We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dalia Allocca a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Dalia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

After my first year of film school me and a group of friends decided we would make a short film during the summer. We put a lot of work into it, did fundraisers, everything and anything we could to make this project come to life. We gave ourselves three months to prep before shooting in July. I wrote a film about people living life, and just being present. I wanted to create a moment that the audience could enjoy, that I could enjoy. I coproduced the film with my friend Adam Blackie who directed the project. I acted in one of the roles, and after 4 days of shootings our film, Daylilies was finally complete. There was something so surreal about watching the actors say the things I wrote. It was beautiful. Noah Boileau and Polina Lopotova, two of the main actors in a cast of four, did justice to my characters. And after watching the first cut of the film, and seeing something I wrote up on a screen, it made all the hardships of this career worth it.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

There is a part of me that always knew I wanted to pursue an artistic path. Telling stories was my way of self-expression, it is the thing I do best. I remember watching films at a young age and thinking, this is what I want to do. I want to be the person on the screen that young girls watch and think “I want to be an actress, just like her”. To me, acting and writing is an experience. Being able to experience many lives through the characters that I create. It’s beautiful, it’s what I was put on this earth to do. When I was around eleven years old, I begged my mom to sign me up to an acting agency, and at twelve I finally signed with my first agent. I was dedicated to making this work, and so I joined a theatre school in Montreal. I lived and breathed theatre. I went to audition after audition, booked a few gigs here and there. This career has it’s ups and downs. It was difficult for me to get started, but I knew the only way to make it was to preserver. There was a point that I felt like I wasn’t able to find work that spoke to me. I wasn’t auditioning for things that interested me and I had a hard time finding work. I didn’t want to wait around for the opportunity to come. I wanted to find it myself, create it myself. Writing became my main creative outlet at that point. I told myself, if I can’t find work, I’ll make it myself. I started writing stories, and screenplays, things I wanted to be in, things I wanted to see. I created a small blog that I shared online. I got a lot of positive feed back, people really liked my stories. But I wanted more from them, I wanted them to come to life but I didn’t know how. After a few years of struggling, I decided to apply to film school. I had no portfolio or prior experience and with the help of some friends I wrote, directed, produced and acted in my short film, all in 1 month before the deadline and got in. I wanted to learn everything about filmmaking. And after my first year of film school I was able to launch a career in videography and wrote, coproduced and acted in my first short film (Daylilies) in the summer of 2024.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

As an artist, I feel like I create to understand. I have so many questions about the world, so many questions about why things are the way they are. When I write, it’s as if I am trying to understand or discover something. I guess you can say it’s my own form of therapy, but I think there is a lot that people can learn from my writing. We are all human and live unique lives. I want to be able to connect with people and help them feel understood, in the same way that writing and acting makes me feel connected to myself and my own emotions.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The community. Being surrounded by other creatives and artists and being able to work with such talented people everyday. When you find people who are as passionate as you are you feel like there is nothing you can not do. Being able to connect with people through art is such a reward.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.daliaaphotography.com
• Instagram: @wearearte.ca & @crazydalia
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm16502789/

Image Credits

Personal photo by: Suzon Jourdan

Image 1: Dalia Allocca
Image 2: Sienna Jade David
Image 3 (poster): Adam Blackie

Image 4-5-6-7: Film stills from Daylilies