Official Selection

USA 2021
Duration: 07:53
Directed by: Kate Renshaw-Lewis
Screenplay: Kate Renshaw-Lewis
Animation: Kate Renshaw-Lewis, Arius Ziaee, Dallas Small
Music: Hayden Waggner
Production/School: California Institute of the Arts

Growing up, I always explained my chronic vocal tic as the man who lives in my belly and likes to scream. Belly Talkers is a 7-minute animation about this man and the ties between tics, memory, and trauma. The film explores what it would be like to interact with the personification of the vocal tic within a world that blends the external reality and the internal metaphysical space of the main character. Recordings of my vocal tics from the past two years are used as dialogue and as the film unravels the connections between the characters, the film’s medium becomes more experimental and tactile, blending 2D and 3D elements.

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