The Filmmakers — The 5th Dementia Documentary

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Director Serene Meshel-Dillman

Serene is from New York City. She attended The School of American Ballet, Melissa Hayden's and the Alvin Ailey School.

She graduated from the University of Vermont where she performed with the Main Street Dance Theater and received a degree in Political Science. (A degree that had no relevance to her future.) A love of photography was enhanced by darkroom courses at the university. Serene shoots all still images for her documentaries.

After college, Serene worked as a commercial television producer in both New York and Los Angeles until she produced three children with husband, Ray.

In 2014 she directed her first documentary, Getting To The Nutcracker. The film is a behind the scenes look at what it takes to produce the Nutcracker Ballet from auditions to final performance. (www.Gettingtothenutcracker.com)

The film won Best Documentary Feature Grand Jury Prize at the Atlanta Film Festival, the Los Angeles Dances with Films Festival Documentary Audience Award, Outstanding Direction at the Las Vegas Film Festival, and Best Documentary at the Kansas Film Festival.

The film is distributed by Gravitas Ventures and is presented nationally every holiday season on PBS.

The 5th Dementia documentary is also distributed by Gravitas Ventures and premiered November 2019 for Alzheimer’s Awareness month. The 5th Dementia is now available worldwide across most TVOd platforms.

Link to Getting to The Nutcracker website

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Cinematographer Eric Zimmerman

Eric grew up in a family of artists and photographers in Northern New Mexico and spent his childhood taking pictures and building sculpture. On his way to CalArts he got sidetracked by film work and fell in love with the moving captured image. Eric worked his way up through the camera department, first as an assistant and then as an operator, all the time plying his chosen trade and working with many greats including Ridley and Tony Scott, Stephen Frears, Allan Parker, Darius Khondji, Haskell Wexler and Vilmos Zsigmond to name just a few.

As a Director of Photography Eric shot music videos for artists such as Lauren Hill and Sonic Youth and then moved on to his narrative film career. Eric also has extensive documentary career/experience including work on four films and hundreds of commercials with Errol Morris. He has shot several TV pilots including Always Sunny In Philadelphia.

His work has screened on PBS, Bravo, Showtime and FX as well as at festivals worldwide, including Sundance and Slamdance.

He has a lot of great stories of filmic mayhem and high jinks that he will happily share with you to the degradation of no one.

Eric currently lives in Los Angeles with his VERY talented wife Tamara their extraordinary young son Otto…and a terrific dog named Roo!!!

Link to Eric's website

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Producer Ray Dillman

Ray Dillman began his career as an art director working in advertising. He made the move to directing after working as a creative director on Burnett’s International Task Force as a global problem solver. Trained as a designer and illustrator, he is a classic storyteller as a commercial filmmaker, known for his emotionally powerful work. In 1999 he won the singular Emmy Award for Commercial of the Year.

Ray was producer on Getting to the Nutcracker as well as The 5th Dementia, providing post production (fine cut editorial) and creative direction (graphic design).

Ray recently finished the feature script “Unmanned Warfare” and is in development on a docu-series he will direct about the world of competitive cycling.