Keep It Quiet

Yaya’s KEEP IT QUIET follows a charming veterinarian named Corey who keeps her depression a secret from everyone around her. As Corey starts to lose her grip, her cat becomes an unlikely foil to her suicide attempts. What drew me to KEEP IT QUIET more than anything was its quietly powerful examination of depression, which transcends the tired tropes we’ve come to expect in suicide narratives. The film expertly pulls us into the tunnel vision of Corey’s suicidal thoughts with its foreboding camerawork and immersive soundscapes, as she's continually disrespected by her family and bogged down by the weight of her job. It all makes for a uniquely experiential depiction of depression that I haven’t seen on film before; one that illustrates how often it hides in plain sight, right beneath the facades and pleasantries of everyday life. Between its sneakily dark humor and a magnetic central performance from Rusty Schwimmer, KEEP IT QUIET is both a promising debut for Yaya and a compelling shift in the way we depict mental illness in film. It won Best Live Action Short at the 35th Warsaw Film Festival, and had its US premiere at Palm Springs ShortFest last year.

—Neal Mulani, Executive Assistant