Shaunna Harmon Thompson has been a member of the Church all her life. As a child she heard countless stories of the Latter-day Saint pioneers and the cities they built. But it wasn't until she retraced the steps of early Church members — from Palmyra to the Salt Lake Valley — that she really began to understand their sacrifice.
"When you stand on the sites and feel this amazing spirit, you find out for yourself who Joseph Smith really was," said the host of a new BYU Television series that highlights sites of the Restoration.
"Road to Zion: Travels in Church History" takes viewers to the Church's most significant historical sites — starting in New York and moving across the United States to the extensive settlements of Utah.
Sister Thompson narrates the five-part series, which will begin airing this month. It was produced by BYU Television with the help of students to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Joseph Smith's birth. Her experience is "the experience you probably would have if you went," said Diena Simmons, director of program services for BYU Broadcasting.
Funded by private donors, the show not only highlights the sites, but also gives travel and other practical advice. And the series looks at Church history in a way that is entertaining and fun — while maintaining respect for the sacred nature of the sites, said producer Kendall Wilcox.
Church history has been highlighted in numerous other media projects, he said. Producers hoped to find a way to approach the series that hadn't been done before. The goal, he added, was to tell stories in a way that would be "palatable to a younger audience."
To achieve this goal, the series uses casual dialogue, high-definition film and contemporary style, graphics and music. Even the script left room for a little spontaneity, in an attempt to "capture what it would be like (for the viewer) to really be there," said Brother Wilcox.
Through the program, viewers — some who have visited the sites before, others who will never have that opportunity — vicariously walk through the Sacred Grove, visit the Kirtland Temple, make cinnamon rolls in Nauvoo, see the pioneer cemetery in Winter Quarters, Neb., and pull a handcart in Martin's Cove, Wyo.
Sister Thompson said she felt a "sense of joy and great frustration" as she visited the sites.
"You see what the saints were able to build and then leave behind and build and then leave behind, over and over," explained Brother Wilcox.
Irina Kurinskaja Cline graduated from BYU in media arts while working on the project. A convert to the Church, she knew very little about Church history before traveling the Road to Zion. "It was an amazing way to put things together and experience them firsthand," she said.
In contrast, Barbara Edwards Smith, program services assistant for BYU Broadcasting, grew up in Missouri and was married in the Nauvoo Illinois Temple. But seeing the film reminded her of the first time she ever visited the sites she has seen countless times since. "It reminds you of your first feelings," she said.
For more information or viewing times for the Road to Zion see www.byutv.org.
E-mail to: sarah@desnews.com
