We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Francis DiClemente. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Francis below.

Alright, Francis thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

My story is a little different. I do not earn a full-time living from my creative work. I will likely never earn a full-time living from the words I write or the films I make. And so I compartmentalize my existence. I work full-time as a marketing video producer at Syracuse University, and I write and work on creative projects in my spare time. I rise at 4 a.m. every weekday and write before I need to get ready for work. In some ways, working a full-time job is beneficial because it keeps me disciplined. And going to work every day and interacting with people exposes me to a wide range of humanity, providing inspiration for poems, stories, and projects.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

After getting my master’s in film and video in the early 1990s, I worked in journalism at various outlets across the country. I started writing poetry and taking photographs in the late 1990s because I needed a creative outlet that wasn’t time-consuming. I could snap pictures with my Pentax K1000 camera or jot down poems whenever I had free time.

I relocated back to my native Central New York region in 2006, and then I started working as a video producer at Syracuse University. I currently serve as a senior producer in the Division of Marketing at SU. We have a wonderful team, and we produce marketing and promotional videos for the university.

In my spare time, I write and work on creative art projects. In this capacity, I consider myself an interdisciplinary artist (having a passion for both the verbal and the visual).

I write poetry, short stories, essays, and much more. I am currently working on multiple “side” projects across various genres.

I explore subjects that address universal themes—existence, faith, family, identity, community, illness, and death.

I am driven by a compulsion to create. Certain ideas infect my brain, and I can’t let go of them. I’ve said many times before, I wish I gravitated toward more “regular” adult hobbies—cooking, gardening, golfing, skiing, fishing, etc., but I know these activities would take away from my avocation to make art.

However, I have learned that just because you make something, doesn’t mean anyone wants to read or consume it. So I accept the inevitable rejection that comes with any artistic practice.

I can’t really say what sets me apart, but I believe I have a strong narrative sense. I’m always trying find the essence of a story (regardless of genre).

One point of pride was producing an independent documentary short that earned an Emmy award and has been distributed nationally. It’s entitled “The Real Bedford Falls: It’s a Wonderful Life,” and it’s about the connections between Bedford Falls—the fictional setting of “It’s a Wonderful Life”—and the community of Seneca Falls, New York.

Third-person biography:

Francis DiClemente is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker who lives in Syracuse, New York. He is the author of multiple poetry collections, most recently The Truth I Must Invent (Poets’ Choice, 2023) and Outward Arrangements: Poems (independently published, 2021). His writing has also appeared in Evening Street Review, Bewildering Stories, Narratively, The Millions, Artnet News, Film International, Connotation Press, and in the books Air: A Radio Anthology (Books by Hippocampus, 2019), Chicken Soup for the Soul: Find Your Inner Strength (2014), and Six-Word Memoirs on Love and Heartbreak (Harper Perennial, 2009).

He co-produced and co-directed the documentary film The Real Bedford Falls: It’s a Wonderful Life, which earned a New York Emmy award in 2021.

His full-length stage play, Beyond the Glass, inspired by the Edward Hopper painting Nighthawks, was produced by a regional theater in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2017.

He received a bachelor’s degree in communications/journalism from St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York, and earned a master of arts in film and video from American University in Washington, DC. He is employed at Syracuse University.

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

I’m going to get philosophical in answering this question. I have some serious health issues. In my early teens, surgeons removed a benign brain tumor that had stunted my growth. The surgery left me with lifelong hypopituitarism. Due to tumor recurrence, I’ve had multiple surgeries over the years, plus two blasts of Gamma Knife radiation. And as I write these words, the tumor continues to grow inside my skull, and surgery looms in my near future.

In recent years, I’ve added osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis to my list of diseases. I write about my health not to elicit pity, but to explain my creative mission. I feel my time is waning, and I must strive to reach my full creative potential before illness overtakes me. I want to make the most of the time I have allotted, and that means trying to create something memorable and lasting. I’m also grateful for each day I am granted.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is noticing people, places, and things that others may ignore. It’s one of the reasons I don’t listen to music when walking. I want to catch the sound of a breeze or a bird singing.

I also love collaborating with other creative people and executing a project from concept to completion—seeing the hard work demonstrated in the finished product.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://francisdiclemente.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/francisdiclemente/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/FranDiClem

Image Credits
Steve Sartori Shane Johnson Bob Gerbin