Evangelical Christians have GodTube, will Mormons have their own video sharing space on the Internet, too? Perhaps they already do: MormonWebTV.com. Over the last couple of years the site has accumulated close to 400 videos. Since we try to keep track of all Mormon movies within the Mormon Literature & Creative Arts database, we’ve recently turned our attention to the evolving genre of Internet-distributed Mormon films. MormonWebTV is not the only outlet for LDS videos online. For example, Dean Duncan’s series on everyday Mormons (Fit for the Kingdom series) is available for free online. Also, LDSFilms2Go is an inexpensive commercial site for downloading full-length LDS films. Another recent addition is CTR movies (a site promoting an LDS-sponsored film festival in Mesa, Arizona, now in its second year). But none of these sites has what YouTube does: the chance to post amateur videos, making MormonWebTV the current contender for hosting the growth of amateur LDS film. Given the growth of user-generated content and the enthusiasm shown by LDS filmmakers at the increasingly popular LDS Film Festival, it would be more surprising for a Mormon version of YouTube not to come into being. Enter MormonWebTV.com
I asked my research assistant, Karen Lee, to analyze the genres of the various videos on MormonWebTV and to give her assessment. Here is her report:

As part of entering films for the Mormon Literature and Creative Arts Database, I recently had the opportunity to go through all of the 345 films posted at mormonwebtv.com, which is essentially a Mormon YouTube. The website states its aims as:

… an attempt to find the best, funniest, most interesting and moving video clips from the internet relating to Mormons, made by Mormons, or in some way of interest to members of the Church. And soon we hope it will inspire you to create and share your own videos with Church members around the world.

Even though I knew going into it that there was a broad framework for what types of videos were acceptable for the website, I was still surprised at the variety of genres. There were quite a few narrative films, including films made by Young Men/ Women groups such as “LDS Teen Movie Previews” and “Mona’s Bridge,” films made by YSA FHE groups such as “Do’s and Don’ts of Dating,” films by Relief Societies like “The Visiting Teaching Movie,” and films created just for fun like “Napoleon Dynamite Goes on a Mission” and “Systematically Going Through the Ward List.” The Phoenix Area Institute had an Academy Awards film screening and the films from that event are also posted at mormonwebtv.com. Besides narrative films, there were also trailers for films such as Tears of a King and Sisterz in Zion, as well as amateur music videos like “I Shop at D.I.” In addition, there were parodies of Mormon culture such as “LDS News Digest” part 1 and part 2. There were also series posted on the website such as “The Place,” which is a reality show based in a BYU ward, and episodes from “MormonCast,” which is a podcast on Mormon subjects ranging from interviews with Daryn Tufts to film reviews to trips to Girls’ Camp.

Besides these films, there were also films posted at mormonwebtv.com that did not neatly fall into the more traditional genres. There were film clips from Mormon films such as the Singles Ward as well as from Mormon Tabernacle Choir concerts. There were also videos posted which re-cut or manipulated Mormon films then set the selected scenes to music as found in the video “White and Nerdy Singles Ward” (clips from The Singles Ward set to the song “White and Nerdy” by Weird Al). There were clips from TV shows that had Mormon references, including a clip from Cheers entitled, “Why can’t Mormons send flowers.” Also posted on the website were actualities, which are recorded events without editing, such as ward talent shows, young men opening their mission calls, and children singing Primary songs. There were also news segments about Mormon topics like the LA premiere of The Work and the Glory III, as well as newscasts from BYU and BYU-Idaho. One of the genres with the most posted videos was video slideshow. These slideshows tended to fall into one of two categories: the visual aides from Church Distribution set to music (i.e. “LDS Temples—Music by Kalai,” or a person’s photographs from church activities or missions set to music (i.e. “Mission Pictures from Honduras”). There were also videos on the website that were hard to place into any category whatsoever such as a time lapse of the building of the Rexburg Temple or an animated aerial view of the pioneer trail.

Overall, I feel that mormonwebtv.com is a valuable resource as it provides a positive venue for Mormon-themed videos. Whereas at secular video-posting websites such as YouTube and Google Video the videos about Mormons and Mormonism are largely negative (mormonwebtv.com places this figure at over 9:1 anti-Mormon to Mormon), mormonwebtv.com offers clean, pro-Mormon videos. However, as can be expected, there is a wide range in the quality of the videos posted, ranging from, in my opinion, the inane and pointless to the well-made (compare “Mormon Rap by DJ RMP” to “CTR Wars” to get an idea of the range).

I’m sure we will start to see distinct genres and sub-genres of LDS videos emerging (as online videos in general evolve and as more Mormons take their turn at making movies). As embarrassing as many of these films are, I still believe that they show a great energy and a momentum that will carry LDS films to new places and new heights, particularly if we are willing to critique the films and provide constructive feedback.