2026 poster 'The Talk'Hila Cage Coppola, with permission
Creativity is at the heart of everything Hila Cage Coppola does. Armed with an MBA from NYU, she forged an illustrious career as an entrepreneur and producer before, deep in the throes of solo motherhood during the COVID-19 pandemic, she decided to study film making at Los Angeles Valley College. Her directorial debut The Talk explores the alarming disparities in maternal and infant mortality rates between Black and white women during childbirth and examines the wide social impact of both institutionalized racism and misogyny in the United States. It is an official selection at the 2026 MY HERO International Film Festival.
The film’s narrative centers around a single conversation between a father and his newborn son. What begins as a touching moment takes a sharp turn as it is revealed that the baby was born sleeping. “The strength of the film is not in spectacle,” Cage Coppola told MY HERO, “But in what is unsaid; the emotional truth underneath a simple conversation.” In the US, Black infants are twice as likely to die before their first birthday as white babies, a statistic that has continued even despite the US’ declining infant mortality rate overall (Jang & Lee, 2022). This is, at least in part, owing to disparities across not only healthcare but education, socioeconomic status, and community support. Through the single conversation, Cage Coppola reveals the detrimental and deeply personal impact of such systems. “Sometimes the most devastating place to stage a reckoning,” she explained, “is a quiet room with nowhere to hide.”
Hila Cage CoppolaHila Cage Coppola, with permission
The decision to explore what many might consider to be a ‘women’s issue’ through the lens of a father of son was very much deliberate. “I wanted to show that women’s issues are not only women’s issues,” explains Cage Coppola, “They shape families, sons, fathers, communities, and the moral imagination of everyone.”
As a woman born in Israel to Jewish-Persian parents, Cage Coppola is dedicated to championing underrepresented and minority groups in all aspects of her work. The Talk’s crew was predominantly women and included several artists with disabilities. “The process should reflect the work,” she told MY HERO. “It matters who gets access and it matters who gets trusted.”
Cage Coppola is now working on her first feature script with plans to develop a comedy series. She told MY HERO,
The cast and crew of 'The Talk' stand together post shoot.Hila Cage Coppola, with permission
Without giving away the plot, the story uses humor to explore identity, reinvention, motherhood, power, and the absurd ways people try to survive the lives they accidentally built for themselves. I am drawn to comedy because it can smuggle truth past people’s defenses. Sometimes the only way to tell the truth without getting burned at the stake is to make people laugh first.
On being an Official Selection at the MY HERO International Film Festival, Cage Coppola said,
Being selected by the MY HERO International Film Festival is especially meaningful because it reminds me that heroism is not always clean, loud, or obvious. Sometimes it is a mother stepping into a new industry with no map, or a student picking up a camera and deciding that silence has gotten away with enough.
For me, The Talk represents that decision: to stop letting silence look like peace, and to make work brave enough to disturb what needed disturbing.
Learn more about Hila Cage Coppola:
About the MY HERO International Film Festival
The MY HERO International Film Festival is an annual event dedicated to showcasing films that celebrate the power of the human spirit. The festival provides a platform for filmmakers to share inspirational stories of everyday heroes. Thanks to generous sponsors, prizes are awarded to elementary, middle school, high school, college and professionals in a variety of categories including documentary, narrative, music video, animation, experimental, and more.
The festival aims to inspire audiences to recognize the heroism in their own lives and encourage positive actions in their communities. Learn more.
Page created on 10/22/2026 5:33:40 PM
Last edited 10/22/2026 6:09:33 PM
