But it's worth noting that this isn't the first of Intepreter's serialized film projects. You may remember that, just a few years back, Interpreter launched another film project aimed at highlighting the lives of Latter-day Saints in Africa. But if the Brigham viewership numbers have been disappointing, the Not By Bread Alone numbers are downright dismal--some of the episodes on YouTube barely have 100 views. The Afore has been repeatedly saying, about Brigham, that the goal is to get as many people as possible to watch. Is this due to the apparent failure of Not By Bread Alone? You have to wonder: what was said at Interpreter's Board meetings in the wake of the poor viewership numbers? What lessons--if any--were learned from the experience of Not By Bread Alone? While we will likely never get to hear the Mopologists' side of things, there are certainly things that *we* can observe and comment upon.
For one thing, you have to wonder: did NBBA get such lousy viewership because of the subject matter? Maybe US Latter-day Saints just don't care about Africa? The videos for Bowdlerizing Brigham have something like 10x or more the viewership numbers. It's very tempting to read between the lines here: little interest for "uplifting" stories about Saints in Africa vs. substantially more interest in Brighamite Mormonism's appallingly racist leader. Perhaps, though, the discrepancy can be chalked up to marketing efforts. The Afore has been absolutely flogging away in terms of promoting this project (which, it's worth pointing out, he himself figures into prominently). By comparison, his promotion of Not By Bread Alone seemed subdued. Sure: he mentioned it here and there, but it was more like, "Uh, hey, here's this project we're working on. Uh, check it out if you want or whatever." Compared with his downright desperate pleas for viewers for Bowdlerizing Brigham, the difference is striking.
Could this be due to vainglory? After all, Not By Bread Alone was really the pet project of Jeffrey Bradshaw. Maybe the promotional activities are a means of helping to remind Interpreter's executives who the "real boss" is? Whatever else you might say about the project, at least it was more transparent about financing. Just look at this explanation about the films' financing:
"seed funding from the Interpreter Foundation." So, yes: Interpreter *did* apparently pay for all of Bradshaw's travel and lodging. Compare this to the Afore's disingenuous denials about how Bowderlizing Brigham has been paid for--he acts as if the whole thing has magically been paid for by Redbrick Filmworks.Through generous in-kind donations of time and resources by volunteers, we aim to finish the film series for a small fraction of the typical costs of similar productions. On-site filming in Africa in 2023 was made possible through seed funding from the Interpreter Foundation and the very generous production rate afforded by Redbrick Filmworks for a continuous month of action-packed filming fieldwork.
Now comes the mountain of post-production work as well as additional production in Africa. We are looking to friends like you to help us complete the series through your donations.
In any case, I find the comparison between the two projects to be very instructive. (And it may be worth noting that Bradshaw was never publicly complaining about having to choke down Gatorade and microwaved Pizza Hut while in Africa.) At minimum, one can extrapolate a great deal about the Mopologists' priorities.
