Gift to Winter: The Story of the Winter Solstice Puppet Collective (2010)

Using nearly a decade of archival footage, the film documents the history of the Winter Solstice Puppet Collective, a Portland, OR - based group that creates and performs elaborate shadow puppet shows every year, free of charge, on December 21st. The film introduces the collective members, explores their history and creative involvement in the project, while showing the process of story creation, puppet and set construction, and the composition of an original musical score for each show. Inspired by the original Saturnalia story, the group's original vision was to create a performance as a gift to the god Saturn, an offering that would ensure the arrival of spring. Since then, the performance has become an inspiring and much-anticipated community event.