Deseret (1995)
3.2 of 5 from 47 ratings
2h 49min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
James Benning took the founding of the New York Times in 1851 as a departure point for his latest film, 'Deseret'. In the best Benning tradition, 'Deseret' unfolds magnificent landscapes captured with a stationary camera during a dozen-odd trips throughout the calendar year - deserts, plains of snow, lonely trails, trees in bloom, cemeteries, ruins, unfriendly rocks, empty settlers' houses, roads that seem to be leading nowhere, a few isolated human figures. Deseret's starkly composed images suggest a space haunted by the official history written back East in the Times. Benning collected 93 stories about Utah, boiled them down to a few lines and used a different shot to 'illustrate' each sentence. As we reach 1900, his black and white footage spectacularly turns to color. The stories told recount the loss of American innocence: from the woes and persecution of the Mormons, the fights with the Indians, the struggle to become a state, to the turning of Utah into a testing ground for nuclear... - Directors:
- James Benning
- Narrated By:
- Fred Gardner
- Aka:
- Deseret - Four Corners
- Genres:
- Documentary, Special Interest
