Any Utahn who knows a family that is sending a young LDS missionary into the "field" probably understands at least a little bit about proselyting work for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
It's an assignment people are often curious about when they learn a young adult has volunteered to leave home, job, school and friends in order to share their faith with the hope of saving souls. The intrigue usually grows when it becomes known that missionaries and their families foot the $10,000-plus bill in preparatory and living expenses so they are able to serve.
For New Yorker Nancy du Plessis, those questions grew into a two-year odyssey that has resulted in a documentary film on life as an LDS missionary. The hourlong film, scheduled to air Tuesday, Dec. 23, at 11 p.m. on KUED-Ch. 7, is a highly condensed package of footage. Du Plessis said she shot 12,000 minutes of film during a 26-month period that follows three LDS missionaries from the day they opened their mission calls at home in Salt Lake City through their goodbyes at a German airport as they prepare to fly back home.
"GET THE FIRE: Young Mormon Missionaries Abroad" also features excerpts of interviews with former LDS missionaries who have left the church but reflect on their mission experience and share their feelings — some positive, some negative.
In the Beehive State, missionary life has become so ingrained a part of LDS culture that feature-length movies on the topic have raked in some real cash by combining a believable story line with inside humor that some missionaries and their families can relate to. Add those to the LDS Church's own video efforts to promote missionary work, and the portrayal to date has been largely positive.
Du Plessis had no such agenda when she began, she said. Rather, she was simply intrigued by a young woman from America who was serving an LDS mission in Germany, and from their conversation decided others would be interested in what missionaries do and why they do it.
Getting permission for the filming wasn't as difficult as some might anticipate, she said. She contacted the church's Public Affairs office, and they agreed to help her find three missionaries from Salt Lake City who would be serving in Germany.
"I said originally that I wanted to show the experience of one missionary, but the church wanted me to agree to throw away the material if my subject did not make it to the end" of the mission, du Plessis said.
The film's first producer agreed, with the stipulation that the crew would follow three missionaries, rather than one, to reduce their chances of having to scrap the project.
"There was no agreement about what would and would not be filmed," she said.
Du Plessis didn't want to miss any part of the experience with Elders Jake Erekson, Brady Flamm and Matt Higbee.
"I wanted to be present for the opening of the mission calls, so when the Public Affairs office was locating missionaries, I said I just need you to be aware of the fact that I need to be there for the opening of the letters, because I'm not staging anything — this is an observational film."
Du Plessis said she "can't say definitively how families (of the three young men) reacted" to her request. She met them before the mission letters arrived, in the company of officials from Public Affairs, but said she wasn't apprised of any discussions that took place ahead of time. "They were all very nice to me and we got along very well. I don't know if they did it under pressure or if they genuinely were interested or excited."
Having filmed them at every stage of the process, du Plessis said the fact that she is an American living abroad definitely helped ease whatever angst her subjects may have felt. "I think there was a certain feeling that, 'Wow, she knows where we come from.' I'm also a native English speaker and they didn't talk with many people who were except other missionaries."
Footage includes shots inside the Missionary Training Center, the mission president's home, the missionaries' apartments and even inside the homes of "investigators," or people who agreed to let the missionaries come in after they knock at the door. The missionaries are filmed holding street meetings, tracting from door to door, making door approaches, starting conversations on the train, and even talking with family and friends back home.
Du Plessis said for the most part the missionaries were cooperative, but "sometimes it depended on their moods."
"It was generally a good relationship. A couple of times I think the companions were leery of being filmed, and that was the reason some shoots didn't work out at the last minute."
Other shots themselves were last-minute. For example, "Elder Erekson called me up one time and said, 'I just had the most incredible conversation.' I said wait a minute, let me get the camera. He was stationed 30 minutes by train from Munich, so I got on a bike and went to the train station to meet him and he told me about this fantastic conversation. I think that is definitely an indication that we had good relationship."
The filming proceeded for 14 months, until one church "authority" told her he "didn't want me to make the film . . . He basically said 'I've got to see it.' And I said I'm very sorry but this is an independent project that's been going on for 14 months already, and as an independent project I can't show it to you." He then told her she couldn't use any of the footage with him and his wife while he was visiting Munich. "I believe he applied pressure to everyone else after that," and she said she got "no further support from the church's public relations department at that point."
Just when it looked like she might have to scrap the project, an opportunity to work on another film came along. Time passed and "when I finally got back to (the missionary film) things had calmed down" and she was able to finish filming. "But it was not without some difficult months," du Plessis said.
She raised money for the film gradually, first getting several European TV stations interested, which she believes created confidence in the Utah Humanities Council, "which gave me a small amount of money just to say 'we think it's a nice idea.' " She got a good chunk of money from New York State Council on the Arts, and was able to pitch the project to someone from PBS, who suggested she get in touch with ITVS and its "Independent Lens" division, which supports independent documentary filmmaking.
"I had to survive two rounds and 11 experts" while the concept was considered, "then they agreed to give me the (bulk of the) money. They are concerned about supporting subjects that don't get that much coverage and felt religion generally doesn't get that much coverage on TV. They liked my subject." Cost of production came to about $280,000, she said.
What happens to all the leftover footage?
Du Plessis said the agreement with Independent Lens is that it won't be used to make another film "because they gave the lion's share of the money and consider it to be theirs" in part.
In addition to following the missionaries through a "Mormon rite of passage," du Plessis said she chose her "post-mission" subjects from those she came to know in New York. There was no attempt to segregate them by their responses to their mission experience, either good or bad, she said.
As for the overall film, "I've been told that it's fair . . . that it feels like a feature film. Many people have the idea that documentary has to be boring." She hopes people "enjoy watching it and that they would feel on one hand they are being entertained while also getting a lot of information."
"I have had a couple of people identify themselves as Mormons and say they enjoyed the film from other screenings in Europe. I hope that will be the case in the U.S. as well."
For more information on "GET THE FIRE!" see the Web site at www.pbs.org/getthefire.
E-MAIL: carrie@desnews.com