Our Vision

Most people have seen the wild memes about Brigham Young University – otherwise known as the school where students would rather drink a cup of boiling oil than a cold brew. The videos are wildly entertaining to watch, but there’s a lot more to the story there at the university. It’s a complicated conservative institution with a varied past, and has been historically highly oppressive to the LGBTQ+ community. As a result, the school made international news when a group of students lit up the school’s iconic “Y Mountain” in rainbow colors in early 2020.

But, A Long Way From Heaven does a lot more than tell the story of the Rainbow Y. It outlines the history of queer treatment at BYU – the good (where it exists), the bad, and the very, very ugly. The film combines new, original footage with a huge variety of historical images, videos, newspaper articles, and other mixed media from every conceivable source to tell the story of BYU’s queer students, and the bravery and risks they constantly take to make their voices heard.

David Sant – Director