The Mormon Giant: a live documentary about religion and wrestling
The Sports & Society Initiative is proud to co-sponsor a screening of “The Mormon Giant,” hosted by the American Studies Department at Saint Louis University.
The event is “The Mormon Giant: a live documentary about religion and wrestling” created and performed by UCSB Religious Studies professor David Walker and experimental musician Tim Albro. It will be screened – with live narration by Walker and live soundtracking by Albro - on Wednesday, Nov. 5, at 6pm in the Anheuser-Busch Auditorium in Cook Hall on SLU’s campus.The performance explores the relationship between religion and professional wrestling in the twentieth century. Focusing on wrestlers with Mormon “gimmicks,” the film shows how they presented as “heels” (villains) or “faces” (heroes) in auditoriums throughout North America and abroad, and how such representations proved useable (or not) to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Mormon Giant narrates the “face-turn” of Mormonism in twentieth-century American popular culture, while showing how religion and wrestling generally work together—how they shape and reflect each other—in the modern world.A reception will follow, and the event is open to all.