Docudrama highlights faith of Emma Smith
Film on LDS founder's wife opens this weekend
"Emma Smith: My Story," which producers Mike Kennedy and Paul Savage dubbed a "docudrama," premiered Wednesday at Jordan Commons for project insiders and descendants of LDS Church founder Joseph Smith and his wife, Emma. Many of them have only learned of their famous heritage in recent years after being contacted by members of the Joseph Smith Jr. and Emma Hale Smith Historical Society, which originated the yearlong film project.
Producers said the film seeks to portray Emma Smith's joys and sorrows as the wife of a man who declared that he talked with God and restored true Christianity, resulting not only in the birth of a new faith but also, ultimately, in his martyrdom. Events in early LDS history are seen through her eyes — an approach filmmakers say will have wide appeal, particularly to women who have admired Emma Smith but know little about her.
"Our intent was to tell her story the same way Emma would," said Kennedy, the Smiths' third great-grandson. "I've already read the blogs where people were speculating we wouldn't touch polygamy," a practice that Joseph Smith said God commanded him to initiate, and to which Emma Smith ultimately agreed, he said.
"Our purpose was to understand her nature and personality, rather than to interpret how she dealt with (plural marriage). She never really discussed it. She didn't like talking about it."
Kennedy said the film employs one of his own assumptions about Emma Smith in a scene that depicts a dialogue between her and her daughter, Julia, asking why she didn't discuss polygamy and her concerns about other wives. He said he made the assumption that if Emma talked with anyone about the topic, it would be her daughter, not her sons or outsiders.
When her daughter asks about Emma's silence, "Well what good would that do?" is her reply. Kennedy said in the context of the time, he believes the depiction is accurate. "These were not things that you talked about. People were proper. I think she responded in one of two ways: She either didn't talk about it, or she said, 'It's none of your business.'
"Today we talk about sex far more openly than they did back then."
Recent comments
He had trouble making his mind up, so she had the same problem. Blind...
Make up | July 8, 2008 at 12:39 p.m.
Interesting how people's own biases guide their interpretation...
Randal S. Chase | June 30, 2008 at 10:47 p.m.
I'm truly saddened in reading so many of these negative comments...
Susan | June 26, 2008 at 10:18 a.m.
