Melting Snow
2021
Synopsis:

Melting Snow centers around the 1952 event during which the mayor of San Juan partnered with Eastern Airlines to transport two tons of snow from New Hampshire to Puerto Rico. The snow was a gift, meant to enchant Puerto Ricans with a white, American Christmas. As the spectacle unfolds, an unequal transaction is revealed: planes brought capitalist instant gratification in the form of snow, returning to the U.S., filled with the Puerto Rican cheap labor that would populate el barrio. As the snow melts, we begin to understand Puerto Rico’s colonial predicament condensed in the empty gift. Water tracks the diaspora to the mainland, taking on various forms as it completes its natural hydrologic cycle, a visual illustration of colonialism backwards and forwards in time: we travel from the fading mirage of melting snow to an approaching hurricane Maria, washing away the fiction of America as a paternalistic colonial power.

Filmmakers:
Janah Elise Cox

Janah Elise Cox is a Nuyorican documentary director and editor from the Bronx, NY. Her work has premiered at Cannes, Berlinale, Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca and New York film festivals, among others. She was an editor on Watergate - Or, How We Learned to Stop an Out-of-Control President, a six-part limited series for the History channel and has worked on award-winning films including The King, Mr. Soul!, 93Queen and Get Me Roger Stone! Janah is a 2020 Karen Schmeer Diversity in the Edit Room Fellowship recipient and most recently was the editor of Bad Hombres, a feature documentary scheduled to premiere on Showtime in Fall 2020.

Sue Ariza

Sue Ariza is an Argentinian-Dominican documentary producer, publicist and Human Rights lawyer, based in New York City. She holds a BA in Political Science, as well as an MA in International Law from the University of Zurich. She is currently working with On Being Studios with Krista Tippett, Pineapple Street Studios, TED, For Freedoms, In Plain Sight, The Wide Awakes and more through her role at The No. 29 Communications.