Troy Through A Window
a feature-length documentary by Brad Barber

"Troy Through A Window" is a feature-length documentary (57 minutes) completed by Latter-day Saint filmmaker Brad Barber in 2002. Barber, a Brigham Young University film school student, describes his film:

"Troy Through A Window" is a film about family, homosexuality, belief and the boundaries of love. It began in 1993, when Troy, a model son, Eagle Scout and returned missionary for the LDS Church, announced that he was gay. On that day, it was as if a window had dropped through the Barber household; placing Troy on one side, his siblings and parents on the other.

How do they cope with this new dynamic? How do they reach through the unspoken, unseen barrier between them? How do they accept? How do they maintain the unrestrained warmth that always existed in their home? Must they accept fundamental differences in belief and faith in order to love?

Seven years later, filmmaker Brad Barber went home to Tennessee for Christmas break to try to answer some questions. The result is a challenging, emotional, and redeeming look at the effects of this complex, seldom talked about issue in his family.



click to see
enlarged poster
There will be a special one-time screening of Brad Barber's documentary film "Troy Through a Window" at the Tower Theatre in Salt Lake City (876 East 900 South) on Saturday March 1, 2003 at 1pm.

Admission is $5.
Q&A session will follow.

Feel free to write to Brad Barber at entropyfilm@hotmail.com for information.


Throwing Stones at Ourselves: LDS Film and Its Critics

By: Kieth Merrill
Date: 7 November 2002
Source: Meridian Magazine
URL: http://www.meridianmagazine.com/arts/021107stones.html

[EXCERPTS]

Shortly after the release of God's Army, Richard Dutcher mused to me one day that he was surprised a cluster of LDS movies had not followed in the wake of his success. He need wonder no more. There are more new "Mormon genre" movies in release or being made than the market can likely support. Some will be great. Some will be OK. Too many will be disappointing. A few are likely to be awful.

From a really wonderful web site, ldsfilm.com... comes an almost shocking list of "Mormon movies" announced, in production, promised or being created in the most fanciful of day-dreams kept afloat by nothing but faith. Here is what Mormon movie goers can look for in near future -- presuming of course they get funded, finished and finely made.

[15 other upcoming films listed.]


...I am enthusiastic about what is happening. The number of LDS filmmakers leaping into the forbidden arena excites me. Not all their offerings are equal by any means. It is unfortunate for example that Other Side of Heaven and Singles Ward are so easily lumped into the same conversation, or that the recently announced Book of Mormon Movie , Volume I -- exciting as it may be -- is front and center in the media while another much bigger and more expensive epic on the Book of Mormon is being prepared by seasoned filmmakers, Steve Devore, Peter Johnson, Scott Swofford and Reed Smoot.

"Troy through a Window"
TEXT from Front Video Cover

family, homosexuality, belief, love:
a heterosexual Mormon's attempt at understanding everything

troy through a window



a film by brad barber

"Troy through a Window"
TEXT from Back Video Cover

For his last film at school, Brad Barber decided to go home to Tennessee for Christmas break to try to answer some questions. He wanted to come to terms with the event that forever changed his life and his devout Mormon family seven years earlier--when his idolized oldest brother announced he was gay.

Since Troy came out, it seems as if a window now stands between him and the rest of his family--making two distinct places which each side may see but can't always share.

For Brad, interviewing his own family raised new issues to be addressed--How far can each side go to reach through the window and show acceptance to each other?

The result is a challenging, emotional, and redeeming look at the effects of this complex, seldom talked about issue in his family.


57:28 &brkbar; color &brkbar; stereo
entropy productions
copyright 2002
bradbarber@byu.net

"Troy through a Window"
CLOSING credits as they appear in the film




written, directed,
edited, and
photographed
by
Brad Barber


faculty advisor
Thomas Lefler

music arranged
and performed
by
Paul Jacobsen


the filmmaker would like to thank:
Dana Christensen
Brice Fukumoto
Joel Barber
Rod Foster
for their financial support of this film


assistant camera Jenica Barber
Joel Barber
Sharlene Barber
gaffer and sound Brad Barber
grips Jenica Barber
Joel Barber
transcription Beverly Murdock
Joel Barber
film process David Nauta
film transfer David Nauta
LDS Motion Picture Studio
post production Media Arts Lab 2
sound engineer Vaughn C. Armstrong
color timing David Nauta
produced by Brad Barber


"I Know My Redeemer Lives"
text by Samuel Medley
music by Lewis D. Edwards

"Mary's Lullaby"
lyrics by Jan Underwood Pinborough
music from a German folk tune
LDS Childrens' Songbook
© 1996

"Across the Universe"
written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
© 1970 EMI Records Ltd.

"One"
written by U2
© 1991 U2Admin. by Chappel & Co.


SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Troy Barber
Russell & Sharlene Barber
Lisa & David Sexton
Julie & Allen Langford
Joel & Jenica Barber
Lori & Scott Cruze
Susan Krueger
Todd Maetani
Jacob Hoehne
Tim Skousen
Claudia Bradshaw
Stephanie Ririe
Kendall Wilcox
Ira & Mary Lou Fulton.


Copyright 2002
Entropy Productions

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