Céline Roustan
Corey is not doing ok! She spends all her time looking after others, while no one actually seems to notice the pain she’s in. Something’s gotta give. In Keep It Quiet, writer/director Yaya explores themes of depression and suicidality, through its main character’s struggles with mental health. By depicting her experience in a subtle yet emotionally engaging manner, the filmmaker sensitively tackles a weighty subject, whilst ensuring the audience can empathize and relate to the issues at hand.
Although the idea of creating a narrative dealing with these topics was at the forefront of Yaya’s creative process, it was in fact the on-screen depiction of suicidal characters that proved most inspirational in the development of Keep It Quiet. Recognising that these traits tended to be presented in a quite cliché fashion prompted the writer/director to bring a fresh perspective to the story, one more grounded in reality and which avoided the usual pitfalls in representing these characteristics.
“Veterinarians commit suicide at a rate 2-3 times higher than an average American” – Yaya explains why the film’s central character had to have a very specific profession.
Then, after a long research process, Yaya uncovered prevailing feelings from testimonies of suicide survivors that were key elements in building the character of Corey: “the feeling of isolation a suicidal person experiences even when surrounded by people, the tunnel vision and the urge of suicidality, and finally a need not so much to kill themselves as to enact a ritual of death, ultimately putting an end to seemingly endless pain”. The fact that the film’s main character is a veterinarian adds an extra level of authenticity to the piece, as the profession has a high suicide rate, compared to others.
In fact, the way the character of Corey is written, she feels like she could be someone we know, someone from real-life. The dynamics of her relationships, with family or at work, all subtly reflect both her loneliness and pain, while also showing the kind of person she is. All of which works to ultimately serve the narrative by increasing audience engagement. Alone, those sometimes very short interactions could feel insignificant, but as we piece them together they feel more and more like a psychological death by a thousand cuts.
Yaya also made some aesthetic choices which go against the often bleak imagery we are used to seeing in films dealing with mental illness. The heaviness of the topic is built with more subtle and immersive visual tools, such as the ratio and the framing of the shots. The space Corey occupies in the frame, and the composition of others truly echo her feeling of isolation. The sound design also plays an important part in immersing us in her experience. Through a minimalistic score, the film stays in a very realistic tone, while also allowing us to feel a numbness to the outside world.
Rusty Schwimmer’s performance as Corey is a key element in ensuring the story is successful
While benefiting from Yaya’s fresh and grounded approach, the film does rely heavily on our investment in Corey and thankfully Rusty Schwimmer’s performance is simply breathtaking. She instantly makes her character magnetizing, navigating her strength and her vulnerabilities with an impressive sensitivity. Her character’s battle with depression always feels genuine, never manipulative and she fleshes out Corey in a way that the audience never feels cheap pity for her, but instead empathize with her inner struggle.
Keep it Quiet won Best Live Action Short at the 35th Warsaw Film Festival, it was also selected at the Palm Springs ShortFest ahead of its online premiere here on S/W. Yaya is currently writing a comedic TV pilot, while also being at the writing stage of two short films, hoping to go into production on one soon.