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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

Mormon, drug, LDS drug addicts, documentary film

College

Fine Arts and Communications

Department

Theatre and Media Arts

Abstract

When I originally acquired funding from the ORCA office I entitled my project Mormons and Drugs. I had planned on making a documentary film chronicling the lives of Latter-day Saints that struggle or have struggled with drug addiction. I was enrolled in a documentary production class (TMA 274) in Winter 2005 and in this class I began making the film about Latter-day Saint drug addicts. I focused primarily on my brother and my relationship to him. As I shot and edited that film, I realized the power of re-drafting. Throughout the course of the semester I made approximately seven different versions of the film until I finally felt somewhat satisfied with the final product. The final film ended up being six minutes and thirty seconds long and was entitled My Brother Doug. Doug, my older brother, has struggled with an addiction to cocaine, meth amphetamines, and oxycontin pain medication. Two years ago we ran a marathon together in Iowa. Drawing from old marathon footage, I created a film that compared Doug’s battle with drug addiction to running a marathon. Doug and I both finished the race. On December 12, 2005 my family and I attended an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting celebrating Doug’s year mark of sobriety. It was one of the best experiences of my life watching my brother share his battle of drug addiction with other addicts. The congregation roared into cheering and singing “Happy Birthday” to my brother as he got up to speak. This was a great finale to the project. However, that’s only the beginning of the project as I found out this semester.

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