Documentary series
Burdened
The Hidden Cost of Trek
Logline
Each year, thousands of Latter-day Saint teenagers reenact a historic pioneer journey. Through firsthand accounts and expert insight, this series examines questions about the physical and emotional costs of a faith-based tradition.
The inquiry
Modern LDS Trek is often presented as a spiritual rite of passage. Burdened explores how participants remember the experience, how families and leaders understand it, and what happens when hardship is part of a youth tradition.
Approach
Participant interviews, expert perspectives and careful reporting create a space for differing experiences. The series examines accounts of exhaustion, injury and emotional pressure without treating every participant's experience as the same.
Themes
Belief and belonging; youth choice and consent; endurance and pressure; family and community; the distance between an institution's intention and an individual's experience.
Development
Created by Donny McGuire. This is a documentary concept in development; interviews, reporting, verification and appropriate participant safeguards would shape the finished work.
A character-driven inquiry into faith, identity and the meaning of hardship.
Discuss the project ↗Go for Donny! Productions · Folsom, California · Development concept