Meet Marie Rouhban | Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Marie Rouhban and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Marie, how do you think about risk?
I come from a risk-averse family: my father was a natural disaster specialist and my mom worked in insurance. If there’s one thing we tried to avoid in our house, it was taking risks! This led me to go down a rather traditional path academically speaking. Despite always being passionate about cinema and wanting to pursue a career in that industry, I went to business school after high school and spent the first 7 years of my professional life working in the corporate world, mostly within marketing and strategy departments.

But as time went by, I could tell it wasn’t fulfilling enough as I was slowly but surely heading toward more creative positions, incorporating as much storytelling and video-making in my everyday life as possible. It was in 2018 that I decided to take action and figure out a way to move to L.A. to pursue movie making. I left my Parisian life and moved here a little over a year ago now to become a movie director.

This was by far the biggest risk I took in my life but without a doubt the best decision I’ve made. I can’t say I’ve changed altogether, that would be a big lie. I still prefer when things are safe and going according to plan. But at this stage, I believe I have a different outlook when an opportunity arises and scares me: I know it’s usually a good sign, for challenge and growth and I don’t automatically run away from it. Risk is scary because it might lead to failure. But failing is learning and that’s why I feel like we should all be embrace risk a little more.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?

I’m still very much trying to figure out what my art and my voice are exactly. I believe this is an ever-lasting process that evolves throughout life. Films are so powerful in the sense that they give us perspective and hindsight that we occasionally overlook but which are helpful in being empathetic. It was always fascinating to me how watching a film for two hours could have such a profound effect on my motivation, beliefs and even purpose. This is what led me to want to pursue a career in the movie industry: to tell stories that could make people see through a different prism and lead to bigger tolerance.

As of now, I’d say I like to tell stories of deeply flawed characters, who have a very strong connection with their inner darker side. I want to portray them in a soft light and present compelling reasons for their oddness as I believe outsiders deserve more exposure. I think going through therapy myself for several years and connecting with my underlying darkness really helped me define the type of stories I wanted to tell.

It’s never easy to create a film that you wrote, it’s as if you’re putting a piece of yourself out there, it’s scary and a highly vulnerable position to be in. But I like to think that it can resonates with someone who needs to hear that message and this is usually what keeps me going: the feeling that this story might help someone accept something odd they’re experiencing. Finding that higher purpose is a good way of overcoming challenges and doubts that come along the way, sort of like a North star guiding you. What matters then is shaping the story that’ll help you deliver that message efficiently.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If we can completely forget about driving for hours and being stuck in heavy traffic, there are little hidden gems everywhere in the city! I live in Santa Monica so I mostly hang out on the West side but here are my all time favorites.

West side favorites:
– Jackson’s Market (Deli) in Culver City
– SOCALO (Mexican food) in Santa Monica
– Oldfield’s Liquor Room (bar) in Palms
– Laemmle Royal (movie theater) in Sawtelle
– Hiking at Malibu (Will Rogers & Topanga)

Favorites beaches:
– Leo Carrillo
– Playa Vista (Marina Del Rey)
– Redondo Beach

Others:
– Little Damage (ice cream) in DTLA
– Grand Central Market in DTLA
– The Broad Museum
– Sidecar Doughnuts & Coffee
– Seeing a musical at the Pantages
– Hiking at Griffith Park
– Book Soup (book shop) in WeHo
– Gracias Madre (Mexican) in WeHo

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’ll split my answer into 2 categories:

– the first one will sound cliché and corny but it’ll definitely have to be my family and friends. I would not have been able to make that move to L.A. without their love and support. Over the years, I was able to create very caring and solid friendships with people who accepted me for who I was: extremely passionate, pretty excessive and slightly weird. I sometimes felt a little bit like the odd one out but for some reason, they always managed to make me feel like I belonged. Leaving them was the most difficult part of my decision but when I started announcing I was moving to L.A., their encouragement was everything I could have hoped for. They believed in me which gave me strength and determination to go on with this career change.
– the second shoutout will sound insane and once again, corny but it’ll have to be to all the filmmakers whose movies inspired me along the way. Whenever I would see a tremendously good film that deeply touched me, I’d ask myself “who are you kidding, why are not not doing this?”. These movies were a constant reminder that there was something else calling me and that I was not at the right place.

Website: www.marierouhban.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marie_rouhban/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marierouhban/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarieRouhban

Image Credits
Lars Kenner, Peeradon Ariyanukooltorn, Charline Messa, Carina Posch and Kevin Boot