It's unfortunate that the leadership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has gone into attack-the-messenger mode regarding Reed Cowan's documentary "8: The Mormon Proposition."

It's unfortunate that the response by an LDS Church spokesman at the movie's 2010 Sundance Film Festival premiere was to label Cowan's film, sight unseen, "obviously biased" and to opine that "it appears that accuracy and truth are rare commodities in this film."

It's unfortunate because Cowan -- a longtime Salt Lake City TV journalist who grew up gay in Roosevelt, Utah -- aims to be fair in this documentary, which looks inside the LDS Church's behind-the-scenes maneuvering in the nasty 2008 political campaign to strip gay and lesbian Californians of marriage rights. But being fair doesn't mean Cowan isn't passionate, as he shows the emotional toll that the church's actions have taken on thousands of people.

Cowan and co-director Steven Greenstreet (who made "This Divided State," about the dust-up over Michael Moore's 2004 visit to Utah Valley State College) have command of their facts. They uncover secret memos and internal video messages from church leaders to show a well-orchestrated campaign to push ballot measures in several states to ban gay marriage. One of the keys of these campaigns, first in Hawaii and most prominently in California, is to establish multidenominational front groups to obscure the LDS Church's role in the campaigns -- on the theory that support may erode because of other faiths' distrust of Mormonism.

Though the LDS Church hierarchy declined to give Cowan an interview, he has no trouble finding homophobia among Utah's political leadership. The centerpiece of this is the now-infamous interview with Utah state Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, in which he equates homosexuality to "pig sex" and calls gays "probably the greatest threat to America." What's most noteworthy about Buttars' raging homophobia, though, is that so many others agree with the sentiment -- though not in so harsh a tone.

Beyond the inflammatory material, "8: The Mormon Proposition" truly resonates when it tells the stories of everyday gays and lesbians who have dealt with the shame and pain they say they have suffered because of LDS doctrine.

It's in these moments that the film's passion speaks for itself. In these voices, "8: The Mormon Proposition" becomes a vital, important cry for an open dialogue. It's unfortunate that one side still refuses to come to the table.