Filmmaker Ron Najor studied film at San Diego State University, and tonight he brings his feature directorial debut "Adjunct," to Digital Gym Cinema for its theatrical premiere.
This is the kind of story I love. Back in 2001, I screened Najor's student film "Killing Time" at a student festival I ran called Film School Confidential. It was at that festival that Destin Cretton (who would go on to direct Marvel's "Shang-Chi") met SDSU professor Greg Durbin and got inspired to go to film school. And it was at that student festival where Najor first met Cretton, and would go on to produce some of his indie films. Here is an interview I did with them in 2013 about a pair of films they had worked on together: "I Am Not a Hipster" and "Short Term 12." There is even a scene in "I Am Not a Hipster" that was shot in the old KPBS radio studios.
One of the things I love about having covered film for decades is that I get to see filmmakers like Cretton and Najor grow as I watch their careers. This week, I got to reconnect with Najor about his latest film and feature narrative directorial debut, "Adjunct."
"Adjunct" is a personal film for many reasons. First, Najor drew heavily on his own experiences as an adjunct professor to create the film.
"People don't realize, as an adjunct, although you teach all the classes and you do all the work and you get to be part of these students' experiences, on the back end of it, you're not getting a pension. You're not getting health care. You're not getting a real salary that can sustain you," Najor explained.
There are a lot of films about teachers and professors, but Najor felt there had never been a film that looked at the life of an adjunct professor and highlighted the challenges of the profession.
The film is also personal because Najor decided to take on the lead role of Amer, an adjunct professor at an unnamed university who is hoping for a tenure-track job.
"I feel like this movie is almost revealing too much, if I'm going to be very honest," Najor said. "I just want to say it's very scary because you're really showing yourself in a way where sometimes people watch the movie and I'm like, 'Oh, wow, you actually saw a lot of me.' I think some artists do reveal themselves through their work. And I do think it's a great way to show your art."
Najor also returned to his hometown of San Diego to shoot the movie; calling on friends, former students and his Iraqi family for support.
"I should say the family that's in the movie is my family," Najor said. "I'm Middle Eastern. Both my parents are from Iraq, and a lot of my family — my mom's side of the family — is here in San Diego, and we all grew up here. And so they've all gone off to start different businesses. And one of my uncles started a place called Sahara that's in East County. And it's this amazing Middle Eastern restaurant. And when I decided I wanted to shoot in a restaurant, I asked my family if they would let me do that, and they said yes. My family has helped me on all my movies. They've always turned up and given me access to things."
Like his cousin's engagement party, where he also shot a scene. His family's presence lends a wonderful cultural backdrop to the movie and does add another layer of personal storytelling.
"Adjunct" is a triumph of Najor’s scrappy indie spirit and will hopefully open people's eyes to some of the inequities adjunct professors face in the workplace. The film opens tonight at Digital Gym Cinema in East Village and screens through next Wednesday, with Najor hosting post-film Q&As tonight through Saturday.
And one more from the archives featuring Najor and Cretton:
