Tasks:
1) Watch.
2) Discuss.
3) Send me your suggestions for the next Short of the Day per PM, along with links to the shorts and comments, questions for the other users to think about, and/or info about the short.
Detailed project introduction & index: here
Silent Snow, Secret Snow (Gene R. Kearney, 1964)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKRDYbfFrps
Length: 16 minutes 58 seconds
Suggested by: Perception de Ambiguity
A haunting short film that due to its narration and its focus on a boy feels like an esoteric educational short. But if looked at it within this context one really would have deem it an anti-educational film in which conventional knowledge is an enemy at most and a hindrance at least, and esoteric understanding is encouraged. Its narrator indeed is in support of everything the young protagonist does, instead of trying to change and correct him.
Despite the narration that runs throughout, 'Silent Snow, Secret Snow' doesn't announce what it is about, and it is presented as neither a cautionary tale, nor horror, nor fantasy, in the end it probably is what you bring to it. It can be a 'Repulsion-esque horror film about an autistic/schizophrenic kid or it can be a wonderful film about a kid looking beyond the hard reality, perceiving a reality that instead is covered in beautiful, white, fluffy, soft snow. I know which reading I prefer.
The film is based on a short story by Conrad Aiken, apparently some kids watched this film in classrooms after reading the story, so knowing this the educational short comparison seems even more appropriate to me. Its director Gene R. Kearney a few years later in the early 70's directed another adaptation of this story for the "Night Gallery" series where Orson Welles provided the narration.
Comments by: Perception de Ambiguity
