Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Chiara Campelli. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Chiara, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

“You’re taking a huge risk” were my mother’s exact words when I told her that I wanted to become a screenwriter. This happened because, at the time, I was studying to become an architect, but, more importantly, I was next in line to inherit my father’s architecture studio, as my father had inherited it from my grandfather a long time before. Being an architect in my family was a safe, comfortable choice that would have allowed me to have a good salary and a comfortable life straight out of university. But I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t compromise my freedom and what I always wanted to do– to write and tell stories. When my friends and family asked me why I had made this radical and seemingly senseless decision, I replied: why do human beings breathe? Because without breathing, they would die. Well, writing is the same thing for me. Without it, I would die.

Chiara, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Since I was a child, I have always been immersed in all art forms, thanks to what my architect father taught me and to being born in Rome, Italy. Painting, sculpture, architecture, literature and obviously cinema and photography. But my desire to write for the big screen exploded during my middle school years when I started watching fantasy movies portraying distant worlds and warrior women riding dragons. There, I felt the need to write the stories I wanted to see on the big screen. First on paper, then on the computer, until I wanted to share these stories with an audience and started publishing them on online websites, enjoying success that grew more and more until I believed I could do it. I could be a screenwriter. It was precisely thanks to the support of this world of the internet and my high school and university professors that I understood I could turn my passion, my dream of being a screenwriter, into my job. And although I initially tried to suppress this dream because of my family, my creativity was way bigger than that and made me realize that not only I would have never been able to suppress this desire to write, but above all I didn’t want to. So, I bet on myself.

And luckily, I did it, I followed my heart. Soon, the much-desired recognition arrived, and after many applications to film schools and a lot of effort, I was first admitted to the London Film School and then to the American Film Institute Conservatory in Los Angeles for MFAs in Screenwriting. After these successes, even my parents accepted that writing was really what I should have done. But for a while it wasn’t so easy! Everyone around me keep telling me I was making a mistake. But I didn’t listen to them. The important thing is to remain focused and never be discouraged. I had to believe in myself. And I always will. Because if I don’t believe in myself, nobody will for me.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My mission has always been to entrain my audience through my stories represented on the big or small screen. Make them dream thanks to my characters, taking them with me to discover new lives, worlds, and situations. But not only this. Thanks to my stories, I also want to teach them something, to send a message and denounce unfair situations. As a queer woman, I believe I have the duty to underline how difficult life has been/is for me. Even more being a queer woman born in Rome from Catholic parents. For the longest time I suppressed who I was, who I am—a bit like I suppressed my desire to write. Writing has given me the necessary strength not to hide and to write stories that can make anyone who finds themselves or found themselves in a situation like mine understand they are not alone and, above all, they must not be afraid of culture and religion (particularly for me Catholicism) with which they grew up. We must always remember that we were born free and that nothing and no one can tell us how we should be. And if after telling someone who we are, we lose them, it’s for the better. I can guarantee that. My mission, therefore, remains to entertain my audience, but also to denounce certain discriminatory situations for the LGBTQ community, and empower women, specifically queer women.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect for me as a screenwriter is starting from creating/thinking of a new idea and having it reach complete development through a well-made script that makes someone feel emotions. In fact, making other people read, immersing themselves in those stories and having the confirmation that they are innovative and well written, but above all that they moved someone, is the most important thing for me. Making someone feel something, maybe less alone or understood, thanks to words or ideas that were originally just in my head is one of the best things about this job and I hope to continue producing stories that can touch people’s hearts.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ccampelli/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chiara.campelli.315/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chiara-campelli-6149b9232/