Slamdance Film Festival 2026 Review: “Snowland”

By Morgan Roberts

Director: Jill Orschel
Runtime: 90 minutes
Year: 2025

Societally, we’ve begun to understand the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS). From many a TLC documentary or television series to HBO’s “Big Love” and beyond, the once locally known fundamentalist sect of Mormons still practicing polygamy has become more widely known. In the documentary, “Snowland,” one woman who had the bravery to leave the FLDS begins the courageous act of facing change once again. Cora Lee Witt was raised in FLDS and was only in the 7th grade when she met her future husband, Richard. Cora Lee, as just a teenager, became the second wife to a man about two decades older than her.

The film bounces between past and present. Audiences find Cora Lee is trying to sell others on the fantasy realm of “Snowland,” and escape she created for herself in her darkest moments. An artist and skilled seamstress, Cora Lee has been crafting this world as a means to reclaim her story. Through interviews, we learn just what Cora Lee endured. In her marriage, Cora Lee tried to emulate what was taught to her and expected of her by both her husband and her sister wife. A literal child bride, she cared for her sister wife’s children as well as the 12 children she would have with their husband. But when her sister wife died at just 33 years old of cancer, Cora Lee became responsible for the well-being of 17 children - and at such an incredibly young age herself.

It is quite easy to be drawn into Cora Lee and her story. A steadfast and resilient woman who also manages to be quite warm, inviting, and deeply vulnerable, it is easy to understand how she became a safe person for the children in her care. And sadly, for the daughters of her husband, she was the only adult looking out of them. In a tale as old as time, Cora Lee discovered her husband was abusing his daughters. While, sadly, not unexpected, it is truly heart-wrenching to hear her recall that moment in her life. And what makes it all the more sickening were the continual protections for abusers in her community.

After leaving the FDLS with her children, Cora Lee fought to survive. Her story is harrowing and it is what makes her fantasy world of “Snowland” so fascinating. In order to endure her unimaginable hardship, she told stories which brought solace. But what was lying beneath that story of wonder were the dark experiences she weathered.

The documentary manages to allow the wonder in Cora Lee’s life to flourish, and allow that story to be the book ends to the unspeakable trauma she and her family lived through. “Snowland” is a document about the power of storytelling and the resilience of mothers in the face of cruelest of monsters.

Grade: B+
Pair This Film With: “The Other You” (2025) dir. Shoshana Rosenbaum; “Women Talking” (2022) dir. Sarah Polley