Sons of Perdition 2010

“For obvious reasons, a polygamous society needs lots and lots of females and far fewer males, and Warren Jeffs’ Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints sect in Colorado City, Arizona is no exception. Over the years, hundreds if not thousands of boys and men have left Colorado City (or been told to leave) and descended on nearby St. George, Utah, with nowhere to stay, no education, no birth certificate and little or no understanding of the world outside Jeffs’ self-appointed community of salvation… Filmmakers Tyler Measom and Jennilyn Merten follow a few exiles through their painful transition into becoming Americans, and the stories are heartbreaking and full of drama… While there’s nothing good to say about the mini-totalitarian society they have left behind, seeing these young men’s unjaded simplicity and pure emotion casts our own society’s failings into sharp relief… What could have been a piece of oddball, marginal Americana… instead becomes a moving, thrilling yarn of heartland life and masculinity.” — Andrew O’Hehir, Salon.com