Cora Lee Witt, left, and her granddaughter Saige Alloway examine fabric in a scene from Park City-based filmmaker Jill Orschel s documentary Snowland. The film follows the life of Witt, who became a child bride at 14 in the Short Creek polygamous group. Witt created a fantasy world called Snowland to help cope with the the sect s lifestyle.
Courtesy of Jill Orschel
Things continue to roll along for the locally produced documentary “Snowland.”
Award-winning filmmaker, producer and Park City resident Jill Orschel has raised more than $30,000 in the past 45 days through a Seed and Spark crowdsourcing campaign that will help her take the next step in the filmmaking process.
Local News Hour
( 09:36) - Summit County Council Member Roger Armstrong recaps Wednesday s meeting.
(26:03) - Park City Institute Executive Director Ari Ioanides has details on the season that PCI announced last night. (37:27) - Katy Wang, Director of Park City Film and Filmmaker Jill Orschel have details about tomorrow s special presentation and conversation about her feature film in progress - Snowland.
Listen
Cora Lee Witt, sitting, is surrounded by some of her grandchildren and their friends during a holiday fair in Short Creek. Witt created a fantasy world called Snowland as a coping mechanism while she lived in a strict, polygamous and Fundamentalist Latter-day Saint community.
Photo by Jill Orschel
Jill Orschel, an award-winning Park City-based filmmaker, wants to introduce the world to Cora Lee Witt, a visual artist who, after three decades, was able to break out of a Fundamentalist Latter-day Saint community on the Utah and Arizona border.
Orschel plans to reveal a film trailer and announce a crowdsourcing campaign for “Snowland,” which is taken from the name of a fantasy world Witt created inside her mind and thorugh art to cope while living under the strict religious and patriarchal rules of the polygamous sect, at 6 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 18, during an online presentation with Park City Film.