Jill Orschel Local Filmmaker // Snowland

Local filmmaker, Jill Orschel, is moving into the final stretch with her documentary Snowland. The film explores the fantasy world Cora Lee Witt created as she looks back at her arranged, plural marriage at the age of 14 in the Short Creek polygamous group. Her journey to find the courage to speak out and believe in herself is a vital story of women's empowerment.

Two years ago, Orschel, and her team ran a very successful crowdfunding campaign through Seed & Spark and raised over $30,000. ”Every dollar went to our early post-production efforts,” explains Orschel. “As a team, we completed a rough cut of the first two acts of the film and developed the animation aesthetic in collaboration with our animator and created a final 4-minute animation sequence. This will be shown to potential funders and film grant committees in order to raise funds for the remaining 20-minutes of animation needed in the final documentary.”

Orschel’s team aims to complete the project by the end of 2023 and hope to raise those necessary funds through their BE A PART OF THE ART fundraising campaign. They’ve held a variety of awareness events around town and the final one, in partnership with Park City Film, is scheduled for Thursday, March 16 at 7pm at the Jim Santy Auditorium. “We'll show scenes from the film on the big screen and pull back the curtain to show our creative process. [We] invite anyone to get involved and give to our project. There is no contribution too small -- I consider someone's presence and encouragement a support to our team's morale!“

Anyone can sign up for the Snowland newsletters, invites and updates, or contribute at anytime here.

Orschel is deeply humbled by the outpouring of support from our community and from afar. “Our audience for this documentary is growing and everyone is excited to see the finished product. It's a little scary and exciting,” admits Orschel, “but as an independent filmmaker, you learn to live with, and work with, those two feelings simultaneously. I want our team to create something that everyone who has given to us can be proud of, and get something back from, and enjoy.”

To learn more about Jill Orschel visit her website and to view the Snowland trailer click here.