CAAM Member Spotlight : R.J. Lozada

CAAM is truly blessed to have many wonderful supporters and we’d love to show the world how awesome they really are. This is a shout out to you, CAAM members!

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Hark! CAAM is truly blessed to have many wonderful supporters and we’d love to show the world how awesome they really are. This is a shout out to you, CAAM members! Thank you for being your amazing self! Dear world, please meet…..

R.J. Lozada

Who are you?
My name is R.J. Lozada. My full name is Roldan-Jay Enson Lozada. I go by R.J. because my classmates in 2nd grade kept butchering my name, calling me ‘Roland.’ Also, when I used to watch ‘Lassie’ I used to catch the tail end of ‘Rawhide,’ and I kept hearing my name being butchered by a disembodied, tenor, southwestern voice singing the theme song.

Where’s home?
Home is where I love people, so generally everywhere. Even prison. Long story, not really.

What’re you up to in the world and in the community?
All day every day I try to soak in and share stories. To pay the bills, I work for a death penalty appeals office. To pay more bills, I contract my services as a producer, editor, cinematographer. Otherwise, you’ll find me wandering with my camera, wandering with a book and pen, or trying to listen to all that you have to say. Pull me aside, really.

What’s your all-time favorite CAAM/Festival film?
Chan is Missing. It’s kind of a timeless aesthetic and story form, an approach to film I’ve seen in different iterations outside of Asian American cinema (Killer of Sheep, Mystery Train, Raising Victor Vargas). It’s a documentary narrative that crosses up a Bobby Womack track, cigarettes, WPA photography, and pigeons on a Philippine corrugated tin roof right before a speculative typhoon. Say what?

Why’d you become a member?

I became a member because CAAM is important. You support those that support you.

What’s your most memorable CAAM/Festival moment?
2005. A short film that I’d directed was screening at SFIAFF. I didn’t attend any of the parties, mixers, or other gatherings. I came alone from San Diego. On the day of the screening, I walked San Francisco for what seemed like the whole day, but was really six hours. Soaked in ALL the neighborhoods, the hills, the air. I remember laughing to myself in the very same way that I laugh to myself now. That kind of marvel, and appreciation you feel when someone, something mirrors you. The screening itself was pretty dope, too.

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