Interpreter needs a quarter million to finish Brother Brigham’s film

[drumdude]

Dear Interpreter Foundation Supporters,

The same quality film-making team that produced Witnesses, Interpreter’s highly successful and award-winning movie about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, is producing Six Days in August, a compelling movie about the succession crisis after Joseph Smith’s martyrdom. We seek your support to enable us to complete this movie and release it in theaters in October.

Here’s why this project is so important and why we need your support:

Six Days in August will portray the dramatic but relatively little known story of that crucial succession decision in 1844. It will show how Brigham Young and the quorum that he led came to be recognized by a large majority of Latter-day Saints as the Lord’s chosen leadership for the Church after the death of Joseph Smith.

This story is vitally important today. The members of the Quorum of the Twelve have led the Church, and senior apostles have presided over it, ever since those dramatic days in early August 1844. Attacks on the legitimacy of the Twelve’s assumption of leadership over the Church in 1844 are, whether deliberately or not, attacks on today’s apostolic authority.

We began filming in September 2023 at sites in Canada, upstate New York, and at the LDS Motion Picture Studios in Provo. We have recently finished filming our final scenes. Gifts from generous donors have paid for filming, but there are still considerable expenses to prepare Six Day in August as a finished project ready for theatrical release.
Please consider making a tax-deductible gift to help us raise the $256,000 we need to fund post-production efforts, associated with cutting raw footage, assembling that footage, standardizing and enhancing the color of the footage, adding music, dubbing, and sound effects.
We seek your support now to help us cross the finish line to bring this entertaining, informative, and inspiring story to hundreds of thousands of people.

Here is an entertaining video clip that features scenes from the movie and interviews with its actors.

vimeo.com/880637147/76c80d1778?share=copy

For further background, please review the movie’s website at sixdaysinaugust.com on which you can also make an online donation.

You can also make checks out payable to:
Six Days in August Productions
P.O. Box 970542
Orem, UT 84097

Thank you for supporting The Interpreter Foundation over the years and for your dedication to defending the Faith.

Very Seriously Yours,

Daniel C. Peterson
President, The Interpreter Foundation
P.S. If you have questions, please contact Ed Snow at esnow23@gmail.com or 801-592-1750.

[Kishkumen]

I hope they meet their goals! I am always happy to see new films from Interpreter.

[Gadianton]

Why don't they use the profits from the last film to completely finance the making of this one?

[Tom]

I haven't read such an earnest appeal for money since the days of fundraising for the FARMS Ziggurat or Royal Skousen's Book of Mormon critical text project. Or perhaps since the days of Oral Roberts. (Roberts knew how to raise millions.) I suppose that quality film-making teams don't work for cheap, but $256,000 seems a little steep.

I will pass on this fundraising letter to the Relief Society sister in Parowan, although she may demand full transparency from the Executive Producer about the movie's budget. Thus far we haven't seen anything close to it.

I would give a substantial gift, but I recently donated a handsome sum to another worthy church history project. See here (now that's how I envision Joseph Smith).

An addendum: I didn't notice the curious "very seriously yours" close of the letter until now. The last time I read such a close was in the Proprietor's 2012 email to Jerry Bradford. Odd.

Posted from Mountain Creek Fork (Moun’un Crick Fark), Utah

[I Have Questions]

Perhaps the Proprietor might considering reducing his global travel schedule and cut down on dining out, and so create some spare cash to put into the film himself?

Had they not thrown so much money at Skousen they might not have needed to rattle the collection plate so much…

Given the lack of transparency on movie finances, how do we know this isn’t a scam?

[I Have Questions]

Dear Interpreter Foundation Supporters,

The same quality film-making team that produced Witnesses, Interpreter’s highly successful…

Highly successful? What were the measures of success for the film?

[drumdude]

Highly successful? What were the measures of success for the film?

Since it was such a low budget and private production, I doubt they did any forecasting on projected box office numbers.

They get to define success however they want after the fact.

[I Have Questions]

Highly successful? What were the measures of success for the film?

Since it was such a low budget and private production, I doubt they did any forecasting on projected box office numbers.

They get to define success however they want after the fact.

Which is fine, what are their measures of success? I can’t think of any measure that they could use that the film would rate as “highly successful” against.

[drumdude]

Since it was such a low budget and private production, I doubt they did any forecasting on projected box office numbers.

They get to define success however they want after the fact.

Which is fine, what are their measures of success? I can’t think of any measure that they could use that the film would rate as “highly successful” against.

Daniel’s goal is to create the genre of Mormon cinema that is artistically noteworthy outside of the church. Religions have produced great art that is respected and appreciated universally, regardless of one’s beliefs.

I think he considers the film a success by that standard. Others may disagree.

[Gadianton]

Which is fine, what are their measures of success? I can’t think of any measure that they could use that the film would rate as “highly successful” against

How about to successfully immortalize notable figures of the movement within the minds of people who live in a Soviet style dictatorships?

And if you don't buy that, then how about to successfully immortalize hopeful notable figures of the movement within the mind of the person ordering the statue of himself to be built in a Soviet style dictatorship?