Church History Films Available for Wards, Families

Eleven films of a twenty-five part series of Church history video tapes beginning with the exodus from Nauvoo and ending with the issuing of the Manifesto in 1890 are available for wards and families. Produced by BYU Media Services for the university’s religion classes, they include a set of eleven on Church presidents, from Brigham Young through President Kimball.

Video tapes on the Prophet Joseph Smith and the Church’s beginnings are included in a twenty-two part set now in production that should be finished in 1983.

The video tapes are available in 3/4-inch size for U-Matic educational and industrial sets, and in 1/2-inch sizes for Betamax and BHS home sets. This is also the size in use by many wards. The video tapes rent for $12 apiece from Audio Visual Services, 295-A HCRB, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84601, 378–2713, and are also available for purchase at $85 each from Media Marketing, W-164 Stadium, Brigham Young University. The eleven tapes on the Church presidents have been made into filmstrips as well and are available as a package for $65 from Media Marketing, for purchase only, not rental.

The eleven video tapes on the Church presidents run between thirteen and nineteen minutes; the filmstrip version, with accompanying tape, has been edited to an average eleven minutes.

Titles on the video tapes include: “Succession in the Presidency” (15 min.), “Come, Come, Ye Saints” (13 min.), “Winter Quarters (15 min.), “Mormon Battalion” (16 min.), “The Great Basin before the Mormons” (12 min.), “Route of the Pioneers” (18 min.), “Sam Brannan” (17 min.), “Establishing Zion in the Mountains” (18 min.), “Handcarts to Zion” (18 min.), “The Utah War” (15 min.), “City of the Saints” (18 min.), “That All May Profit” (12 min.), “Mormons under Federal Attack” (15 min.), and “Women of the Kingdom” (19 min.).

All of the tapes are in color and use historic photographs, daguerreotypes, and engravings from the Church Archives. They also document each period with the records of the time—letters, journal accounts, and reminiscences.

An important site in Church history—the “ice pond” at Joseph Smith’s birthplace in Sharon, Vermont. Photography by George Edward Anderson, 1912.