Limina

Limina

by Joshua M. Ferguson & Florian Halbedl (Canada 2016), 15’, v.o.english, sub. Italian

For the last thirteen days eight-year old Alessandra has been watching a mourning woman’s attempt to light a specific candle in the town’s small church. Every time the woman tries to light her candle, however, she realizes that her candle already flickers. During a brief and first encounter, Alessandra proves to the woman that the candle has indeed been burning ever since she lit it the first time almost two weeks ago by showing her polaroid pictures documenting the number of burning candles on the stand.  The church’s priest lectures Alessandra about not disturbing the sanctity of the space and Alessandra recalls a previous conversation with their mother about places people look for guidance. The priest also make a point about boys not wearing girls’ dresses, to which Alessandra has the perfect rebuttal.

On a new day Alessandra runs into Mr. Gibbs an elderly war veteran who is expecting a letter from a long-lost love and also witnesses the mourning woman paying her respects to her recently deceased son at the town’s cemetery.

Alessandra continues to document the mourning woman’s visits and the candle stand in the church. On her forty-seventh day of mourning, the mourning woman has a realization that will shape the rest of Alessandra’s life as well as her own.

The end of Limina finds Alessandra on a new mission, in an attempt to heal the loneliness of war veteran Mr. Gibbs.

Directors Biography 

Joshua M. Ferguson is a non-binary trans (they/them/their) filmmaker, writer and activist born in Brantford, Canada and raised in the small town of Napanee, Canada. Joshua received their B.A. Hons. in Film Studies at Western University and their M.A. in Film Studies and Ph.D. at the University of British Columbia and is a recipient of two Canada Graduate Scholarships from SSHRC. Joshua’s research focuses on highlighting non-binary trans people with popular culture, media and autoethnography. They are developing their research into a book. Joshua’s written work has been featured in the Huffington Post, BuzzFeed and OUT Magazine. Joshua is also the first person in Ontario to publicly apply for a non-binary birth certificate. With producing and directing partner, Florian Halbedl, Joshua has made two short films to date: the award-winning Whispers of Life (2013) and Limina (2016), which has made history for trans inclusivity in the film and TV history and is being exhibited at festivals worldwide in 2017.” In addition to Henry’s Heart, Joshua is currently working with Florian to develop a feature-length dramatic fiction film and a feature-length documentary.

Florian Halbedl was born in Luzern, Switzerland and moved to Canada as a teenager. While studying Medical Sciences at the University of Western Ontario, he shot his first short film for a Vertebrate Biology class and ended up graduating with a double major in Film Studies and Medical Sciences and received a B.A. in 2009. Florian has worked as an assistant director on shows including Godzilla, Wayward Pines, Into the Forest, Warcraft, and Shut Eye. In 2013 Florian wrote and directed Turbid Lake Pictures’ first short film Whispers of Life. The film, produced by Joshua M. Ferguson, screened at over twenty film festivals around the world, won jury and audiences awards and was nominated for Best Short Film 2014 by the Directors Guild of Canada. Turbid Lake Pictures’ second short film Limina (written by Florian and directed by both Florian and Joshua) is slated for festival release in 2017. Florian works with Joshua, under the Turbid Lake Pictures banner, to write, develop, produce and direct short and feature film projects.