Two Films to Know
“Cipher in the Snow”
This film was made in 1973, thus please overlook the poofy hairdos and the Ghostbusters-like Ambulance. I first saw this film at a professional development seminar and from then on I used to go and borrow the 16mm film from SaskFilm & show it every year to my class. Then I would have the students write about their point of view of Cliff Evans:
how he was a cypher,
not legally adopted by his stepfather who didn’t seem to do much, and his mother was not present enough. Hokay, I am not blaming the parents, but also
in the school (when he collapses outside of the bus) the other kids aren’t really sure that he goes to their school and
the principal isn’t even sure that’s he’s a student and
no one seems to know him at all, since he had not been in any teams nor joined any clubs.
Also, at the beginning while waiting for the school bus, you should notice how Cliff Evans is all by myself. No one‘s engaging with him and no one‘s talking with him. He’s just all by himself and he’s not wearing a proper winter coat. He’s wearing runners - not even proper footwear. Why is that happening? Slo there’s a lot of things to notice about Cliff Evans:
Doesn’t have a proper winter coat nor warm winter footwear;
he’s also a very intrapersonal person (Multiple intelligence’s: self smart) and also a naturalistic person (Multiple Intelligence’s nature smart). He enjoys being by himself and he enjoys nature as is evident from his Gr. 2 poem about frogs! He loves frogs. He may have been a wonderful biologist, or maybe environmentalist, maybe studying amphibians. He has that interest and skill set to perhaps been a real success story but for that Gr. 3 teacher to write down that awful label in his permanent file, and then everyone else followed!
Cliff Evans had a “backstory” YET not one person was curious enough to look for it! How sad!!
People will live up to what they believe other people think they should be.
“Oh, you’re the funny one.”
“Oh, you’re the smart one.”
“Oh, you’re the class clown.” Well, guess what? A class clown will be a class clown if they feel that that’s what is expected of them to be.
Thus, please be very careful with your labels. Why do you even require that there be labels?
This is a very important movie that I would always show each year to my students to talk about labels and to talk about being kind to others. When Cliff Evans wants to help with the playground snowman, the other boys refuse his help yet take his hat away for the Snowman and say, “Now he looks like cliff Evans ‘cept he’s not so ugly!”, but yet he stays afterwards and puts in the eyes and the nose, because he wants to help with just a simple engagement.
(sidebar conversation) I’m so glad that so many schools have the “Buddy Bench” so that if someone needs a buddy, they sit on the “Buddy Bench” and others go talk with them / invite them to play / join their game / etc etc. Thus no one is a “cipher” - a zero, a nothing! That’s why I love this film.
“Johnny Lingo”
“Johnny Lingo” is one of my favourite shirt films which I would show to my students in the past and to show to my own kids with its rude lines by the father, Moki, who says to his daughter, “Mahanna, you ugly, get down!” and at the end he says to Johnny, “You cheat me, you cheat me. She’s worth 10 cows if she’s worth a hoof!” because he is only interested in what’s in it for himself. He actually was not interested in his daughter‘s value.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don’t get hung up on this Polynesian culture of bargaining for a wife, as it’s a metaphor for her perceived value in their village. Instead the point Is that what the woman thinks of her own value and when the women gather at the well then they brag, lI’m a five cow wife.” What does the woman who’s only bought for two or three cows feel about her value? Well, she knows that she’s lesser value in society. We do this same comparison in our modern society whether it’s living in a bigger house, having a bigger diamond ring, having a fancier car, having the most chic clothing made by designer brands, etc etc. I mean you see this online all the time: buy this product because then you’ll be more popular! Order this product and you’ll be regarded as more important but really what really matters is what a person feels about themselves. How do they feel and that is the point of the cows! Also, you can tell at the wedding how those teasing boys were teasing the newlyweds:
“John Lingo had 8 cows; traded for an ugly wife; Johnny Lingo sorry now; he’ll be sorry all his life!” Then Mahanna started crying and then the newlyweds left in their boat from their own wedding feast! She had to leave that toxic village that labelled her so cruelly. When the beautiful hand mirror was opened up in the Shop by Mr. Harris, his employee Tulu teased how “Mahanna‘s face will crack the glass!” Tulu as well as others had labelled her as ugly and lazy just as Cliff Evans was labelled in “Cipher in the Snow.”
Johnny Lingo had told the Father Moki and the shopkeeper that they would be gone for a long time because he knew what he had to do. He said that he had loved Mahanna since they were children. He always saw behind the label. He always saw the real Mahanna and how beautiful she was to him.
It wasn’t until they went to the other islands when he would introduce Mahanna, that they would know her as an eight cow wife. Of course they would regard her with great honour until you know she became the beautiful person who she always was meant to be.
Sidebar conversation: I was in grade 9 at a school that wasn’t supportive and was quite toxic, and for Gr. 10, I left and went to a different school which was much better and not toxic. I too had to leave to. go to the other “island” (different school). This is what’s so good in Regina that we have a choice: we can go to a different school snd can find different people and we can get out of a toxic area,
Thus, the bottom line is: what do you feel about yourself? I love the ending when Johnny Lingo pronounces: “I wanted Mahanna to be an 8-cow woman!
The point is to believe in your own worth and not to listen to the ruckus personality of toxic people.
There will always be people who want to pull you down to elevate themselves! That’s on them! You go do your thing, you be you! This is why I love “Johnny Lingo”. It’s just filled with such metaphors about personal self-worth! Watch the short film and see for yourself! Enjoy!
Signing off, Julie, also an 8-Cow woman!
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