Imagine Dragons singer Dan Reynolds' talks about his documentary `Believer'.
Dan Reynolds addresses the crowd gathered to attend the LoveLoud Festival. Photo Credit: HBO (HBO)
As a teenager, Dan Reynolds already had doubts about his faith. A decade before hitting the pop mainstream as the singer for Imagine Dragons, he was writing songs about his conflicts with religion and was uneasy witnessing the struggle of his gay friends to live openly within the Mormon community.
“It was hard to watch them have to hide, and go to dances with girls and not live their truths,” says Reynolds, 30, who was raised within a conservative Mormon family in Las Vegas and remains a member of the church. “It was the first time I felt that religion was doing harm.”
Reynolds has regrets about those days, he says, mainly for not actively reaching out as “a true ally to my friends when they needed it most.” His awakening is now at the centre of “Believer,” a documentary that begins airing Monday on HBO and follows the singer’s evolution from uncertain observer to determined activist.
The film, produced by Live Nation Productions, premiered in January at Sundance, in Park City, Utah, home state to the Mormon Church, and began a short theatrical run last week in select cities.
During the course of “Believer,” directed by Don Argott, Reynolds is brought to tears reading messages from fans and other LGBT adolescents that describe the pain of rejection within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
“It was hard to watch them have to hide, and go to dances with girls and not live their truths,” says Reynolds, 30, who was raised within a conservative Mormon family in Las Vegas and remains a member of the church. “It was the first time I felt that religion was doing harm.”
Reynolds has regrets about those days, he says, mainly for not actively reaching out as “a true ally to my friends when they needed it most.” His awakening is now at the centre of “Believer,” a documentary that begins airing Monday on HBO and follows the singer’s evolution from uncertain observer to determined activist.
The film, produced by Live Nation Productions, premiered in January at Sundance, in Park City, Utah, home state to the Mormon Church, and began a short theatrical run last week in select cities.
During the course of “Believer,” directed by Don Argott, Reynolds is brought to tears reading messages from fans and other LGBT adolescents that describe the pain of rejection within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
He meets with the parents of a teenage boy who committed suicide, and he speaks with psychologist John Dehlin, a sixth-generation Mormon who was excommunicated in 2015 for his activism on this issue.
During a radio interview shown in the documentary, Reynolds says, “I don’t feel a need to denounce Mormonism. I do feel a need as a Mormon to speak out against things that are hurting people.”
For the last year, the singer has faced the issue head-on, actively working to shift attitudes toward LGBT youth within the Mormon community, where leadership currently welcomes gay and lesbian members as long as they remain celibate or marry into a heterosexual relationship.
During a radio interview shown in the documentary, Reynolds says, “I don’t feel a need to denounce Mormonism. I do feel a need as a Mormon to speak out against things that are hurting people.”
For the last year, the singer has faced the issue head-on, actively working to shift attitudes toward LGBT youth within the Mormon community, where leadership currently welcomes gay and lesbian members as long as they remain celibate or marry into a heterosexual relationship.
e shares his alarm over the staggering suicide rate among youth (ages 10 to 17) in Utah, which is growing four times faster than the national average, according to a 2017 study by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Read more on http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-dan-reynolds-believer-20180623-story.html
This article is from http://www.latimes.com
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