Nickie Shobeiry is a media professional with a background in journalism and film and radio production. She moved to Canada from the UK in 2017 and has continued exploring the art of storytelling.
After moving to Ottawa, Nickie was seeking opportunities to connect with the local arts community. “I was super new to Ottawa, didn’t know up from down, but it was just really wonderful to know that there was a space like this with was a wonderful community of creatives where you could come together, you could bring your idea forward, and there’d be folks there to support you.”
Looking to sharpen her screenwriting skills and connect with other writers, she attended the Intermediate and Advanced Screenwriting workshops led by Nate Estabrooks. “I got to learn wonderful, really solid screenwriting tips from Nate, but also, I think even above and beyond that, it was really Nate sharing his experiences in the production space.”
Nickie’s recent works have been focusing on telling the stories of Middle Eastern women that reflect her experiences as an Iranian woman. She’s been intentionally bringing some comedy into her scripts. “Growing up, I was always hungry to see, you know, stories similar to mine reflected on the screen, and also some positive, lighthearted representation as well.”
One of the projects she’s been developing is “a love story to Iranian noses” in the form of a short documentary. She’s exploring why Iran is one of the world’s biggest centres for cosmetic surgery, especially nose surgery. The documentary touches on the impact of politics and Western beauty standards, and features folks who have “come to embrace [their features], and love them, and how that can really shift some of the conversations around beauty standards.”
After attending the screenwriting workshops at DARC, Nickie was accepted as a fellow of the Netflix-BANFF Diversity of Voices Initiative. Through the initiative, writers from diverse backgrounds gather in the Albertan city with the opportunity to meet with producers and distributors to pitch their scripts and ideas.
Nickie reached out to Nate before travelling to Banff, and he offered his time to help her better understand what to expect at the conference and pitch meetings. “I was still feeling a little bit of nerves going into the conference, but it was truly invaluable … getting those chats with Nate, even being able to schedule a one-on-one with him, just to share some of the concerns that I maybe had or things that I wanted to understand a little bit better.”
Nickie expressed the value of being part of the DARC community. “It’s truly incredible the number of really solid logistical things that you get access to when you are a member … There is also just such an amazing community out there waiting for you.”
