Podcast appearances and mentions of sterling van wagenen

Welcome to another episode of the Media Boat Podcast. It's just Mike this week as Matt is on vacation for Independence Day. First up is a justice story about Sterling Van Wagenen and a new unlimited movie pass by Regal. Next, is a director update on the Lord of the Rings series and the next project by CNN documentaries. Later, Weird Al excludes fan favorite songs from his tour and Big Machine Records gets bought out. It gets all wrapped up with the rarest video game ever and the final count of Summer Games Done Quick. All this and more on this weeks episode of the Media Boat Podcast. 

Three months ago, a recording of Sterling Van Wagenen, a founder of the Sundance Film Festival, appeared on an obscure website for whistle-blowers in the Mormon Church. The “Daily” producer Annie Brown spoke with our colleague about the story that recording told. Guest: Elizabeth Harris, a culture reporter for The New York Times, talked to Sean Escobar, who made the recording of Mr. Van Wagenen.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. This episode contains descriptions of abuse.Background reading:Read about how Mr. Escobar’s actions led to the arrest of Mr. Van Wagenen.Mr. Van Wagenen is expected to go to prison for at least six years after pleading guilty to child sexual abuse.

Child sex abuse is a plague on out society. It ruins lives and devastates its victims. It crosses all socio- economic boundaries. The Sundance Film Festival co-founder, and LDS church filmmaker Sterling Van Wagenen pleaded guilty to abusing a young girl from 2013 to 2015. But before that, he molested a 13-year-old boy in 1993 named Sean Escobar who was one of Van Wagenen's sons best friends. Sean Escobar is all grown up now, with children of his own, but he still has haunting memories of that awful night at Van Wagenen's house 26 years ago. Fox 13's Bob Evans sat down with Escobar for this 3 Questions interview.

In February of this year, the Truth & Transparency Foundationreleased an audio recording made by Sean Escobar as he confronted his abuser as a child, Sterling Van Wagenen—co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival and director of many LDS Church-produced films, including the films shown in LDS temples. The story of the abuse and its impact has now made national news, spurred by the continuing coverage of The Truth and Transparency Foundationas it was revealed that even though the abuse was reported to LDS Church authorities, Sterling was not excommunicated, but went on to work as a professor at Brigham Young University and produce many LDS Church films. Since the release of the audio recording by TTF, Sterling has since pled guilty to separate charges of child sex abuse in Utahand is currently awaiting sentencing. In this interview, we share the complete audio recording of Sean's confrontation with Sterling, and then we process how the abuse affected Sean's life, including the fallout related to sharing the audio recording with The Truth and Transparency Foundation including the discovery of more victims.

In February of this year, the Truth & Transparency Foundationreleased an audio recording made by Sean Escobar as he confronted his abuser as a child, Sterling Van Wagenen—co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival and director of many LDS Church-produced films, including the films shown in LDS temples. The story of the abuse and its impact has now made national news, spurred by the continuing coverage of The Truth and Transparency Foundationas it was revealed that even though the abuse was reported to LDS Church authorities, Sterling was not excommunicated, but went on to work as a professor at Brigham Young University and produce many LDS Church films. Since the release of the audio recording by TTF, Sterling has since pled guilty to separate charges of child sex abuse in Utahand is currently awaiting sentencing. In this interview, we share the complete audio recording of Sean's confrontation with Sterling, and then we process how the abuse affected Sean's life, including the fallout related to sharing the audio recording with The Truth and Transparency Foundation including the discovery of more victims.

Join us today on Mormon Stories as we interview both Sean and Crystal Escobar to learn about their faith journey out of Mormonism. Sean recently made national newswhen he revealed a recording he made as he confronted his abuser as a child, Sterling Van Wagenen—co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival and director of many LDS Church-produced films, including the films shown in LDS temples. This portion of the interview focuses on Sean and Crystal's faith journey and will include themes such as: Their Mormon background including their experiences in the church as youth and as missionaries How guilt and shame from transgressions as a youth impacted Sean's mission and outlook on life Sean and Crystal's difficult experiences with the repentance process affected their early marriage How discovering a calling Sean had received was uninspired by his priesthood leader greatly shook his faith How Crystal's experience with Mormon Stories helped her be more empathetic towards Sean's struggles with his faith and church leadership How leaving the LDS Church has caused a new awakening in their marriage and family as they reevaluate their relationship, their parenting, and their new moral code for living ...and so much more.  

Join us today on Mormon Stories as we interview both Sean and Crystal Escobar to learn about their faith journey out of Mormonism. Sean recently made national newswhen he revealed a recording he made as he confronted his abuser as a child, Sterling Van Wagenen—co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival and director of many LDS Church-produced films, including the films shown in LDS temples. This portion of the interview focuses on Sean and Crystal's faith journey and will include themes such as: Their Mormon background including their experiences in the church as youth and as missionaries How guilt and shame from transgressions as a youth impacted Sean's mission and outlook on life Sean and Crystal's difficult experiences with the repentance process affected their early marriage How discovering a calling Sean had received was uninspired by his priesthood leader greatly shook his faith How Crystal's experience with Mormon Stories helped her be more empathetic towards Sean's struggles with his faith and church leadership How leaving the LDS Church has caused a new awakening in their marriage and family as they reevaluate their relationship, their parenting, and their new moral code for living ...and so much more.  

Join us today on Mormon Stories as we interview both Sean and Crystal Escobar to learn about their faith journey out of Mormonism. Sean recently made national newswhen he revealed a recording he made as he confronted his abuser as a child, Sterling Van Wagenen—co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival and director of many LDS Church-produced films, including the films shown in LDS temples. This portion of the interview focuses on Sean and Crystal's faith journey and will include themes such as: Their Mormon background including their experiences in the church as youth and as missionaries How guilt and shame from transgressions as a youth impacted Sean's mission and outlook on life Sean and Crystal's difficult experiences with the repentance process affected their early marriage How discovering a calling Sean had received was uninspired by his priesthood leader greatly shook his faith How Crystal's experience with Mormon Stories helped her be more empathetic towards Sean's struggles with his faith and church leadership How leaving the LDS Church has caused a new awakening in their marriage and family as they reevaluate their relationship, their parenting, and their new moral code for living ...and so much more.  

Join us today on Mormon Stories as we interview both Sean and Crystal Escobar to learn about their faith journey out of Mormonism. Sean recently made national newswhen he revealed a recording he made as he confronted his abuser as a child, Sterling Van Wagenen—co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival and director of many LDS Church-produced films, including the films shown in LDS temples. This portion of the interview focuses on Sean and Crystal's faith journey and will include themes such as: Their Mormon background including their experiences in the church as youth and as missionaries How guilt and shame from transgressions as a youth impacted Sean's mission and outlook on life Sean and Crystal's difficult experiences with the repentance process affected their early marriage How discovering a calling Sean had received was uninspired by his priesthood leader greatly shook his faith How Crystal's experience with Mormon Stories helped her be more empathetic towards Sean's struggles with his faith and church leadership How leaving the LDS Church has caused a new awakening in their marriage and family as they reevaluate their relationship, their parenting, and their new moral code for living ...and so much more.  

This episode features a fantastic conversation on film and the many roles it plays in human lives and communities, especially religious ones. Along the way it wrestles with the tensions that are always present in films for niche audiences, especially when filmmakers try to tell compelling stories while at the same time hoping to make money, which often means making many decisions based upon their sense of what their target audience expects (and, in so doing, sometimes lessening a story’s potential impact). How does this environment of tension between art and commerce hinder (or help) foster great storytelling and a film’s ability to rise to a high artistic level? Are there lenses (other than "Is it 'great art'?") that we should use in judging a film’s merits? Panelists Arthur Van Wagenen, head of Excel Entertainment (Deseret Book’s film arm), Sterling Van Wagenen, co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival and the Sundance Institute, filmmaker, teacher, and former administrator in several LDS film and television organizations, and Stephen Carter, writer, editor, filmmaker, and insightful commentator on the role of storytelling in our lives, join Mormon Matters host Dan Wotherspoon for a wonderful, far-ranging discussion about these and other questions. What are the various entities that create or distribute films and visual media content under the auspices of the LDS Church? What are their missions and commissions (the parameters set forth for their work)? Going forward, can we expect similar films and projects to what we’ve seen in the past? What criteria are Excel using as it seeks new projects and works with the films it distributes? What are the roles that film play in communities large and small? What are the panelists’ favorite religious-themed films--especially ones that that might serve as models for LDS filmmakers?