This whole story was kind of in our DNA.
It was always around us.
There's still so much pain in Salt Lake City.
People talk about it all the time.
And the calm of Salt Lake City, Utah,
was rocked today by two booby-trapped bombs
that left two people dead.
A morning that brought fear and death.
You know, this story, for me, is something that I've been passionate about
for such a long time.
I live two minutes away from where Mark Hofmann lived,
where he produced his forgeries, constructed the bombs,
so it's right in your face.
It appears that dealing in Mormon documents
can be a dangerous business.
I'm a true-crime buff, I guess you could say.
I mean, I know a lot of the stories out there,
and, to me, this was like the craziest story you never heard.
And I just was excited to see
what these two guys could do with the story.
You know, Jared and I, we were both raised in this community, for the most part.
We know the people, we know the community,
we know the individuals who were a part of it.
My cousin was Mark Hofmann's roommate, for goodness sakes, and he's in the film.
So, it was always something that we knew about
and there was always this mythology around it.
And many individuals have tried to make this film prior,
both in documentary form or in narrative form,
and none has really come to fruition in a large scale.
But Jared and I, four years ago, said,
"This is a story both of us can tell. Let's do it."
I think it's just living here in Salt Lake City
and the incredible access that we had to all the people
that were directly involved in this story and lived through it.
If he's psychotic or something...
I mean, maybe he's a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
I don't know.
It's awful.
It's awful what he did.
So, even long before we began production
and, you know, when we began our research really for it
four or five years ago, we would go and have lunch with these people.
You know, I've become close friends with people
that were directly involved in this story,
that had dealings with Mark Hofmann,
went to his weird hot tub parties, which we don't mention in the film, but...
But we really did have to develop a relationship of trust with these people.
They wanted to know that we were telling the story
for the right reasons and...
Because a lot of them,
they hadn't opened up or spoken about this for 35 years.
And so, it was a very emotional experience,
I think, for a lot of them,
and very cathartic and healing to be able to go back and talk about these things.
All of them kind of knew that they were engrossed in history,
so they kept everything from that era -
VHS tapes and documents and letters and news clippings
and photos and everything that they could.
So, when we started this, they just turned all of that over to us.
So, we were able to capitalise on their love of history
and recognition of important moments.
We used VHS tapes that were recorded from the news,
and we actually got Mark Hofmann's VHS tapes.
So, he would literally record himself on the news
and we used that in the film.
We actually use some of it while he's watching the news,
so it's very meta, I suppose.
Well, the police theory that Hofmann was forging documents
comes as a real surprise to the community of scholars and collectors
who work with Mark Hofmann.
Yeah, so it's, you know...
And it's something too that I think just has such relevant themes.
We live in a world of misinformation and no one is immune to being deceived.
And we all have to take a really close look
at the narratives that we choose to live by.
You hit the nail on the head.
We live in a post-truth era that is deeply concerning.
You know, we seem to live in a time where
whoever can tell the best narrative seems to control the truth.
This film, I think, is a really smart way of tapping into that.
You know, every time I go out to, like, explore a new topic,
it's amazing to me
how there's like eight other filmmakers doing the same subject.
So, this is unique,
an amazingly unique story and really well told.
So, I think these guys did an amazing job.
Thanks, Joe.
You know, when Jared and I started this project,
we actually took it out
and we had meetings with every entity you could imagine.
And oddly enough, we got a pass, and it was the same project.
And then, when Joe and the BBC Studios came on board,
we took it back out, same project,
but we had Joe in the room, and the first...
You know, in the pitches, the first thing he'd say is,
"These guys are great. I love their films. And this is an amazing story."
And everything changed after that.
So, you know, for aspiring filmmakers out there,
getting a sponsor of somebody who says, "I endorse this project," means a tonne.
I mean, it was amazing.
I've always been a fan boy of Joe Berlinger.
He's a legend in the genre,
and just one of the most accomplished documentary filmmakers out there, so...
At least I'm a legend in my own mind.
So, to have him come on board
and, you know, support me and Tyler as filmmakers
and our vision for this was just incredible.
And, you know, really early on,
as we were kind of figuring out kind of the structure of the first episode
and just kind of the whole flow of the series,
obviously, Tyler and I were very, very close to the material.
And I remember Joe coming in with our first edit
and was so supportive of everything, but was like, "You know what, I think…"
You know, the linear structure
of unfolding misinformation of Mormonism, religion,
document collecting was so helpful
in just kind of how we tackled that first episode to orient the audience,
and then everything else as well, you know, as we went through it.
The real treasure is not the gold in those plates,
but what's written on them.
When we were making this,
we had a huge set-up of the Mormon faith
and the back story of the Mormon faith
and Joseph Smith and Salt Lake City and the document world.
And it was very difficult to kind of give the audience just enough, not too much.
Our editors, we have brilliant editors.
They have this ability to just go,
"You know, that's a great story, but I don't care,
and the audience won't care."
The editors are the secret sauce, you know?
There was a time when I cut my own films, long ago,
and cut them on celluloid.
But I know just how important the editorial process is.
You know, the other interesting factor in how you thread the needle
is whether or not it's a feature doc or a series.
That was a considered decision.
The selective withholding of certain information is even...
You're under even greater pressure when you're doing a multipart series
than when you're doing a feature-length documentary.
And I think these guys did an amazing job
of keeping the suspense going,
being journalistically accurate,
but still teasing stuff enough so that you come back into the next episode.
In a 1982 interview with Sunstone magazine,
Hofmann said he was in the business to make money.
I don't want to make a hero out of him.
Because he was fantastic.
No one has come close to doing what he has done.
We wanted this kind of element of like reverence for Mark
because he was a craftsman.
He was very good at what he did.
But we also wanted to play with that as an audience member.
You know, the modern-day protagonist is flawed.
It's not Cary Grant, who is perfect in a movie.
It's Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad.
We love them and hate them, and that's kind of what Mark Hofmann is,
is this unbelievable character who's cold and callous at the same time.
He thrived in this environment that would trust their own,
this affinity trust for other members of the faith,
and also this need to collect history and also collect...
And, in some instances, hide history
that may be harmful to them or their religion.
So, Mark thrived in this environment because he had a need
to kind of wield power over people
through his deceptions, through his forgeries.
Because of his forgeries, and his nature of creating these,
he would literally rewrite history.
You know, he'd come up with a document
that would change the way people looked at how something happened,
you know, including major faiths and important individuals.
So, he had some kind of inner power.
Now, he's sitting in a jail cell in a small town in Utah,
and he just doesn't have much power at all anymore.
And I think the only real secret power he has is his story,
and I don't know if he's going to unleash that on the world.
He's been silent and most likely will, I think.
For me, I want to know who Mark Hofmann is now.
Like, all that we really know of him is who he was in his late 20s
when he committed these crimes.
And he's had 35 years to reflect on the horrific damage that he caused,
and I'd be curious to find out who he is now.