The Life of Nephi is a 1915 film

1915 in film

The year 1915 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 8 : D.W Griffith's The Birth of a Nation premieres at Clune's Auditorium Los Angeles and breaks box office and film length records, running at a total length of 3 hrs 10 minutes.* June 18 : The Motion Picture Directors...

 financed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The three-reel film was the first attempt to create a cinematic adaptation of the Book of Mormon

Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement that adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2600 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr...

. The Life of Nephi was produced by the brothers Chet and Shirl Lawson and was shot in Salt Lake City with a non-professional cast.

The Life of Nephi had its theatrical premiere in Salt Lake City on October 25, 1915; it is unclear if the film had additional screenings outside of Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

. No print of the film is known to survive, although 40 hand-painted slides based on scenes from the production remain extant.