Serene Meshel-Dillman is a New York native and dancer with a passion for the visual arts. She attended The School of American Ballet, Tenafly High School then The University of Vermont. Post graduation, she opted out of law school, worked at an advertising agency in New York and then moved to Los Angeles to work in television commercial production.
Her directorial debut, “Getting to The Nutcracker”, (www.Gettingtothenutcracker.com) is a feature-length documentary showing a behind-the-scenes view from auditions to performances of the herculean effort the dancers, their teachers and families go through each year to produce the classic ballet. The film won a Grand Jury Prize, two Best Documentary Feature awards, Best Direction and was selected as one of ten films to New York’s First Time Fest on the 2015 festival circuit.
Her second documentary feature, “The 5th Dementia”, (www.The5thDementiaDocumentary.com) released in 2019 by Confiscated Film, is about a band made up of people living with Alzheimer’s, Dementia and Parkinson’s who still experience joy from singing and playing music despite their diseases.
Both films were produced by Serene’s husband, Ray and are distributed through Gravitas Ventures. They live in Santa Monica with a dog, a cat, a lizard and 3 (mostly grown) kids.