Threshold

An intimate autobiographical documentary from Brazilian filmmaker Coraci Ruiz following the revelation that her eldest teenager Noah, then 15-years-old, was having doubts about their gender identity. Realizing that she would have to deal with a new and highly challenging theme, she started filming with Noah’s permission. This was her way of approaching her son and trying to understand what was happening.

From 2016 to 2019 she interviews Noah, addressing the conflicts, certainties and uncertainties that pervade him during this deep identity search. At the same time, Coraci also goes through her own process of transformation by breaking old paradigms, facing fears and dismantling prejudices required by the situation that life presents her with. The beginning of her son’s questioning and transition process coincides with a legal-parliamentary coup that, by means of an impeachment, removed former President Dilma Roussef of Brazil from power. Thus, the period in which the film was produced is marked by a conservative breakthrough, an authoritarian upsurge and great oppression of minorities, taken as enemies by President Jair Bolsonaro.

The film brings forward an experience that welcomes conflicts but is positive, that leaves the register of suffering, pain, misunderstanding, and vulnerability. It is an exercise in letting go of your certainties.