum founder John Priddy said he first met Stevenson when his film "Expiration Date" screened at the True West Film Festival in Boise in 2007.

Read the full story at MormonTimes.com

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