Arielle Nobile joined us this week. She shared with us her journey from wanting to be an actress as a young child and seeking stardom to documentary filmmaking that really gets people talking. She talks about how her films tell different stories of individuals, as couples, or an entire family. She explains that films are a way of telling stories that give people a way into bigger conversations. You don't want to miss this episode.
Guest Co-host: Bonnie Shay: bonnie@mariposaphotoorganizing.com
Bonnie's Website: https://mariposaphotoorganizing.com/
Podcast Guest: Arielle Nobile: arielle@legacyconnectionsfilms.com
Arielle's Websites: https://www.legacyconnectionsfilms.com/
https://www.belongingintheusa.com/
Transcription:
Kris Parsons00:02
Welcome to changing the rules, a weekly podcast about people who are living their best life and how you can figure out how to do it too. Join us with your lively host Ray Loewe, better known as the luckiest guy in the world.
Ray Loewe00:15
Good morning, everybody. This is Ray Loewe and I am the luckiest guy in the world. And I'm sitting here The reason I'm the luckiest guy in the world is I'm sitting here in Woodbury, New Jersey, and Taylor is running this whole show for me, so I don't have to do any work. Alright, our show, changing the rules is all about the luckiest people in the world and how they rebuild their lives under their terms, and then live them to the fullest. And one of the things that they realize is that they have to handle rules easily, and they're not opposed to changing the rules and making them work for them. You know, one of the things about rules is that they tend to dominate our lives. And if we live our lives by other people's rules, we're not living our own lives. So this month, we have a co-host, her name is Bonnie Shay, Bonnie has been on a number of times, and she is a photo organizer based in Chicago, Illinois. And you can find out all about her if you go back and listen to some of our past podcasts. But we have such a great guest today that I want to save time for that. And the theme of our podcast this month is the power of a story. And this time, we're going to talk a little bit about stories in film. So Bonnie say hello, and then introduce our guest.
Bonnie Shay01:37
Excellent. Good morning. Hello, everybody. So our guest today is Arielle, Nobile, and Arielle and I met eight years ago, time flies when you're having fun. And she was working on a documentary film for a family. And she needed someone to assist on the photo portion. And she lived in Colorado, and she was working with a Chicago-based family so she needed some help. So we collaborated from afar. And since then we have collaborated on several family documentaries. And then she moved to the same northern suburb of Chicago that I live in. So we've been able to work in person, even have taken exercise classes together, and our kids have been in the same Dual Language School. That's a whole nother podcast. I digress. So Arielle and I both tell our clients stories, Arielle, with interviewing and video. And I was photos, but they overlap. Because they're both visual. And they're all about stories. She does some other type of video work as well that she'll share with us today as we chat along. So Arielle, Good morning, and welcome to our podcast. I'd love for you to share your story of how you got to this point, the journey that you have chosen, and it's a very exciting journey. It's far from boring. So let's go.
Arielle Nobile03:01
Thank you so much for having me Bonnie and Ray, it's pleasure to be here. And yes, it's amazing, you know, to think about, I've been asked this question many times and sort of, you know, which sort of way in do I want to go? Because that's something about a story that I think your listeners, you know, probably are already aware of, on some level, but also could consider it's, you know, from where do we enter a story and then what, from what vantage point and that answer is actually always from, like, the present moment where we are right now. And how did I get here? Well, I, as a young young child, I can picture myself, there's these fabulous pictures of me dressed up in my great grandmother's old like, honestly, like negligees, I want to say like nightgowns, sorry, these silk nightgowns and her hats and her shoes. And I just thought I wanted to be a movie star. I just thought that would be fabulous that I could just perform and everyone would clap for me and then as I evolved and grew up, I thought, well, I just love stories. I love telling stories. I love reading stories. I love creating stories. There's my kitty green with me in the background, if you can hear that. And I started studying at Pivot Theatre Workshop as a young child in Evanston, Illinois. And then I also had the fortune of having this amazing woman, I believe her name was learning with Mrs. Shapiro and she came into our fourth-grade classroom, Mr. Haley's classroom. And she did a whole poetry unit with us. And something about poetry just really resonated with me and I remember actually feeling a little bit stumped with the assignment. And then I looked out the window and this poem just came to me and I titled it when I look out the window. Well, that poem, I guess, was inspired enough. channeled perhaps to give me the winning slot. Well, the second were two winning slides of fourth grade that year, and all of Illinois and I Won Gwendolyn Brooks, annual Poet Laureate contest for fourth graders that went all the way through high school and I got to go meet Gwendolyn Brooks who was on the Illinois Poet Laureate. And she gave me my first journal and wrote in it, I'm so proud of you. And that inspired me to continue writing and telling stories. And well, I could go on to go to NYU and study experimental theater, and move towards my dream of movie stardom. And I did start I did actually work in film and was on, you know, a blip on a show it really, I showed it didn't last long on MTV, that was a sketch comedy show. And I was in some independent films, I quickly realized that was not where my heart was at. And that what I really wanted to do was be more active and telling stories, especially as a woman at that time in Hollywood, there just wasn't a lot of great representation and not a lot of female stories being told by women. I think that's changed in the last 20 years. Thankfully, I'm sure I wasn't the only one who recognized the sort of slim pickings. And I just was someone I love. A good story, I want to also not be, I wanted to be able to be myself and still tell stories. And that is one of the ways I got into documentary.
Ray Loewe06:26
Okay, so there were a couple of pivotal things, I think that we discussed earlier and talk to us a little bit about the soldier with the machine gun that took your camera away from you.
Arielle Nobile06:39
Yeah, so that was so I graduated from NYU in 2001 when New York was still sort of an innocent city, it sounds funny to say that, but it was, you know, Giuliani had done this cleanup thing. And it was an amazing time in New York City. And then 9-11 happened a few months later. And as the whole world watched in horror and shock, in the aftermath of that I actually had been living in Chicago again, and I moved back, I decided to move back to New York. And on a sort of exploratory trip, I went back to see where I was going to be living. And then I was flying back to Chicago to get my stuff. I was at LaGuardia. And this was, I think this was three weeks post 9-11. And I'm at the security checkpoint, and this is back in the day. I mean, younger audiences won't even remember when you didn't have to take off your shoes, or check your water, you know, go through all of these machines. And there was a soldier with a machine gun at the end of the security, and I was just so shocked. But my first thought was, I need to document this. I don't ask me why. But I had my little point and shoot film camera. And so I got it out to take a picture of the security with a machine gun because I'd been to other countries where I'd seen soldiers with machine guns, but I'd never seen that in our airport in our society. And which says a lot about honestly, my privilege actually in the society, because I know there's communities where that's not the case. And the soldier yells with this machine gun, in my memory pointed at me started yelling at me and saying put down the camera and took the camera away from me. I said I haven't taken any pictures yet. And I believe that was a sort of discussion, but I was really scared. And I was also really angry. And he took he said, You're not allowed to take pictures here. And like, I think did give me back my camera. I honestly at this point, wonder if I had been a different color would that have happened? Would it have gone down the same way? What I've gotten my camera back etcetera. But when I left security, I was so shaken up. And what did I do? This says a lot about who I am, I think I went and I found a young man, a young man in uniform, who was um, who was a soldier who was I think, returning home or being sent out, I don't remember and told him what had just happened and sort of said what is going on. And he actually took me into this, the USO area. And I interviewed him, I took some photographs of him. And I basically in my own way, I know, I was told I can't swear, but I basically, you know, gave the finger to, to the whole to the soldier in my mind and screamed at me and scared me by interviewing this other young soldier and sort of getting also a sense of what was going on in our country and in the psyche, and how this young man felt about it. And that was my beginning in some ways of documentary, although I didn't make I didn't tell you this before, Ray. But I did make a documentary about the meaning of life, my senior year of high school. So that was actually the first documentary I made.
Ray Loewe09:44
Okay, so, you know, it's interesting that there are certain things that affect all of us if we let them affect us and, and I think this whole story of this soldier in the machine gun was a pivotal one that you know, Helped you go where you're gonna go? Okay. You know, there was one other story I think you told us as a parable. And, again, I think it tells us a little bit about who you are and where you were going and tell us a little bit about the horse story if you would?
Arielle Nobile10:19
yes, I'm doing this I love I meditate every day. And I'm currently redoing a 40-day transformation course with David G, who is a teacher. And you can anyone can do this if you pay for it, it's on insight timer, it's an app and David G the other day told this story about this farmer, who and this is a parable that goes I think it's like taken from all these different ancient traditions, Sophie's and other Asian cultures. So this farmer has a horse and he wakes up in the morning and the horse, someone has his son, left the gate open and the horse is gone, the whole village comes to commiserate with him and basically say, Oh my gosh, that's terrible luck. How horrible this happened to you. Now you're not gonna be able to plow your fields, your horse is gone. And the farmer's responses? Well, I don't know, let's wait and see what happens. We don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. And the next day his horse returns with five wild horses in tow. And all the villagers come back and they're like, Oh, my gosh, you're so lucky. And this is amazing. Look, there you have six horses, and now you'll have more help plowing your fields. And again, the farmer's response is basically like, sound, we'll see, we'll see if this is a good thing or a bad thing, you know, time will tell. And the next day, the farmer's son is trying to you know, tame, one of these wild horses and he falls off and he breaks his arm. Again, the villagers come and they're like, Oh, my gosh, this is horrible. Your son isn't gonna be able to help you with an arm that is broken. What a tragedy. This is terrible. So sorry. And again, the farmers like we'll see, we'll see, we don't know if this is good or bad. Well, the following day, the army shows up in this village and going taking all the young and able-bodied men on a suicide mission, basically. And the whole village comes out the ones who are left come up to say, this farmer, you are so lucky, your son doesn't have to go because of his broken arm. And you're too old. And wow, you are so fortunate. And the farmers like well, we'll wait and see. And then, of course, this story could go on forever. But the next thing that David G I believe added to this was that the whole all the people it turns out not to be a suicide mission. And all the people who went come back with like millions of dollars and all this fortune. And this could just go on forever. Right? Yeah, sort of luck of the draw. And actually, this you know, I love the idea of luck. And I love your podcast being about being lucky. But I also think it is all in the eye of the beholder, right? And also, it's about our Interstate, not necessarily at all what's happening in the outer world or around us, we have no control over that.
Ray Loewe13:09
And this, I think, is who you are, because the impression I get from the few times I've had the opportunity to talk with you is that you tend to follow the opportunities, you know, and you tend, you know, you don't get the opportunities out of these if you don't open up your eyes and look at them. And I think it demonstrates to a large extent your whole concept of filmmaking and I want to get into that, but I'm gonna let Bonnie come back on and say hello, I haven't let her get a word in edgewise here. Okay, but let's look a little bit at belonging in the USA and Bonnie once you introduce what Arielle is doing and because it's exciting.
Bonnie Shay13:50
it is exciting. And so Arielle has sort of taken another fork in the road in the video and documentary world, realizing that there are stories out there that not everybody knows. And they're important stories. They're maybe not even in history books, or in the headlines in the newspaper, but they are these underlying stories and themes in our world that need airing and they need explaining and all that. So she created belonging in the USA as the umbrella title of her series of documentaries that address the various stories that she feels are very important to our world. So Arielle, why don't you explain and expand about a little bit on that so people can understand and what they're going to look forward to coming out.
Arielle Nobile14:40
Thank you, Bonnie. Yes. And you know, it's so funny because you're catching me again in a moment where I'm in this, I would say a state of expansion and transformation. So the title of the series Yes, is belonging in the USA stories from our neighbors, and yet I actually am toying and I always had the bigger sense that I wanted it to be called belonging in the world or belonging in on this planet because I don't feel like it's only the US that I'm interested in, of course, and part of why I called it that was a little bit tongue in cheek because I really believe that if you exist, you belong, that the United States is built up of people from everywhere in the world. So we all belong in this world if we are here. And so each film, as you said, tells a different story and journey of a individual, a couple, or an entire family line that somehow intersects with some of the bigger social issues that we're having at this time in history, and some of the bigger conversations that I feel like we have to be having. And so this is my morning voice. It's very deep and sultry I warned you guys. So I feel like there's just so much that we aren't comfortable talking about. And I feel like films are a way of telling stories that give people a way into bigger conversations and dialogue. And that's part of the whole experience of watching one of these films. So I have screenings, I've had them before the pandemic, I had them all over the country at different festivals, and then libraries and other community centers, where the film was the film would be screened. And then there would be a big group conversation, discussion that hopefully leads into more conversations and discussions because I feel like one of the things that we are lacking right now is this dialogue and willingness to engage in human-to-human conversation. So I don't know if you want me to go into what each film is. The first one is, you know, about a black panther from the west side of Chicago, who is now a renowned world-renowned storyteller and lives in LA and helps inmates in the California prison system tell their stories and better themselves. The second is about a couple who were disappeared, or political prisoners during the Argentinian dictatorship, who were exiled to the United States, and who have made it their life's work to be human rights activists, as well as parents and just all-around amazing people. And the woman in that story is a poet as well, so dear to my heart. And then the third story is one of your guests that you had Lourdes Nichols, it's her family's story about the, you know, pre-Japanese incarceration to the fallout from that, and the long term effects of such othering and such bigotry on a family system. And what also can come out three generations later, basically, in the form of, you know, pro-activism and in terms of making people more aware of how important it is to remember that we are a we. And when you look down I love this idea that when you look down from space at this planet, you don't see borders, you don't see country, you don't see neighborhoods, you just see one us, one we, and we are human, we are the human race. And we are lucky to be here we are, we all are for different reasons. But I also really do think, you know, we can use stories, to catalyze and to bring more awareness and to bring more love and unconditional love and awareness of our shared humanity to the planet. And that's basically my mission.
Ray Loewe18:36
Yeah, and in addition to the film, you're doing a series of podcasts also are you not.
Arielle Nobile18:42
Yes, I have. Well, we're about to unleash to the world our belonging in the USA podcast, which is something that came about because of the pandemic and my desire to continue these dialogues with more people. So that will be launching later this summer. Hopefully, your listeners will subscribe and share you can find out all about everything we're doing at belongingintheUSA.com there will be a sign-up for our newsletter where I send I wouldn't even say monthly quarterly inspiration and updates and we will have more about the podcast there as well. And you can watch trailers for all of the films and sign up to host screenings and you can contribute because we are fundraising always because it is we are a guerilla grassroots filmmaking organization independent to a fault sometimes. Yeah, we need all the support we can get.
Ray Loewe19:37
Okay, so so there's one last thing that we have to talk about here that I think is incredibly interesting and important and when I asked you you know what to find you at some point in time, what made you get the direction that you wanted, you came up with an interesting two word, phrase regretted or regret. Regretted longing, longing, tell us what regretted longing is.
Arielle Nobile20:07
So I have a company called legacy connections films that I started in 2005 by making documentary films about both of my grandmother's who are thankfully still with us at 91 and 93 years old, and I began that company in that vein of filmmaking. Because I experienced what I always say is regretted logging. I had been lucky enough to have all of my grandparents in my life until my early 20s. And three of my great grandmother's one of them lived until I was a freshman in college. So I had sort of peopled history that have wisdom or not necessarily wisdom, but of history that I could have tapped into and asked more questions. And so the regret comes from the fact that I didn't ask my great grandmother who lived to be 100, more about her journey from the Ukraine, to Chicago, and really about her life in general, I just don't know much. I remember her, but I don't know much about that journey. And the longing comes from wishing that I did, and especially with my grandfather's one of whom I was particularly close to Gosh, I just miss him so much to this day, even though I do feel his spirit and presence. I can't ask him the questions, you know. And I think I told you the story of my other grandfather, my paternal grandfather fought in World War Two in Japan. I know that he was very affected by that and had a reverence for Japanese culture, and what including you know making us all room of our shoes all the time in his house, which I still do to this day. But I wish now that I'm working on his film about that, I could ask him more because my grandmother met him after his time as a soldier. So she didn't you know, she got some stories, but I don't know. Did he have PD PTSD? Did he see battle? What did he see? What did he experience? What was it like to be him this young Jewish boy in Japan at that time, I just really wish I could get more details on that. You know, on the other hand, I'll say this, and I say this to a lot of my clients that I work with. Sometimes the mystery of our history, is what inspires us to be more curious, in general in life. And so that regretted longing fueled me but they also I mean it's I don't regret the regretted longing if that makes sense. It's sort of.
Ray Loewe22:44
Only you would not regret the regretted longing Arielle. All right, we're close to the end of our time here. Do you have any final comments you want to make before we sign off, and we'll make sure we post your website so that people can find belonging in the USA, the podcast, and the film? Okay.
Arielle Nobile23:02
And like and legacy connections films too. And yes, I wanted to because I just was hearing myself laugh and remembering you wanted me to mention my so after I graduated NYU, I went on to do the I was in the first class of the directing program at second city in Chicago, which is, for those of you who don't know, a hugely world-famous comedy, theater, sketch comedy, and most of the major famous comedians that you know, have probably started at second city, Saturday Night Live came out of Second City sctv, all these things came out of all these people, and I made amazing cultural, comedic icons came out of Second City. So I started, you know, I did directing there. And that's important because to me, part of getting not just getting through life, but enjoying and thriving, and maybe what you call lucky, is my sense of humor, and having a sense of humor in being able to notice, even in the midst of horrible difficult, you know, tragedy or crises, to continue to have a sense of humor. So all of the films that I mentioned, for the belonging series that I, you know, deal with very intense topics, but I will tell you this, the audience is laughing. And that's one of the reasons I've sort of paused the screenings because it's not as satisfying both to the audience or me to not be able to have that shared reading experience, because the laughter is what fuels the depth. If you can make somebody laugh, if you can touch their heart in that way, that's touching our humanity. We, you know, I don't know I have amazing cats, but I've never really seen them laugh. I don't know if you all have seen animals laugh. I think that's one of the things that makes us uniquely human. So I always want to touch people's hearts in that way and be able to bring that kind of joy so that I can also get to the transformational space that we're able to create when we have access to our feelings and laughter is one of the Best. And I think it's a privilege to be able to make people laugh, though. And that's something I've learned through Second City. So I wanted to make sure to mention that.
Ray Loewe25:08
That's great. And we'll look forward to following you and looking at what you're going to bring out here. And Bonnie, do you have any last-minute comments?
Bonnie Shay25:16
I do because I want to sort of summarize how Arielle has changed the rules from my perspective, just through this podcast, although I've known her for a long time. To me, she moved around a lot. She didn't stay like I grew up in Highland Park, which is where I still live and probably will never move. So personally, it's very inspirational. She's traveled a lot. She's very curious, as she mentioned today, she has a sense of humor that she tries to weave into even some serious work that she's doing because she gets the richness of life. It's not all positive, it's not all negative, you weave it together, and it really tells the story and makes the impact. And then lastly, I think, Arielle, I can just see you following your heart. Follow your head, too, but I feel like you're following your heart, mostly. And they're like in front. Like, that's what leads you through so many of these choices that's just inspirational, and thanks for what you are doing and how you're teaching us all.
Arielle Nobile26:20
Thank you, Bonnie. And you know, I love that you said that about following heart, my heart because literally, that is the main motivation for me. I read Carlos Castaneda books very young, in my early 20s. And one of the premises of all of his work is, you ask the question, is this a path with heart? And if it is, you follow it, and if you don't, it's not your path. And that's the way I check-in and check. It's my vibe, check. It's how I make my decisions. It's how I choose who I work with and what I work on. And because I from having, of course, chosen things, not based on my heart in my life, I know the Fallout and the consequences of that. So a path with heart is what I'm after.
Ray Loewe27:08
Well, there's nothing more to say after that. So we'll all follow our heart. Hopefully, we can do it like you do, Arielle, and, you know, thanks again for listening to our podcast and show up next week. We're going to have another great guest and see everybody soon have a safe time. Bye