Our campaign is now Indemand - please consider making a contribution today to help us cover post-production costs! You can view our second campaign here that has ended for an additional video about the project: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/limina-a-short-film-final-production-campaign/x/470726#/

Welcome to the Indiegogo campaign for the short film project Limina!

Our last short film, Whispers of Life, screened around the world at 21 film festivals, won 3 audience awards, a jury award, has international and Canadian distribution and was nominated for the Directors Guild of Canada Best Short Film 2014 award!

But, what is Limina about and how can you help?

We hope you enjoyed our pitch video. Please proceed to read details below about Limina’s story, cultural relevance, crew, and information about our budget. Kindly consider contributing to our special and important film. Join us on this exciting journey!

*The main character of Limina, Alessandra, will be referred to using the gender-neutral pronouns: they/them/their throughout this description.

A magical gender-fluid child named Alessandra who, led by innocence and intuition, is so curious about the lives of the inhabitants of a small picturesque town that they decide to play an active part in an unknown woman’s mourning process.

Limina (plural form of ‘Limen’ – Latin for ‘threshold’) is a dramatic fiction short film that represents the colorful and magical portrayal of a gender-fluid child (around 8 years old) at the center of a story that inspires compassion, kindness and the understanding that children, too, have voices that deserve to be heard.

BACKGROUND:

In North America and other areas of the world, transgender has become an umbrella term for a diverse array of trans identities that relate to one’s gender identity and gender expression. It could be problematic to assert a trans identity onto Alessandra because they do not identify as transgender within the narrative. Alessandra’s gender fluidity and gender-nonconformity is similar to some forms of transgender subjectivity and children must be given space and freedom to explore their gender or genders in order to self-identify.

This isn’t to say that all gender-fluid children eventually identify with a trans identity, but we hope that Limina will encourage parents and families NOT to police children’s genders.

WHY MAKE A MOVIE THAT FEATURES A GENDER-FLUID CHILD AS THE PROTAGONIST?

"Call Me Tree" is a recent children’s book that doesn’t contain any gender specific pronouns. Maya Christina Gonzalez (the author), states that “gender conformity is one of the leading causes of bullying and can have long lasting, even tragic consequences.” Gonzalez wrote the book because by “beginning early and sharing age appropriate books that help kids see through gender assumptions, gender creative kids can relax and trust that they are perfectly natural and valuable. And kids who are cisgender (where sex and gender align according to normative expectations) can know that they are part of a larger picture of natural diversity. This sets the stage for more learning about diversity and inclusion as they develop and helps dismantle gender based bullying before it begins.”

So, similar to Gonzalez, the goal for Limina is to make a cultural intervention by adding a positive cinematic example to the emerging discussion about gender-fluid/gender-creative/gender-nonconforming kids and parenting. Both gender-fluid/gender-creative/gender-nonconforming kids and cisgender kids will watch this film and learn about tolerance and acceptance. It will also help gender-fluid/gender-creative/gender-nonconforming kids to feel appreciated and less alone!

IS THIS TOPIC REALLY THAT IMPORTANT? WHY HAVEN’T I HEARD ABOUT IT BEFORE NOW?

Recent examples of gender-fluid/gender-creative/gender-nonconforming in popular culture:

"Chasing Rainbows: Exploring Gender Fluid Parenting" is an anthology of edited papers by scholars and parents of gender-nonconforming/gender-creative/gender-fluid kids inspired by:

A high-profile example of gender-fluid/gender-creative/gender-nonconforming kids is the family in Toronto sparked a media frenzy after being featured in a May 2011 article in the Toronto Star because they decided to raise their children genderless. The Toronto Star story became the most read online article in its history (80k hits on the first day of publication). Kathy Witterick and David Stocker enabled their children, Storm, to be gender-fluid/gender-creative/gender-nonconforming rather than attempting to police their genders. The Toronto couple wants their children to share their genders when the time is right.

David Burtka and Neil Patrick Harris recently wrote a foreword to a book about the importance of gender-fluid/gender-creative/gender-nonconforming parenting entitled Raising My Rainbow by Lori Duron.

The Telegraph in the UK recently wrote an article by Radhika Sanghani about Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s child, Shiloh that eventually made headlines around the world. Shiloh prefers to be called ‘John’ and is an example of the type of gender-fluidity that occurs during childhood that may or may not develop into a trans identity.

An article in the New York Times in 2012 by Ruth Padawer explored the “trend” of gender-fluid/gender-creative/gender-nonconforming kids and parenting (note: this article is problematic due to a lack of comprehensive research, but it still raised significant discussion about this topic).

OK, BUT WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN? WHAT IS GENDER, THEN?

Gender is not a binary (oppositional poles of identification as the only option). 

Gender is more of a spectrum and children often realize this organically at a young age.

An article written by Carrie Kilman entitled “The Gender Spectrum” in the Teaching Tolerance encapsulates this best in relation to the topic of gender-fluid/gender-noncomforming/gender-creative kids.

Kilman notes the two myths about gender:

1) Gender is binary, offering only two options

2) Gender and sex are conflated and the same thing

So, the majority of people believe that “every person is either male or female, and the distinction is based on that person’s anatomy.” However, gender is more of a spectrum rather than the narrow notion of man/male/masculine and woman/female/feminine.

BUT, WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? HOW WILL LIMINA MAKE A DIFFERENCE BY FEATURING A GENDER-FLUID CHILD CHARACTER?

Kilman discusses a gender-fluid/gender-creative/gender-nonconforming kid in their article named Alex who is a fourth-grader in Madison, Wisconsin. “Alex feels most comfortable chucking pronouns altogether. Alex’s preferred gender descriptor is gender fluid.”

The author notes important statistics related to the experiences that gender-fluid/gender-creative/gender-nonconforming face: “a plethora of binary gender expectations in school,” which results in serious and sometimes violent ramifications. Compared to cisgender children (where their sex and gender line up according to societal normativity), gender-fluid/gender-creative/gender-nonconforming kids face: increased rates of bullying, assault depression, school drop-out, drug abuse, self-harm, and suicide (see image below).

Contribute to this film and help us share this important cultural intervention.

The primary target audience for Limina will be children, young adults and adults interested in and entertained by the wisdom and maturity found, sometimes surprisingly, in young children.

There are two specific niche markets that Limina will fall into:

CHILDREN’S FILMS

Children’s films are often animated and forego live-action. Limina will be a high-quality HD live-action film that connects with the niche market of children’s films, family films and youth films. Children’s and family film festivals are increasing and educational distributors are seeking high-quality content for children and young adults. Independent filmmakers rarely work in this genre, so there is a market in need for good content.

LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans*) FILMS

LGBT audiences will also find interest in Limina because the main character is gender-fluid. Gender-fluid kids are rarely represented in cinema, so this will connect with a niche market in gay, lesbian and trans film festivals.

Your donations will help us cover these general pre-production, production and post-production costs:

Pre-Production (Preparation)

• production insurance (location, cast, crew and equipment)
• cast travel and accommodations

Production (Shooting of the Film)

• cast fees and crew honoraria
• equipment rental (camera, electrics, grips, sound, props etc.)
• costumes, hair and makeup expenses
• catering
• location fees and permits
• set construction
• transportation expenses

• editing, colour timing, graphic design
• sound design
• composer fees
• marketing, promotional and festival expenses

FLORIAN HALBEDL DIRECTOR | PRODUCER | WRITER

In 2012 Florian Halbedl founded Turbid Lake Pictures with Joshua M. Ferguson. He wrote and directed the award-winning short film Whispers of Life in 2013. The film played at twenty-one film festivals around the world and won numerous awards, including Festival Favorite at the Palm Springs Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Best Canadian GLBTTQ* Short Film Audience Choice and Jury Choice Awards at Reel Pride Winnipeg Film Festival and was nominated for the Directors Guild of Canada Best Short Film 2014 Award. He holds a B.A. from the University of Western Ontario with a double major in Film Studies and Medical Sciences. Florian worked as an assistant director on network television shows and features some of which include ABC’s The Whispers and Once Upon a Time, Fox’s Wayward Pines, Patricia Rozema’s Into the Forest and Duncan Jones’ highly-anticipated Warcraft. He is currently working on a dramatic period feature script as well as adapting his science fiction short film script Mosaics into a feature film. He was born and raised in Switzerland and resides in Vancouver, Canada with his spouse Joshua M. Ferguson and their two cats Rex and Vael. 

JOSHUA M. FERGUSON DIRECTOR | PRODUCER

Joshua M. Ferguson founded Turbid Lake Pictures with Florian Halbedl in 2012. Joshua identifies as non-binary transgender and has a vision to ignite global change using cinema to make critical cultural interventions for marginalized and oppressed people. They hold a B.A. Hons in Film Studies from Western University and an M.A. in Film Studies from the University of British Columbia. Joshua is a current Doctoral Candidate in the Institute of Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice at the University of British Columbia. They are the recipient of two Canada Graduate Scholarships from SSHRC, for both MA and PhD research. Joshua recently produced the multiple award-winning short film Whispers of Life (2013). Whispers of Life was screened internationally at 21 film festivals, was nominated for a Directors Guild of Canada Best Short Film 2014 Award and has Canadian and International distribution. Joshua is currently developing a feature-length documentary film about non-binary transgender subjects and a short fiction drama set in a magical European village about an intuitive gender fluid child who acts as a spirit guide to fellow villagers. Joshua believes that “Film can act as a beacon of hope for those struggling with being marginalized while simultaneously deploying ways to expand awareness in a global landscape that participates in exclusionary forms ideas of cinematic representation.”

CHERYL MARION PRODUCTION DESIGNER

Cheryl Marion has been working as an Art Director in Vancouver’s film and television industry for over fifteen years on shows including, but not limited to, Smallville, The L Word, A Single Shot and ABC’s hit television show Once Upon a Time for which she shared a Best Production Design nomination in 2012 with the show’s Production Designer at the Online Film & Television Association. She has also worked on shows such as Blade: Trinity, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Sucker Punch, Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol and most recently Tim Burton’s Big Eyes. Cheryl’s talents also include Architectural and Interior Design and she holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Alberta and a diploma in Interior Design from Dawson College.

BARBARA UNTERNAEHRER COSTUME DESIGNER

Barbara graduated as a dressmaker in 2006 and then moved to Rome where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (First class honours) in Costume Design in 2010. 
Her professional experience includes working in cinema and theatre as a costume assistant, stand-by on set and on costume embellishments. Barbara had the chance to work with some of the best Italian costume designers: on Gianni Quaranta’s lyric Opera "Carmen" for the ROH in Muscat, on Carlo Carlei’s "Romeo and Juliet" costume designed by Carlo Poggioli and co-produced by Milena Canonero and on Franco Zeffirelli’s Opera "Don Juan" costume designed by Maurizio Millenotti. 
She also lived in the UK, where she worked with the "Matrix" trilogy creators Lana and Andy Wachowski on the sci-fi movie "Jupiter Ascending," doing mainly costume embellisments and set costuming. She also worked as a costume maker on the Starz TV series "Outlander." 
Her fantastic sketches and design can be seen at: www.barbaracostume.com

MIKE BANAS EDITOR

Mike Banas is a film and television editor who has worked in post production since 1995. Born in Toronto and educated in Montreal, Mike moved to Vancouver in the mid 1990′s and began working at MGM Television. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles. Not tied to any particular genre, his credits are quite diverse. Mike has edited: science fiction, action, comedies, dramas, and police procedurals. He has worked in most formats: half hour sit-coms, hour long episodic, MOW’s, mini-series, and feature films. His extensive experience allows him to bring a great deal to a collaboration and is not without opinion at every step of the process.Growing up in the Hardcore Punk scene of the 1980′s, Mike has led an interesting life. Among other things, he worked in Iceland gutting fish, been a human guinea pig, and edited a kung fu mini-series in China. His experiences have allowed him to observe people’s interactions in countless situations, which has made him adept at judging performances.

Mike is a member of IATSE, DGC, CCE and ACFC West and has cut shows for the following networks and studios: NBC Universal, Myriad Pictures, ICON, UCP, Paramount, MGM, USA Network, Showtime, The CW, Much Music, Bell Media, Shaw, Spike, Bravo, ThinkFilm, Maple Pictures, Syfy, Showcase, MTV’s Logo, CTV, CBC, Reunion, RHI, and Animal Planet.

ZABRINA MATIRU MAKEUP DESIGNER

Zabrina Matiru is a leader in the field of make-up in the Vancouver film industry. Respected for her unique hybrid talent of working in both FX-makeup and beauty makeup, she is in high demand and has worked on many high-profile TV shows and films. Her recent shows as the Key-Makeup Artist/Makeup Artist include but are not limited to: Supernatural (last 3 seasons), Once Upon a Time, Sucker Punch, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Night at the Museum and Watchmen. Zabrina will contribute to unique creative makeup designs for our characters.