By the level of feeling they portrayed, you would have thought we had a whole bunch of Mormons. They were excellent at their craft, and they became very caught up in the story. I wanted Megan Fellowes, who played the lead in Anne of Green Gables to play Emma, and we got her. Throughout the film, the re-enactments rarely show faces of the historical figures. Instead, moments are played out in shadow and suggestion.
Hands grip on to the edge of a black casket.
A candle shines on the table next to a manuscript. The camera moves across the sunlit windows of a house. Our mind's eye fills in the rest. The documentary was shot in 79 days in eight states with 35 different images of Joseph Smith. The crew traveled to New York, Vermont, Illinois and Missouri, attempting to be as site specific as possible for the events.