SALT LAKE CITY — Students at Salt Lake Community College are set to premiere a documentary about the impact of conversion therapy that happened at Brigham Young University in the late 1970s.
The documentary is one of several that students took on during their semester of classes. FOX 13 News previously reported on a documentary made by students about involving the voices of indigenous individuals when it comes to saving the Great Salt Lake.
SLCC student film director Sean Leonard chose to center his documentary on male students who went through treatments that attempted to change their sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual at BYU in the 1970s.
“Specifically electroshock therapy that students did volunteer to be a part of, that had a very negative, traumatic effect on them and how it has shaped the rest of their lives afterwards," Leonard explained.
Through his research, Leonard remarked that creating the documentary has been an eye-opening journey.
“In doing more research and reading about other people’s experiences, I was kind of appalled this had happened at all.”
Leonard and his collaborators interviewed one man who said he took part in a hypnotherapy aspect of the study.
“It just shows that even just hearing about it and maybe the thought of, ‘Oh, that could’ve been me’…is the way to move forward," Leonard said. "It really just kind of fuels us to say, this needs to change and this is going to be our first attempt to do it.”
While the documentary is still a work in progress, Leonard said certain completed parts will be premiered during a free screening of his film on Friday, December 8 at 6 p.m. at the Salt Lake Community College South City Campus.
