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

Hernán, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

When I was a kid I figured that I’d be an engineer like most of the grown-ups I knew — but when I was fifteen years old I was diagnosed with Leukemia. And locked away in that hospital room with only an IV and a TV, I fell in love with movies; they were my escape. But the more I watched, the more I began to realize something was missing — I rarely saw myself reflected back at me. And invariably whenever there was a cancer depiction, they seemed to get the entire story wrong. I became angry — and I swore that I would grow up to become part of the machine that makes movies so that I could change that. It was a gutsy move at the time; nobody in my family had ever gone into the arts. But I had just survived cancer. I’d beaten death — and I felt invincible. Nothing could stand in my way — and that’s the same force that drives me today.

Hernán, 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?

I came to filmmaking in search of escape — my favorite films were big genre pieces, good guys vs. bad guys. But I quickly realized that storytelling is not about escape, it’s about turning and facing our fears. Even the most fantastical out in the middle of nowhere space opera only works because it examines some facet of what it means to be human. That’s when our stories start to resonate. My strength as a storyteller comes from the depth of my experience as a cancer survivor; as a wheelchair user; as a second generation Filipino-Salvadoran; and on and on. These are the things that make up the thumbprint of who I am as a creative. And when I sit to dream up my next project, it always seems to distill into one purpose — I build stories that help people laugh through the hard stuff.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

As creatives, we spend so much time developing our work, then building it, then refining it — that the best part of the process has to be the screening. As anxious as it can be, that moment when you hear from someone that your work resonated with them — it makes the whole process worth it.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Well I think one of the most important things you need, especially early on, is a creative community — and not just any; your community has to be just right for you and where you want to grow. That community has to include people with the same aspirations as you, people who you can recruit to your projects, mentors that can help put you on the right track, and just good friends.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hernanbarangan/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hernanb/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hernan-barangan-50804813/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/HernanBobo
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@hernanbobobarangan2614/videos

Image Credits
Pila Boyd, Hernan Barangan