Abstract

A golden lamb sleeps peacefully in a quiet meadow, showcased in an intricate golden frame. She wakes up and slowly begins to stand, her knobby knees trembling all the way up. She steadies herself, turning toward the viewer, blinking. Catherine looks at her reflection in a grimy sink full of water. The sink drips, reflection dissipating. She looks up into the mirror above the sink in an endless bathroom, tucks a loose curl of hair back into her habit, and exits the bathroom. Catherine makes her way down a long spiral staircase, humming a hymn to herself. In the kitchen, Catherine helps prepare breakfast with her much older sisters, scoring a cross into balls of fresh dough arranged on a baking sheet. Catherine pours holy water into the receptacle at the back of the church, peering at her reflection as it appears while the water settles. She dips her finger in, her reflection vanishing, and signs the cross before walking through the pews. Her sisters are already sitting, their statures a lot larger than Catherine’s, and she makes her way to a seat. Catherine prays quietly, looking up at the large crucifix above the altar. She startles when the door of the confessional slams behind her, and a nearby sister reaches toward her to caress her cheek. Catherine takes her sister’s hand tenderly. At bedtime, Catherine is praying at her bed in an endless bedroom. Sliding into her sheets and opening her bible, she is interrupted by a rustling at the other end of the room, gasping and falling from her bed when something rushes toward her under the covers of her sisters’ made beds. Looking up after the room falls silent, Catherine is met with empty sheets. She tucks the hair fallen from her bonnet back into place and climbs back into bed. A lamb appears in her dreams, bloody and bound by a rope, crying out in fear and pain. Catherine jolts awake, her sisters sleeping soundly in their beds in the dark room. Catherine clutches her rosary tightly between her hands. Her sisters leave the room when 3 morning comes, Catherine having not slept. Catherine scores more buns, the dough in more disarray than previously. She’s then pulling weeds in the garden, struggling when one finally snaps and Catherine falls back, the weed’s roots catching on her skirt. She attempts to kick it away but it transforms into a hand, gripping her leg in Catherine’s struggle. Eventually Catherine falls, sobbing into her habit, and the hand scratches deeply into her leg before retreating. Catherine collects herself, touching her wound and peering into the hole the weed came from, then fixing her hair. She showers, the blood from her wound mixing with water and running into the drain. That night she sees the lamb again, on the verge of being sacrificed, a hand holding the lamb down as she cries. Catherine is scoring more dough in the kitchen, this time sloppily slicing a pile of unmixed flour and water on the table. She enters the dark confessional, kneeling and clutching her rosary. The Priest behind the screen doesn’t answer her until she is distressed, a bloodstain appearing on her skirt, and she is accused of doubting God and having a fragile belief in Him. She agrees. Catherine bathes, her blood mixing with water and spiraling into the drain. Catherine’s bed is empty that night, her blood staining the sheets. She runs through the corridors of the convent, blood staining her path, and she collapses at the altar of the church. She’s met with another vision of herself cradling the dead lamb, and the door opens behind her, spilling light into the church. She turns, blinking into it, then runs through the pews, interrupted by one of her sisters and thrown down onto a rock. The empty, golden frame appears. Catherine lay naked on the bloodied rock, her sisters crowding around her as her heart is harvested from her body. She sees a light above her glow bright and welcoming. As she takes her last breath, her sisters cradle her heart gently, glowing bright and golden in their hands. One of her sisters tenderly brushes her hair out of her face before they turn and leave Catherine’s husk at the edge of the cliff.

Publication Date

12-14-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Film and Animation (MFA)

Department, Program, or Center

Film and Animation, School of

College

College of Art and Design

Advisor

mari jaye blanchard

Advisor/Committee Member

Christine Banna

Advisor/Committee Member

Vanessa Sweet

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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