Meet Christian Vanover

We recently connected with Christian Vanover and have shared our conversation below.

Christian, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

Growing up being half African American and half White, I never fully felt at home anywhere. Add being gay in the mix and I’m a big ball of confusion rolling around trying to find where I belong. Ever since I was nine I’ve been a writer. Dreaming up worlds with new people, new lives, new surroundings. Letting stories play out in my head in the way that I see them. It helped me escape, as I got older it helped me express who I was through different characters, different worlds. It didn’t become serious until I was sixteen and I went through at the time the thing I thought could be the most traumatic. Heartbreak. So I wrote, I wrote my entire heartbreak down on paper from beginning to end. I changed my name, his name, kept the bones the same but painted the walls of the house of my teenage breakup into different hues of blues and grays. The thing that made it different was, it was a script. Then it was a summer movie project. Still, I didn’t know what it made me. Until the reviews came in. People were touched, people I didn’t even know were emailing, calling, texting, with tears, congratulations and sharing their stories. Five years later I’m still here, still sharing my stories in different fonts. Adding in my love of poetry to the dialogue, using word choices that the greats have used like Orwell or Brown. And the reviews stay the same. My voice has meaning, my experience is inspiring. That’s my purpose. I’m a storyteller.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am a cofounder of my own film company myself and two of my very talented friends started named “1895 Digital”. My role is mainly directing and writing. Being a director and writer duo rolled into one is one of my favorite things ever. To create these stories and watch them happen in front of me has to be the most indescribable and amazing feeling there is. I couldn’t do it without the help of my team turned family Haiden Bentley and Cameron Jenks. They’ve done such a good job with taking care of my words and turning into something that people love to see. Filmmaking is my passion, it’s my drive, it’s my reason to get out of bed.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

An area of knowledge was filmmaking itself. Camera for instance are the most complex, confusing and difficult devices around. All different, all technical and most of all expensive. I had to learn it. Being in high school at the time, there’s not much you can do besides trial and error. Trying, is the first step. If you do not try you can never learn. I spent hours looking into my camera, taking horrible photos, low quality videos, endless hours on youtube, and finally. I was able to learn the basics. It wasn’t good, it wasn’t anything profound. But I tried, failed and kept going.

Writing. Turning emotional word vomit into a hundred something page script isn’t easy. It’s a formula. One that I taught myself and most writers teach themselves. Finding what worked for me and not getting caught up in the technicality of it all was important. I had to finally stop listening to the voice inside me asking “is this good?”, but it doesn’t mean I still don’t hear that whisper. You have to write what you want, what’s good for you. Everything else comes after.

Teamwork. I was terrified to join or create a team. Letting people into something I found so personal and close to my heart such as writing was huge for me. And it wasn’t easy. Listening to two different takes, opinions, critiques. But it worked. I followed through, I pushed through and now I feel like a better writer and filmmaker because of it. We still have our rocky moments, where we don’t always agree. But at the end of day we all have the same goal and will do anything to achieve it.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

My best friend Maddy Kline. For most of my life I’ve felt extremely alone. Surrounded by friends that I knew loved me and that I loved back, but never felt understood or seen. Until I met Maddy, who made talking easy. Maddy has energy flowing out of her that makes things like opening up and talking as easy as breathing. Someone that was there to love me for all that I am. The good, bad and ugly she’s always stayed. She’s the reason I keep writing, and the reason my head is still intact. I’ve never had someone more loyal, loving and honest in my corner my entire life. She may not be a filmmaker or writer, but without her I wouldn’t have the same drive for my future.

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