Six Days in August is a new film from The Interpreter Foundation about the succession crisis of 1844. The film will officially open in theaters on the Thursday following General Conference, which is 10 October. If you haven’t already watched the trailer, it’s up at https://witnessesfilm.com/. In anticipation of the theatrical release, there will be a couple of events this week:
- There will be a significant Six Days in August fireside at the SCERA Center for the Arts in Orem, Utah, on Wednesday, 25 September. A free ticket is required.
- On the following evening, at 7 PM on 26 September, nine Carmike theaters along the Wasatch Front — in Draper, Salt Lake City, American Fork, Orem, Provo, Ogden, Midvale/Sandy, West Jordan, and Farmington — will be offering a “sneak peek” early screening of Six Days in August. (The same will be done on 7 October.) See https://www.cinemark.com/movies/six-days-in-august-early-access?showDate=2024-09-26


by Scott Hansen

Gerrit Dirkmaat is an associate professor of Church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University. He received his PhD from the University of Colorado in 2010, where he studied nineteenth-century American expansionism and foreign relations. He worked as a historian and writer for the Church History Department from 2010 to 2014 with the Joseph Smith Papers Project. He is the coauthor, along with Michael Hubbard MacKay, of the award-winning book From Darkness unto Light: Joseph Smith’s Translation and Publication of the Book of Mormon, published by the BYU Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book in 2015. In 2023, they published another book on the topic: Let’s Talk About the Translation of the Book of Mormon. In addition to books, Gerrit is also the author of dozens of academic articles. He currently serves as the editor of the academic journal Latter-day Saint Historical Studies published by the Ensign Peak Foundation. Since 2021 he has hosted and produced a weekly Church history podcast: Standard of Truth. It examines Church history questions and sources. He and his wife, Angela, have four children.

