The Interpreter Foundation and Redbrick Filmworks has released the 6th episode of their not-for-profit series of mini-documentaries titled Becoming Brigham. Additional episodes become available each Monday.
We tend to think of Brigham Young as a stern-faced old man from the few existing photos. In this episode, “Becoming Brigham, Episode 6—Young Brigham Young, Part One,” the hosts explore the question of what he was like during his formative years. The hosts interview Susan Easton Black to get the historian’s perspective on the young Brigham.
Watch the episode below:
Watch all the episodes on the Becoming Brigham YouTube channel. If you want to be notified when new episodes are published, just click Subscribe on the Becoming Brigham YouTube channel.
The episodes are hosted by Camrey Bagley Fox (who portrayed Emma Smith in the Interpreter Foundation’s films Witnesses and Six Days in August), John Wilson (who played Brigham Young in Six Days in August), and Daniel C. Peterson (president of the Interpreter Foundation and retired BYU professor of Islamic studies and Arabic). Each episode features footage shot on location in New York, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and Utah, as well as extensive interviews with Latter-day Saint historians who are experts on the subjects being discussed. The series is rooted in scholarship. The list of contributors includes historians trusted by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Why this docuseries? Many people are aware of Brigham Young as a pivotal figure in American religious and frontier history, but Brigham is also often misunderstood, seen as a larger-than-life caricature rather than as a man. Who actually was Brigham as a man, a father, a husband, and a prophet? The video web series Becoming Brigham debunks fictions and provides surprising new insights into the real Brigham Young. Learn more in the article “Becoming Brigham: The Video Series Premieres.”