8: THE MORMON PROPOSITION (2010) (***)

This documentary about California's Prop 8, which defined marriage in the state as between a man and a woman, has a specific point of view. Director Reed Cowan sets out to paint the Mormon Church as bigots who campaigned to take the rights of gays to marry away after it had been granted by the State Supreme Court. A point of view is fine, but are Mormons or other anti-gay marriage proponents going to read or watch past this point? So in the end, the film is preaching to the choir. But for those in the pews, the song can be moving.

Narrated by Oscar-winning MILK screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, the film begins with a retelling of the events that led up to Prop 8 being passed. It uses the hook of a gay couple who were married on the first legal day in California to set the emotional stage. Then it goes to tell how the Mormon Church organized its followers and other religious organizations to help get the Prop passed. The tone is like a shocked whisper when nothing revealed is all that shocking. It's based on secretly obtained internal documents from the church and treats them like they are the Pentagon Papers. There is no doubt from the way the details are told that it still hits a raw nerve for the filmmakers.

Ironically, given it's title, the film is at it's best when it isn't dealing with Prop 8 directly. The film touches on the pain of gay and lesbian Mormons and how they have been rejected by their families. Many going as far as committing suicide in despair. Other interviewees talk about suicide attempts following Prop 8's passage, feeling the crash from having their marriage annulled by a majority of voters in the most liberal state in the U.S. If this could happen in California then there was no hope for gay marriage anywhere in their minds. The most moving and disturbing moments come from those gay Mormons who underwent de-gay-ification at the hands of church elders. A man had electrodes stuck to his scrotum, was made to watch gay porn and forced to shock himself every time he felt aroused. If he didn't shock himself "enough," his handlers would shock him anyway.

So why the Mormons? The film tells us that it's more than keeping traditional marriage. (The filmmakers don't miss an opportunity to point out the Mormons' history with non-traditional marriage.) Marriage between a man and a woman is a key concept in their belief in the afterlife. Gay marriage puts heaven in peril. That's hard for the true believer to get past.

But Cowen argues that this is America where there is a separation of church and state and all men and women are created equal under the eyes of the law. Once marriage became a status of the government then it should be allowed for all couples regardless of sexual orientation. It's a sound and simple argument. As I write this review, Prop 8 has been thrown out by a federal judge and gay marriages can resume later this month. There of course will be appeals, but gay marriage is coming to America whether you believe it or not. Those that opposed it will be looked upon in a generation like those that opposed a woman's right to vote or the right for interracial couples to wed.