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

Hi Nicole, is there a quote or affirmation that’s meaningful to you?
My favorite affirmation and one that I’ve been using for over ten years is “Hold the vision, trust the process.” I love that it can be used for almost any endeavor! As a creative person, it’s one that I use constantly especially when it feels like things are not working out.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’m the founder and executive director of a film festival recently renamed “Los Angeles Dance Film Festival”! We just finished our 6th year and it has been really cool to observe the subtle changes and growth of the film festival over the years. We’re a nonprofit organization with the goal to provide more opportunities for filmmakers and dancers within the dance film/screendance genre. We receive short dance films from around the world! The current curatorial team consists of Olivia Mia Orozco, Nadav Heyman, and myself, we view the films with much thought and care and it’s always hard to make the final decisions.

As a fairly young film festival and as artists ourselves that have attended film festivals, we try to create a festival that we ourselves would enjoy and are always coming up with ideas that would improve that experience! We’ve met some amazing people throughout the years and love the community that we are building! Our mission is to “gather creators and lovers of screendance in one place to celebrate dance film and inspire each other”.

LA Dance Film Festival screened fourteen eclectic dance films at the annual film festival in November with a great turnout! We’re a hybrid film festival with an in-person event and a week-long virtual program. We also held a filmmaker talk/Q&A on Zoom with filmmakers that participated from all over the world.

Some other highlights of the year was a collaboration in September with the California Heritage Museum in Santa Monica, we screened twelve dance films made by local filmmakers at our “Dance Films On The Lawn” event. Another amazing opportunity was a collaboration with StandardVision, one of the films was presented with an award by the StandardVision team at the film festival in November. An excerpt of the chosen film was screened on a large-scale media facade outside of the Marriott at LA Live in downtown Los Angeles for a week in December!

We’re looking forward to organizing more screenings and hopefully commissioning work, dance film workshops, and talks for the community in the near future!

If you’re a dance film enthusiast please attend in 2023! We would love to meet you!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I moved to Culver City a couple of years ago, I hadn’t spent much time in the area prior to moving. It’s been fun to explore the different areas and learn the history of the city!

If I were to show someone around Culver City for the day, We would probably start off at Village Well Books & Coffee, after which we would head to the lovely Stoneview Nature Center for a stroll. In the evening we would head back to downtown Culver City, and grab some food from one of the many vegan or vegan-friendly restaurants.

I have two young children so the rest of the night would consist of hanging out on the stairs, racing down the grass hill next to the Culver Hotel, playing at the lion fountain, sitting with the statue of Mr. Culver and his family, and getting ice cream!

I also love the Platform and the Arts District.

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?
Shoutout and huge thank you to the LA Dance Film Festival’s 2022 Board, Olivia Mia Orozco, Nadav Heyman, Alyssa Thompson, and Steven Butler for contributing in many ways and for wearing multiple hats this year!

Olivia Mia Orozco for being a great film festival co-director! We’ve been working together for the last four years and she always adds something extra special to events!

My husband, Joubin for his unwavering support.

Website: ladancefilmfest.com

Instagram: @ladancefilmfest

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LADanceFilmFest

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ladancefilmfest

Other: Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/ladancefilmfest

Image Credits
Anthony Anastasi, Mo Summers, Event Images Curtesy of LA Dance Film Festival

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