About
Adrian Astur Alvarez was born in Stockton, California in 1977. He was the first Alvarez to be born in the United States. His father, Dr. Paul A. Alvarez, was a school psychologist who immigrated to the United States from Buenos Aires at the age of 18, just in time to be drafted into the Vietnam war. His mother, Suzanne Lorenz, a licensed therapist, was born in Illinois. After his parents separated in 1986, he and his younger sister were eventually raised by his father. His younger brother was raised by his mother. His entire childhood was spent in Stockton, California, which is a bland place for adults to live, let alone teenagers.
After graduating from high school in 1995, Adrian attended the University of California at Berkeley with dreams of studying political science so that one day he could become Governor of California. He refrained from smoking pot with the curtains open, and made notes in the margins of his class binders like, “remember this for second campaign” and “check age requirements for state seats.”
Adrian’s parents put a lot of pressure on him to be a high school English teacher after college. His father emphasized a course in Spanish language, which Adrian appreciated but couldn’t really get behind because, despite 7 years of formal classroom study from middle school through university, he still couldn’t understand a word of his father’s Argentinian Spanish – heavily accented and glutted with idiomatic phrasings. Eventually the pressure overwhelmed Adrian and he withdrew from University for a year. During that time he worked as a finish carpenter for Levitch Associates, Inc, where he met Edward Levitch, a man who would become a great influence in his life.
When Adrian returned to university he resolved to study only what he felt passionate about. He graduated soon after with a degree in Film Studies and delivered the final commencement speech for the department of Film and Rhetoric. During the last 6 months of school, Adrian worked hard to prepare an application and portfolio for a Filmmaking MFA program at Columbia University. After a lot of hard work and stress, despite overwhelming odds, Adrian earned an invitation to the program. It was one of the happiest days of his life, followed by one of the most frustrating, when he discovered he had no way of paying for the degree, and would have to decline his acceptance. This was Adrian’s first lesson in the American class system.
Eventually Adrian found an invitation to study digital design in a program located in South Korea. Urged by a spirit of adventure, and really not having anything better to do, Adrian decided to go abroad. It was only after he arrived that he was told the program did not exactly exist anymore. South Korea is a wonderful place, full of honesty and integrity. No it isn’t.
Determined to make the best of the situation, Adrian decided to stay in the country and teach English in an ethically bankrupt private language academy while gaining introductions to various members of Korea’s film community. Eventually his plan paid off and he was able to successfully pitch an idea to Dongseo Films about a documentary featuring the close circle of expatriates he had come to know while teaching English. The film was eventually called Foreigners and focused on this group of westerners and their inability to relate to the culture around them as a metaphor for South Korea’s role, politically, in the world at large.
In 2006, Adrian moved to Los Angeles, a city which hosts the largest population of Koreans living outside of Korea (over 1 million). Eventually, he moved to Culver City with Bean, his girlfriend, who proceeded to teach him everything he knows about football, good hot wings, and how to live in America.
In 2010, Adrian and Bean moved to Seattle, WA. This is why.
He enjoys listening to KALX, writing bad poetry, speaking English to his cats, and reading. He is currently writing a novel, which he enjoys and hates and loves and wants to destroy and gets ecstatically happy about.