Filmmaker Statement

This film is based on my chronic vocal tic and the story I came up with, as a child, to explain the noises that were coming from me: there is a little man who lives in my belly and likes to shout. The film uses recordings of my tics and various methods of animation to represent the external reality of the main character and the space inside of the main character where the personified tics - the belly talkers live. The main character is first seen in 2D-hand-drawn animation, and as they begin to investigate the noises they're hearing, they enter the world of the belly talkers, which is made of 2-D hand-painted cels placed within a 3-D set. The main character is unable to interact with any of the belly talkers until they face the tangled memories of where the belly talkers came from.