SNOWLAND
LOGLINE: A former child bride from a notorious polygamous sect in Utah escapes her painful past by creating a magical fantasy realm she calls Snowland. Within this artistic endeavor, which spans decades, is a metaphorical journey of lost innocence, survival and self-discovery.
SYNOPSIS: SNOWLAND opens with a page from an enchanted scrapbook revealing our documentary participant, Cora Lee Witt, at age 14. As images on the pages come alive through imaginative stop-motion animation, we notice a family photo with one man, two women, and many children. The camera pans and we see Cora again, in a floor length dress, staring off into the distance to a drawing of a faraway castle. She says in voiceover, “I couldn’t understand why things were happening to me the way they were, so I turned in another direction to fill that hole. I tried my hardest to find the beauty in everything. That saved me.”
Now 68, Cora’s backstory unfolds as she candidly shares the intimate details of her life. She begins with her initiation into a polygamist marriage as a child bride in the secretive town of Short Creek in southern Utah where Cora became a second wife and an indentured servant. She had twelve children, and her sister-wife had nine. Her husband Richard was violent to Cora and the children, and sexually abused many of their daughters. When a friend encouraged her to speak to authorities outside the church about the abuse, Richard was sent to prison. But the community, threatened by Cora’s outspokenness, shunned her and evicted the family from their home onto the streets. This marked the juncture where Cora, in an effort to survive amidst so much hardship, began to retreat into a fantasyland of her own creation that she called Snowland.
Decades later, Cora and her daughter Becca live together. Since the time when they were homeless, the extraordinary world of Snowland has grown into an elaborate collection of drawings, paintings, manuscripts, and costumes. Becca is helping her mom organize all of the Snowland materials that have amassed through the years. These present-day scenes are captured in cinema verité, and the first two acts of the film take place in Cora and Becca’s tiny apartment. Woven throughout Cora’s narrative is her backstory, illustrated with artwork from Snowland and a stop-motion animated scrapbook which includes layers of family photos and ephemera from her past. In the third act, Cora makes a surprising decision to return to Short Creek. She faces the community that once rejected her so she can take ownership of her home there. When Cora arrives in town, she faces intimidation by church members, but Cora has matured, and developed a growing self-confidence. They no longer have the power over her that they once did.
As Cora reclaims her life, she finds a newfound purpose. At a holiday market in Short Creek, she introduces Snowland to some of the local children and captures the imagination of several townspeople. No longer the young girl who devoted herself so obediently to the church, Cora is a confident, independent, and brave woman who speaks out about her beliefs. Tender, playful, and at times, heartbreaking, SNOWLAND is a multi-layered story of loss, resilience, and the magnificent, transformative capacity of the creative mind.
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Jill OrschelDirectorSister Wife, Like A Dance, Backup Singer, Lakota Workcamp, The Places You'll Go
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Susan MetzgerEditorSaving Jones, Angel City (HBO), Manzanar Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust, Thank You for Coming, Right Footed, Democracy at Work
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Conner CookComposerThe Act of Remembering, Door No. 5, Balloon Animal, and Static Space
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Bridey BushAnimatorSkimation and Eva
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Joanne FeinbergCo-ProducerGasoline Rainbow (a Ross Brothers film), Bloom, and Broken/Fixed
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J.R. HardmanProducerRenactress (in progress) and Muslims in Love
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Project Type:Animation, Documentary, Feature
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Runtime:1 hour 29 minutes
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Country of Origin:United States
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Country of Filming:United States
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Language:English
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Aspect Ratio:16:9
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:Yes
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Student Project:No
Jill Orschel is an award-winning filmmaker whose projects give voice to women from the rural Mountain West and other underrepresented communities. Her breakout documentary short, SISTER WIFE, about a mother of twelve within an infamous polygamist sect, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, won a special jury award at SXSW, and went on to screen and win awards at festivals internationally. Jill’s non-fiction work has also premiered at DOC NYC, IDFA and other top tier and regional festivals. She received a BA in Journalism from Colorado State University, a MFA in Film Studies from the University of Utah, and continues to evolve her media-making practices through organizations such as Sundance Institute (Collab) and Women Make Movies. Jill is also affiliated with the International Documentary Association and Film Fatales. She founded and directed the annual Filmmakers Showcase for fifteen years in Park City, Utah which highlights new work by emerging and established filmmakers throughout the state. Jill’s debut feature-length documentary SNOWLAND pairs an intriguing character-driven story with innovative, artful stop-motion collage.
I met Cora Lee Witt, the main protagonist in SNOWLAND, 15 years ago at the 2009 Sundance premiere of my short documentary, SISTER WIFE, that features her niece DoriAnn. I could see Cora had a story to tell. I felt that she understood that being a participant in the documentary I was to direct, produce and shoot, would be a safe and possibly healing experience. Cora and her daughter Becca’s strong relationship on screen, and their ease on camera, is a reflection of the rapport we’ve forged through the years. We have become friends and collaborators. I feel privileged to have made this film.
The twin border towns of Colorado City, AZ and Hildale, UT, also known as Short Creek, is where the polygamous sect, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), is located. This is where Cora was married and had her children. It is a place where outsiders are not welcome. Members of the church, in trucks and vans with tinted windows, intimidate anyone who tries to drive into town. At first I thought that many in this community were simply afraid of a backlash against their polygamist-practicing lifestyle which is illegal in the United States. But Cora states her own opinion in the film: that these intimidation tactics are a way of teaching children to hate. I’ve grown to realize that the people from this place are nuanced and complicated, and the reasons for what they do are deeply rooted in years of male-dominated religious oppression.
I continue to see how strong relationships with film participants make the work better for all involved. The bond and I have formed with Cora puts integrity, transparency and trust first. This has ensured that we can let down our guard, be comfortable around the camera, and allow for the story to unfold authentically. I feel aligned both personally and professionally with Cora’s artistic passion, and I’m filled with gratitude that she has allowed me to be a part of her courageous and surprisingly uplifting journey.
In SNOWLAND, I incorporate cinema verité with collage animation to create an illuminating and meaningful experience for viewers. My influences on this project are the documentary films GREY GARDENS by the Maysles Brothers, MARWENCOL by Jeff Malmberg and IN THE REALMS OF THE UNREAL by Jessica Yu.
SNOWLAND is my first feature length documentary effort and my collaborations while making the film have been life-changing. Our team of all female key creatives have connected through the Sundance Institute Lab programs and Festival, including our creative advisors, editor Kate Amend and composer Miriam Cutler.
I hope audiences will find Cora’s story filled with courage, determination and hope.