The BYUtv documentary/drama “Joan of Arc” shares the life of the teenager who lived in the early 1400s in France, who helped turn the tide of the war between France and the occupying English armies so that a king could be crowned in France.
“Joan of Arc” includes a dramatization of her life, including sweeping battle and fight scenes to intimate looks at her spirituality and conviction, along with commentary from historians, scholars and religious leaders, including two from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Bishop Gérald R. Caussé, the LDS Church’s presiding bishop, share about Joan’s spirituality, the miracles in her life and the potential of one person make a difference.
Elder Holland spoke on Joan of Arc during a New Year’s Eve celebration for youths in 2008, said Derek Marquis, managing director of BYUtv. They also reached out to Bishop Causse, who is from France.
Joan’s story “is an incredible story of a very unlikely underdog going against incredible odds to achieve a fantastic objective,” said writer and director Russell Holt in an interview. He said that he wanted to be as historically accurate as possible and steer clear of any fictionalizing.
“We stuck to the original documents, and all of the dialogue and all of the dramatic scenes can be traced back to those original documents,” Holt said. He interviews historians and scholars in the 80-minute docudrama, including Helen R. Castor of Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge; Daniel Hobbins, an associate professor of history at Notre Dame University; Jeremy DuQuesnay Adams, Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor specializing in medieval Europe at Southern Methodist University; and Bonnie Wheeler, an associate professor and director of medieval studies and the director of the International Joan of Arc Society.
Holt and a crew visited the significant places from Joan's life in France, including Domrémy, the village where Joan was born and lived as a young girl. “It’s hard to get to, even today,” Holt said. “You have to travel over miles of winding roads in the northeast of France.”
It was a cool spring morning ,and there weren’t any tourists there as they toured the home, which has been preserved for the last 600 years.
“That was a spiritual experience for all of us to be in an actual place where she lived,” Holt said.
Where possible, they used several of the exteriors of these historical places in docudrama, the majority of which was filmed in the summer in record-breaking temperatures in France, Holt added.
“I learned that any individual, even an unlikely one, can make a huge difference in this world if they will stick to their principles and follow their faith,” Holt said. As a young farmgirl from the French countryside, she was one of the most unlikely people to help sway the tide of a war, he added.
Scott Swofford, BYUtv's director of content, said, “God certainly didn’t abandon his children during that time and continued to speak with and have their needs met.” He added that people “could be inspired to do amazing things.”
BYUtv has previously featured original historical docudramas during the holidays, including “Fires of Faith: The Coming Forth of the Bible” about William Tyndale, “Silent Night” about the origin of the song, and “Handel’s Messiah” on the life of the composer and the history of the song.
“We’ve worked really hard to make sure the specials ... have a connection to history when possible and certainly a story of faith,” Swofford said, adding that "Joan of Arc" is "one of the strongest things we’ve done."
“Joan of Arc” premieres Thursday, Nov. 26, at 6 p.m., and the 80-minute docudrama will be followed by a 10-minute behind-the-scenes special. “Joan of Arc” will also air several times throughout the Christmas season.
'Joan of Arc' on BYUtv
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