Never Have I Ever
(Flavie Pantaleo, 2026)
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Never Have I Ever explores how social media, visibility, and digital culture shape the way people judge each other. Through the speculative idea of a mobile app forcing characters to reveal hidden truths, the film asks “what happens when private lives become public spectacle?”
Inspired by Black Mirror and Nope, the project uses the “what if?” to reflect on contemporary fears surrounding surveillance, exposure, and online judgement. The film focuses less on what is objectively true, and more on how perception shapes reality between individuals. Through tension, fragmentation, and revelations, Never Have I Ever aims to show how quickly people can become trapped by what is seen, shared, and assumed in a society where everything risks becoming spectacle.
This film is produced as part of my practice-based dissertation project.
SYNOPSIS
When Edrea, Nora, and Mallory download a mysterious app to spice up their night, it begins generating invasive dares drawn from their private lives. As the game escalates, their phones become instruments of surveillance and punishment, exposing the truth of hidden privilege, guilt, and silence.
What begins as entertainment quickly turns into a spectacle of judgement, where perception matters more than truth. Through its manipulative system of exposure, the app mirrors a form of justice that claims fairness while ultimately destroying those it condemns.
What begins as entertainment quickly turns into a spectacle of judgement, where perception matters more than truth. Through its manipulative system of exposure, the app mirrors a form of justice that claims fairness while ultimately destroying those it condemns.
CAST
CREW
Editor, Production Design, Digital Marketing
Samuel Poon - Director of Photography, Colorist, Editor
Emily Smith - Assistant Camera & Sparks
Basmalah Mahmoud - Assistant Camera
Ellen Currie - Assistant Camera, BTS Photographer
Yolly Tung - Assistant Director, BTS Photographer
Neill Maxwell - Sound Recordist, Sound Designer
Alicia Fay Brenner - Sound Recordist
Ananya Srivastava - Production Designer, Digital Marketing