Meet Nicole Vanden Broeck: Film Director & Writer

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

Hi Nicole, what role has risk played in your life or career?
Starting from the fact that being an artist is already a risk in the capitalist world we live in, I think risks are always present in a filmmaker’s life. From convincing your family that you can also make a living out of your passion and not only from a 9 to 5 office job, to actually generating a career in the industry in order to make that living and somehow find a way to build your life around it. These are risks not everybody can or is willing to take, so it’s definitely a privilege to have the possibility to even consider being a filmmaker, but there are also a few sacrifices to be made in order to pull the dream off. Sometimes it also means time apart from your loved ones, missing out on moments you didn’t plan to, facing economic constraints or taking a longer time to reach the financial stability you aimed to have by the age of 30. And once you become a filmmaker, it doesn’t necessarily get any easier. Everyday you create hoping that the stories you’re putting out into the world will resonate with someone, will speak to people. There’s no certainty, no biweekly salary, no punched card indicating your day has started or that it’s over, no distinction between weekdays and weekends. There’s only willingness and dreams. But if after all the tiredness, sweat and tears you still find yourself excited to be there, then every risk is worth taking.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m interested in telling intimate and grounded stories about complex female characters who struggle with their own identity at a crucial moment in their lives and must come to terms with who they are in order to find what they’re looking for. I was born in Mexico and grew up going to Catholic school. When I was fifteen, I found out that my German Jewish great-grandparents had to change their last name and religion in order to escape WWII and come to America. So I was supposed to be a Jewish Levy, instead of a Catholic Vanden Broeck. I wasn’t sure what that really meant, but shortly after I decided I wanted to change to a secular school. I couldn’t do much about the Dutch last name, though. When I started to attend a liberal high school and met people from different backgrounds, religions, cultures and sexual preferences, I realized I was very far from knowing who I was. And I think that is our most important journey as humans, to question and be open enough to rethink certain aspects of our lives. To get out of our comfort zone and wonder. So when it comes to filmmaking, I gravitate towards exploring what may seem to be a small moment of realization, but that is big enough to change someone’s life. From a young boy experiencing guilt after stealing a bean, to a teenage girl struggling to express her feelings towards her best friend, or a recently divorced mother trying to connect with her daughter through the resignification of their first holiday apart.

What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way?
I think the most important lesson I’ve learned is to believe in my voice. Of course it’s important to always leave room for constructive self-criticism and improvement, but it is also crucial to never walk away from what you want to say in order to fit in some sort of mold of what people, industries or institutions think things should be. If you doubt the core of your story and your capacity to tell it, then that story will never be seen. Because even if we’ve been telling stories since we can remember and we are not reinventing the wheel here, we all experience things from our own lens and intersectionality. So if you don’t have the courage to put it out there, to put your point of view of the world and yourself on the screen, no one else will be able to.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Let’s see, eating in LA. I would say breakfast at Gjusta, Sqirl or All Time. Lunch at Petit Trois, hand rolls at KanzuNori or this amazing Vietnamese restaurant called Blossom. Definitely Salt & Straw ice cream! Maybe a drink at Mignon Wine & Cheese Bar and some dancing at The Virgil or The Short Stop. For touristic purposes, I guess the Griffith Park and Observatory is a safe spot. The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema experience is always fun to watch something. A walk through Venice Beach all the way to Santa Monica Pier to add a little bit of ocean into the mix. A visit to the Getty, MOCA or LACMA museum on a free day. And lastly Amoeba Music is always worth the trip! Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Even though it was not easy to convince my parents that I wanted to study film in college, once I graduated and co-founded an independent production company back in Mexico City, I guess they saw I had enough determination for it. So they supported me in pursuing an MFA in Directing at the American Film Institute. And thanks to that support, as well as a scholarship from the Mexican National Fund for Culture and the Arts, I was able to move to Los Angeles to attend one of the best graduate film programs in the world and have the opportunity to work with people from all over the globe. And I will always be grateful for that. Especially because at AFI I met some of my best friends and collaborators, with whom I’m currently developing some of my upcoming projects.

Website: https://www.nicolevandenbroeck.com/

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

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-vanden-broeck-4a321235/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/nicolevbm

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicole.vb.13/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHeIyC5301P-WKNbJY2I8_Q

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

Image Credits
Mathieu Seguin, David Márquez, Guido Raimondo, Alex Z. Reynaud, András Roder.