Its director, Andrew Black, sought to focus on other elements of the story, with Mormon culture as "just a backdrop." Professor Travis T. Anderson argues that LDS films revolving around universal human themes—such as "challenges, struggles, desire, and day-to-day experiences"—with just a splash of religious undertones achieve success in the movie market despite the Mormon cultural aspects they carry, which can seem strange to general audiences. He cites The Other Side of Heaven (2001), Saints and Soldiers (2003), Napoleon Dynamite (2004), and New York Doll (2005) as examples of such "critical and financial success stories in Mormon cinema." Saints and Soldiers gained recognition at multiple small film festivals; and the 2001 murder mystery Brigham City, while not praised by audiences, received critical acclaim. The documentary New York Doll tells the story of a member of a rock band—who also happens to be Mormon—and the reconciliation of his two worlds. It demonstrates the commonly-held goal of Mormon filmmakers to bridge the gap between how Mormons are perceived and the concept of the typical American. Larry Miller, owner of the Utah jazz, invested millions of dollars into producing The Work and the Glory (2004) in an effort to tell the story of the history of the LDS Church. Mormon filmmakers have often made the argument that films with distinctly Mormon characteristics have the potential to appeal to general audiences. Additionally, LDS films have been featured in theaters around the United States. Mormon cinema has also been the subject of aesthetic discussion. Doc Films, a student film society at the University of Chicago, hosted a Mormon film series in 2007. Some Mormon films were marketed differently to the larger market than they were to their niche audience. The national release DVD cover of Brigham City, for example, featured "much more implied violence" than the cover released to the Mormon Corridor. When new films were released, their launch was often accompanied by the creation of a website dedicated to promoting the film. Most of the family-oriented films marketed to Mormon audiences never made it to theaters, but went right to DVD distribution through large and small e-commerce websites, such as Amazon and LDSVideoStore.com. Deseret Book Company and Seagull Book were at the forefront of Mormon DVD distribution. In general, the most successful Mormon films were those made with high-quality equipment and distributed by an entertainment company, such as Halestorm or Excel Entertainment. As the