Bluff surrounding the isolated Lebaron polygamist colony in Northern Mexico

FrameWeight Projects

Projects in Idea Development

As a new company, we are currently pitching several new FrameWeight projects for documentary films to enter production. The topics in development touch on a broad range of topics including social justice, religion and mental health. Through intimate stories, these themes give rise to voices who have not been heard, those overlooked and those misunderstood. To find out more about the types of ideas, visit the Filmmaker Statement.

Many Wives

In Post-Production, Co-Production with Feed the Family

Many Wives is a film about redemption, recovery and political activism of five former polygamist wives from Utah. As we get to know these women, we experience a broad swath of different fundamentalist Latter Day Saints groups throughout the west, the controversial history of polygamy and the struggle for identity amid a milieu of abuse, isolation, poverty and fervent religious belief. We will also get to know Owen Allred, the prophet of the polygamist sect of the United Brethren Order. 

These stories show the complex interrelation of fundamentalist Latter Day Saints groups throughout the desert of the western United States and Mexico. Most of these groups formed as a reaction to a perceived straying of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints faith from its origins, which practiced both communal living and polygamy. Without exception, these groups form when a man—raised in the mainstream church—follows in the footsteps of Joseph Smith and proclaims to receive a divine message as the true prophet to build a following. 

The following still frames provide a flavor for Many Wives.

Elizabeth gazes at the Arizona shack she retreated to after being excommunicated from the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS)
The shack in Arizona where Elizabeth lived with her children
Elizabeth surveys the disrepair of the Arizona shack
Colorado City on the Utah/Arizona border is the home of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS), the largest polygamist community in the US
A home under construction in Colorado City, owned by the United Effort Plan (UEP), a communal religious organization. Members of the FLDS church build on UEP property and are subject to the whims of its leadership.
Bluff surrounding the isolated Lebaron polygamist colony in Northern Mexico
Road towards the Lebaron polygamist colony in Northern Mexico. The colony is reachable only via four hours of driving on dirt roads.
Inside the Lebaron Polygamist colony. After the raids on Short Creek and the Lebaron murders, the group retreated to isolation in the Chihuahua province of Mexico.
Laura watches a van of a polygamist family enter the Prophet Jeffs compound of the Salt Lake Branch of the FLDS
Outside the temple of the Allred polygamist sect located in the southern end of Salt Lake Valley
A church service of the Allred polygamist sect
After the murder of his brother Rulon by the Lebarons, Owen Allred (deceased since filming) led the Apostolic Brethren Order, or Allred group, a fundamentalist Latter Day Saints polygamist sect located in the Salt Lake Valley
Vicky with her daughters arriving at a protest against the marriage age of 14
The women of Tapestry of Polygamy (l to r, Vicky, Laura, Carmen) making a statement against the Utah governor, who proclaimed that consensual polygamist relationships should be tolerated
Surrounded by family, John Daniel Kingston (left) arrives for sentencing after being convicted for beating his teenage daughter, who had tried to escape a polygamist marriage to her uncle
The women of Tapestry of Polygamy (l to r, Carmen, Laura, Rowenna) making a statement after the sentencing of John Daniel Kingston
Tapestry of Polygamy
Elizabeth Arizona Shack
Arizona Shack
Elizabeth Inside Shack
Colorado City Overlook
UEP Sign
Mexico Sunset
Mexico Road
Lebaron Alto Sign
Laura and Van
Allred Temple
Allred Church Meeting
Owen Allred
Child Bride
TOP Press Conference
John Daniel Kingston
TOP Reaction
Tapestry Hands
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