Karla Isabel Barroso (Film Director)

Do you think that creativity involves putting your heart and soul into your work? Or is it more like letting your mind flow freely to witness the surprising results of your actions?

For me creativity walks alongside inspiration, considering this last one the most important of them both. In order to be creative about something you first need a source of inspiration.

It is common to believe that the least thinking you put into something the better ‘creative’ results you will get. The most common example would be getting an incredible idea out of nowhere while you are having a shower.

I don’t entirely agree with this ‘theory’ let’s call it. I strongly believe that the more you work and think about an idea the better results you will get. Of course we need to give ourselves a break from time to time in order not to get stuck. If we push ourselves too hard during the creative process we might end up forgetting the reason why we started doing it in the first place: passion.

I think it should be a balanced combination of both hard work and as you said on your question ‘letting your mind flow freely’. If you manage to work your idea combining both methods of hard working and resting you would get much better results in less time.

What in your personal life has influenced you to choose your career?

I like to think of it as a beautiful-unexpected chain of events. When I was little my parents taught me the importance of creative arts even though they don’t come from that cultural background. I used to watch a different film with my dad every Sunday after having lunch and I remember most of my childhood and teenage years sitting in front of a massive screen at the hometown movie theater.

I guess I started falling in love with the film industry way earlier than I ever noticed but if I had to choose a key moment I would say the 24th of February 2011. How accurate you must be thinking. Well I remember that day so good because it was when ‘Hugo’ by Martin Scorsese was released for the first time in Spain (my country of origin). Believe it or not and thanks to the plot of the film, it was then when I first realized that there was a process behind the camera.

I wanted to be like Georges Méliès. I felt so good when I left the movie theater that I decided I wanted to do that as well. I wanted to write and shoot films that would make people leave the cinema smiling knowing that I might have inspired them the way that film inspired me back then.

Do you pay attention to others' strong reactions to your work? Does that affect what you create?

Critics about your work are somehow hard to accept sometimes, specially if they’re not good.

I’m not going to lie, it took me a while to get use to them. Sometimes we feel so sure about what we have created that when we get a not so good critic we might feel insecure about our work.

I have learned to listen to people’s feedback about my projects and internalize it on a way that it can only push me to get better.

I think it is important to know the difference between taste and quality. You might not like drama genre but that doesn’t mean that the film was bad. So answering to your question "Does that affect what you create", it does not. I like to think that I found my style and I firmly believe in it, so I would accept and consider those opinions that focuses on things that I can improve rather than destroying my confidence about my work.

Have you ever felt enlightened by an event in the past that has given you a new perspective on life? Please explain.

I like to think that I’m living the most exciting years of my life right now when it comes to discovering myself and realizing for the first time how the world we live in really works.

The past years a couple of personal situations (good and bad) that I’ve been trough definitely changed my perspective about the way I was living my life. It is hard to accept but even though no one wants to be disliked by people, we need to be selfish with ourselves and our work sometimes in order to move forward. Of course we must see ourselves as part of a community and help each other but knowing the limit between looking after others more than we look after ourselves.

I used to ignore that limit. It is a fact that we are never alone but we should never depend on other people and I guess that learning that has helped me to evolve not only in my career but my personal life and relationships (family, friends, romantic wise…)

I have realized that I am the only one who dictates where I’m going to and it’s been the most amazing revelation that I have ever had and I am not ashamed that it took me this long to understand. We all have a different timing for the same things. It’s what we do with what we have what matters.

How do you want people to remember you?

I guess if I could read people’s minds almost everyone daydreams of being remembered as a hero or as someone that did something that changed the world.

Sorry to spoil the fun but no one changes the world on its own. It is a chain reaction. Good words, good actions, genuine feelings etc it’s what makes a difference.

I don’t want to be remembered as a hero. I don’t even care if I never get a recognition that makes me known worldwide. I just know that I want to write and shoot films that make me feel and believe in myself and everyone else in this world. I want to make people connect and appreciate who they are and how they are loved and how lucky they are to have what they have, even if it’s not much. I want them to loose fear of expressing themselves, their feelings, what they want.

Somehow I just want people to spend a couple of hours listening and watching what I have created and maybe being the reason of their future inspiration.

I wish that if I am ever remembered it is because someone was inspired somehow by my work and they didn’t give up just because I didn’t gave up. That would be the most fulfilling feeling of my life.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karrchib/