We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Aric Lopez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Aric, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

A good start is that growing up I never considered myself creative and certainly didn’t dream of becoming an artist. I could be best described as a dilettante who went where his interests took him. At age 15, I almost committed wholly to pursuing law school. The problem was that I was a TERRIBLE student. I was constantly distracted by my interests — one of which was making music. On my mom’s side, a musical sense runs in our DNA: my grandfather was a part of a traveling band, my uncle plays percussion in a salsa band, and my brother and I have played various instruments most of our lives. But I never saw myself becoming a musician because I was always a step removed from the required commitment. I’d get bored, move on to the next thing, and pick up a new skill or area of study that moved me at the moment.

During my junior year of high school, I was in need of an elective to graduate and heard of a class where students could have access to cameras and make short videos. I didn’t think too hard about it, except in the sense that I didn’t want to do woodshop or theater, so I enrolled. On the first day of class, my teacher said we were to write a six-page essay on a news reporter. I wanted to drop the class immediately!

I talked to my teacher about the class and she explained that this initial essay was a way to ensure those who wanted to learn filmmaking were committed to it by rewarding them with camera access after completing their paper. Since I was a terrible student at the time, I asked if she could help me write the essay. She did, and as I completed 6 whole pages on Dan Rather’s impact on modern journalism, I secured my first camera.

… And it was love at first record. There was something intuitive about the motion of images and the way they became a language I could translate my ways of feeling through them. Nothing I had explored before then came close to this same experience.

Perhaps it all traces back to what was in my DNA the whole time — my musical sensibility. Much like a series of notes in a song can move someone, a sequence of images can express emotions, ideas, and feelings that words can only partially describe. I’m blessed to have this gift that comes from my ancestors and feel proud to have harnessed it through my own lens.

I don’t know how good I would have been as a lawyer, but I feel that version of me wouldn’t measure at all with the person I’ve become as a filmmaker. Film has instilled in me discipline, opened new horizons, but most importantly, it shaped my identity into someone I feel proud to be. To think, I was one essay away from living a completely different life!

Aric, 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?

An emphasis that I feel I bring as a filmmaker is to value the impact of community in my work, both behind and in front of the camera. I reflect to when I first started making films and realize that the camera was my gateway toward meeting and connecting with people I otherwise would have no immediate connection with. The camera encouraged confidence that allowed me to open myself up to the world and make small impacts on a local level.

When I think of community, I think of an early film I made called “Occasional Flashes of Warmth”. Set in Downtown Ventura, where I grew up, this film featured snapshots of the era in which Ventura felt like home to me. Over the years, the city has changed, and as I watch that film one more time it opens up a time capsule of nostalgia that reminds me of my youth. The camera saw, through the adolescent eye, a place that was warm, exciting, and most of all, personal.

This same tender feeling still makes its mark in my work. My most recent film, “Palmas”, holds a loving but critical look at Los Angeles through one of its most iconic symbols — the palm tree. Shot from the perspective of city streets and awe-inspiring vistas, it makes me wonder if, a decade from now, this film will also feel nostalgic through its particular gaze of place and home.

I feel as though this all accumulates to say that I’m someone who lives in the past a lot. And that is true. But more so, I feel that filmmaking suspends us in moments of joy, anger, sadness, grief, and every other emotion you can conjure. So as an artist, I evoke the past to access these emotions and make them feel real. I believe that’s what I have most to offer to the world.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I think the best gift I’ve been given is patience. Pursuing the arts is like running on ice — you’re bound to slip many, many times before you reach your destination. Throwing in responsibilities of bills, relationships, and simply showing up to things can feel like there’s a mountain of pressure on your shoulders as an artist to be excellent in all areas of life. But we can only dream of being so perfect, and believe me when I say that nobody aims harder for perfection than artists.

Sometimes, it can feel like we are detached, distracted, or constantly busy, but we exist in our ecosystems outside the larger ones because doing so sustains our life and makes our creations happen. When something like this becomes so tied to identity, it can seem like we’re workaholics or too busy for others. But we’re always thinking of others in our work. We’re doing our work for others to see, after all.

So I suppose with all that in mind, I think a little tenderness and understanding towards people in the arts can go a long way. Our definition of success strays far from most people’s, so despite how strange our circumstances may seem, we may in fact be totally fulfilled in our lives.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect has to be the small impacts of our craft: moving people with our work, inspiring them, and leading them to live hopefully more attentive lives than they led before sitting in the theater. Particularly in my work, I aim to show people perspectives that are heightened experiences of our real world as a way to urge people to see the details they may have overlooked. When someone has this experience from one of my films, I see it as a mark of success as a filmmaker.

In one instance in particular, a mother and daughter approached me after a screening and expressed how much they appreciated a film that felt like it spoke to their unique experience as Latin people living in Los Angeles. Connecting your perspective with people who you have never met is quite a special feeling. I was also happy to hear that they weren’t filmmakers either, but a caretaker and a teacher!

I’ll also add that the relationships built are equally as rewarding. Having worked in documentaries, I’ve become naturally close to the people I’ve worked with, both in front of and behind the camera. This has led me to grow out of my comfort zone and embrace visibility and unique experiences. I never know what the next journey will hold, but it’s always exciting when an opportunity presents itself to you.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @aricj.lopez
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariclopez/

Image Credits

Trevor Sena, Ana Flavia Veiga, Rocky Huang