Cipher in the Snow | |
---|---|
Directed by | Keith J. Atkinson |
Written by | Jean Mizer Todhunter |
Screenplay by | Carol Lynn Pearson |
Produced by | Judge Whitaker Keith J. Atkinson |
Starring | Robert Bridges Bruce Kimball Roberta Shore Jacqueline Mayo Walter Stocker Mary Cox Larry Watts Martha Henstrom Kirk Hutchings Ronald Jenkins Court LeRoy |
Cinematography | Reed Smoot Ted Van Horn W. Grant Williams |
Edited by | Peter G. Czerny |
Release date |
|
Running time | 21 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Cipher in the Snow is a short story written by Jean Mizer Todhunter about the death of an ostracized teenager. It was later made into a short film by Brigham Young University in 1973.
Cipher in the Snow, written by Jean Mizer Todhunter, an Idaho teacher, counselor and guidance director, was first published Volume 50 of the NEA Journal in 1964. It won first prize in the first Reader's Digest /NEA Journal writing competition [1] [2] and received a reprint in Today's Education in 1975. [3]
BYU Motion Picture Studios made a short film based upon the story in 1973. The film was produced by Wetzel Whitaker and Keith Atkinson, with a screenplay by Carol Lynn Pearson. A DVD of the film is available through BYU's Creative Works Office. Both the film and the story have since been used in moral education as part of anti-bullying initiatives. [4]
The story is about an ostracized teenager, Cliff Evans, who following his parents' divorce has no friends and becomes a completely withdrawn "cipher". Then on a school bus, he asks to be let off, and collapses and dies in the snow near the roadside. His school's math teacher is asked to notify his parents and write the obituary. Though listed as Cliff's favorite teacher, he recalls that he hardly knew him. After getting a delegation to go to the funeral - it's impossible to find ten people who knew him well enough to go - the teacher resolves never to let this happen to another child in his charge. It is implied that his death was because no one loved him.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Based on the 1812 German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, it is the first full-length traditionally animated feature film and the first Disney animated feature film. The production was supervised by David Hand, and the film's sequences were directed by Perce Pearce, William Cottrell, Larry Morey, Wilfred Jackson, and Ben Sharpsteen.
The Three Friends and Jerry(Swedish: De tre vännerna och Jerry) is a children's animated television series produced by Happy Life and TMO Film GmbH (Germany) in association with Nickelodeon UK and Nickelodeon Germany. The show was created by the Swedish illustrator Magnus Carlsson.
A Christmas Story is a 1983 Christmas comedy film directed by Bob Clark and based on Jean Shepherd's semi-fictional anecdotes in his 1966 book In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash, with some elements from his 1971 book Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories And Other Disasters. It stars Melinda Dillon, Darren McGavin, and Peter Billingsley. Widely considered a holiday classic in the United States and Canada, it has been shown in a marathon annually on TNT since 1997 and on TBS since 2004 titled "24 Hours of A Christmas Story", consisting of 12 consecutive airings of the film from the evening of Christmas Eve to the evening of Christmas Day annually. It is the third installment in the Parker Family Saga.
The Other Side of Heaven is a 2001 American adventure drama film written and directed by Mitch Davis, based on John H. Groberg's first autobiography, In the Eye of the Storm. The film stars Christopher Gorham as John Groberg and Anne Hathaway as Jean Groberg.
Gidget is a 1959 American CinemaScope comedy film. The picture stars Sandra Dee, Cliff Robertson, James Darren, Arthur O'Connell, and the Four Preps. in a story about a teenager's initiation into the California surf culture and her romance with a young surfer.
Jared Lawrence Hess and Jerusha Elizabeth Hess are husband-and-wife American filmmakers best known for their work on Napoleon Dynamite (2004), Nacho Libre (2006) and Gentlemen Broncos (2009), all of which they co-wrote and which were directed by Jared.
The Chorus is a 2004 French musical drama film directed by Christophe Barratier. Co-written by Barratier and Philippe Lopes-Curval, it is an adaptation of the 1945 film A Cage of Nightingales. The story is inspired by the origin of the boys' choir the Little Singers of Paris.
Disturbing Behavior is a 1998 teen science fiction psychological horror film starring James Marsden, Katie Holmes, and Nick Stahl. The film was directed by David Nutter, who was a director and producer on The X-Files, and the screenplay was written by Scott Rosenberg. The plot follows a group of high school outcasts who discover their seemingly perfect "Blue Ribbon" classmates are part of an elaborate mind control experiment.
George Leslie Norris, was a prize-winning Welsh poet and short story writer. He taught at academic institutions in Britain and the United States, including Brigham Young University. Norris is considered one of the most important Welsh writers of the post-war period, and his literary publications have won many prizes.
"Our Day Out" is the 16th episode of eighth season of the British BBC anthology TV series Play for Today. The episode was a television play that was originally broadcast on 28 December 1977. "Our Day Out" was written by Willy Russell, directed by Pedr James, produced by David Rose, and starred Jean Heywood, Alun Armstrong, Elizabeth Estensen, Robert Gillespie, Iona Banks, and Peter Tilbury.
Saturday's Warrior is a religious-themed musical written by Douglass Stewart and Lex de Azevedo about a family who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The musical tells the story of a group of children that are born into a Latter-day Saint family after making various promises in the premortal life. Two of the children, Jimmy and Julie, encounter personal struggles that help them rediscover and fulfill their foreordained missions in life. Although no explicit time frame is given in the dialogue, certain contextual clues suggest that the story takes place in the then-current and then-recent period of the late 1960s or early '70s, similar to other religious musicals such as Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar.
"One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty" is the second segment of the eleventh episode from the first season (1985–1986) of the television series The Twilight Zone. It is based on the short story "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty", by Harlan Ellison. The story was first published in the anthology Orbit 8 in 1970. The story follows a man who returns to his hometown and develops a relationship with his childhood self.
Never Back Down is a 2008 American martial arts film directed by Jeff Wadlow and starring Sean Faris, Cam Gigandet, Amber Heard, and Djimon Hounsou. It tells the story of a frustrated and conflicted teenager who arrives at a new high school and discovers an underground fight club there.
Wetzel Orson "Judge" Whitaker was a filmmaker and animator. He is most known for his early work as a Disney animator, particularly the animation of the stepsisters from Cinderella, and his work as a director for BYU Motion Picture Studios. Most of the films he was involved in, such as The Windows of Heaven, Johnny Lingo and Pioneers in Petticoats, were made in cooperation with his brother Scott Whitaker. The two of them ran the BYU Motion Picture Studio during this time, receiving commission from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to make films.
Let Me In is a 2010 romantic horror film written and directed by Matt Reeves and starring Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloë Grace Moretz, Elias Koteas, and Richard Jenkins. It is a remake of the 2008 Swedish film Let the Right One In. The film tells the story of a bullied 12-year-old boy who befriends and develops a romantic relationship with a female child vampire in Los Alamos, New Mexico, during the early 1980s.
The Willies is a 1990 American comedy horror anthology film, written and directed by Brian Peck. The movie was filmed in both California and Connecticut.
Bully is a 2011 American documentary drama film directed and co-produced by Lee Hirsch and co-produced and written by Cynthia Lowen along with producers Cindy Waitt and Sarah Foudy. The film follows the lives of five students who face bullying on a daily basis in U.S. schools and premiered at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival. It was also screened at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and the LA Film Festival.
Boy Interrupted is a 2009 documentary filmed by Perry Films. The film is based on the life of Evan Perry, who experienced bipolar depression from a young age. The documentary was filmed throughout Evan's life, because whenever his parents, Dana and Hart Perry, consulted a psychiatrist about Evan's suicidal comments or other signs of mental illness, the psychiatrists did not believe that their son was depressed. The footage was originally meant to show the healthcare professionals what was happening in Evan's life and to help them access the treatment Evan needed.
Pluto's Christmas Tree is a 1952 Mickey Mouse cartoon in which Pluto and Mickey cut down a Christmas tree that Chip n' Dale live in. It was the 125th short in the Mickey Mouse film series to be released, and the second for that year. While the chipmunks are usually antagonists of Donald Duck, they have pestered Pluto before, in Private Pluto (1943), Squatter's Rights (1946) and Food for Feudin' (1950).