Since terms like “fake news” and “false narratives” have become common in our modern-day culture, telling true stories through mediums like documentary films has become ever more important, but also more challenging.
In a still image from a video released by NTD, host Kay Rubacek climbs the Red Cliffs to take in the sunrise before attending the Docutah International Film Festival in St. George, Utah, on Nov. 6, 2021. (Oliver Trey/NTD)
In a still image from a video released by NTD, Phil Tuckett, a documentary filmmaker, recipient of 30 Emmy awards, and director of the Docutah International Documentary Film Festival, speaks with NTD host Kay Rubacek in St. George, Utah, on Nov. 6, 2021. (Oliver Trey/NTD)
In a still image from a video released by NTD, Brian Christiansen describes the operations in the projection room at a large cinemaplex where the selected documentaries are being played for the Docutah film festival in St. George, Utah, on Nov. 6, 2021. (Oliver Trey/NTD)
In a screenshot taken from the award-winning documentary movie “Finding Courage,” Leo Wang and his son Martin demonstrate the torture Leo received when arrested in China for printing flyers. Leo spent 12 years in prison for printing flyers that exposed the persecution of Falun Gong. The chair he is sitting in is a replica he built himself. (Swoop Films\Paulio Shakespeare)
In a still image from a video released by NTD, siblings Yifei (L) and Leo Wang (R) (on screen) sit in the audience at Docutah, watching their family’s story for the first time in a movie theater in St. George, Utah, on Oct. 6, 2021. (Oliver Trey/NTD)
In a still image from a video released by NTD, an audience member hugs Leo Wang after watching his story of survival and recovery after 12 years in a Chinese prison in the movie "Finding Courage" in St. George, Utah, on Nov. 8, 2021. (Oliver Trey/NTD)
In a still image from a video released by NTD, documentarian Susan Morgan Cooper (L) shares the challenges filmmakers have to overcome to tell true stories about difficult subjects in St. George, Utah, on Nov. 8, 2021. (Oliver Trey/NTD)
In a still image from a video released by NTD, the Wang family (L), featured in the movie "Finding Courage," receives the Humanitarian Award at the Docutah International Film Festival as NTD host and "Finding Courage" director Kay Rubacek and producer Paulio Shakespeare (R) applaud, in St. George Utah, on Nov. 8, 2021. (Oliver Trey/NTD)