Fresh off her Oscar nominated turn in “Up In the Air” Vera Farmiga’s schedule has quickly filled up and its about to get busier, as she is set make her directorial debut (and star) in the indie film “Higher Ground”. The film is based on Carolyn Brigg‘s memoir “This Dark World” and its set to go in front of cameras in upstate New York in June.
A riveting memoir of one woman’s immersion into Fundamentalist faith and her decision, twenty years later, to leave it all behind.
Carolyn Briggs grew up with modest means in the Iowa heartland. Pregnant at seventeen, married a few months later, by the age of eighteen she found herself living in a trailer with no plans beyond having more babies-until she found Jesus. It began innocently enough-a few minutes lingering on the televangelist stations, a cursory look at the Bible-and soon she had wholly given herself over to a radical, apocalyptic New Testament church. Her daily life was permeated with a sense of the divine-she spent hours a day in prayer and Bible study, wore modest clothing, even braced herself for the Rapture every time she heard trumpet music over the supermarket loudspeaker. It was only when her marriage began to unravel that Carolyn dared to question the religious dogma she had embraced for all of her adult life to date.
Beautifully written and powerfully told, this memoir is a fascinating look at the nature of faith and the inspiring story of one woman’s struggle to find her place in the world.
Farmiga is currently shooting Duncan Jones’ sci-fi film “Source Code,” and is also set to star in Madonna’s sophomore directorial effort “W.E.” which is also slated to shoot this summer. – Scott Ludden