Private Project

Talk To Me

Alone and isolated, a girl retreats into her interior life. As her world closes in, her fantasies give her an escape, but will she get lost between what is real, what is not, who is there for her and who isn’t.

  • Maia DeCamillo
    Director
  • Maia DeCamillo
    Writer
  • Maia DeCamillo
    Producer
  • WallsComeDown
    Producer
  • Maia DeCamillo
    Key Cast
    "Theodora"
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    5 minutes 30 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 30, 2021
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Maia DeCamillo

Maia DeCamillo is Actor, Writer, Filmmaker and Artist, based in London.

Maia studied at Central Saint Martins and works across the arts and film world. She has worked professionally as an actor for over 10 years. Her work has been featured on ShowStudio, and showcased as part of the London Design Biennale at Somerset House. Maia has also been shortlisted for the Vault Festival New Writing Award.

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Director Statement

Talk To Me was first conceived as a play script, in 2019. However during the lockdown of 2020, I began to develop this into a short film, utilising the limited resources I had available to me and working with family members to bring it to fruition. This piece is an experiment in narrative filmmaking, evolving as both a character study and world-building exercise.

I wanted to explore ideas of identity, and the disparity between one’s exterior and interior life. I wanted to create a character who is trying to play out the persona she aspires to, while attempting to redefine who she is and how she interacts with the world.

In the film, the protagonist, Theodora, has so far had her life dictated to her by others. However, suddenly finding herself alone and unburdened, her longing for affection and admiration becomes warped in the world she has created inside her head.

In some ways quite abstract and stylised, within the short time-frame of this film we remain on the exterior of this fantasy. We view her experience in the absurdist space between her life as it is and the one she is trying to project.

The film deals greatly with the artifice, and idea of what is real and what constitutes a person’s reality. On its surface it may seem quite contrived, but at it’s heart is a portrait of a young woman’s search for selfhood and belonging.