A werewolf passed away on a full moon
This may seem like an odd way to start, but he would have liked it. This is not going to be your usual, almost cold in memoriam piece… I was hoping to have my first piece on this filmmaker and friend be about his work, not about this.
Tomas Navarro passed away during the night of August 2nd to August 3rd, 2020 at his home in San Diego, California. He was a filmmaker, playwright, director, writer, actor, occasional model, he wrote for Cinema Crazed a few times, and amazing human being. Born and raised in San Diego, he was proud of where he was from and working toward making a name for himself in the horror film industry with his production team at SavageZack. They have produced a few short films and music videos and he was working on reshooting his first short film as a director to make it the best film it could be. His last acting part will be released soon in the film Continuance by Tony Olmos, whom he had worked with previously on the film South of 8.
Tomas was also the kind of person who put others’ needs before his and was the sole caretaker for his mother. He also was always there for his friends and those who mattered to him. As one of these friends, this is possibly the most difficult piece I’ve ever had to write. Getting the call from his filmmaking partner Jamie (who I’ll forever be grateful to for making what must has been some of the worst calls of her life and thinking of me) was a moment of pure loss. It’s hard to explain the impact Tomas had on my life, so I will use words that I put down on social media when things were still raw, about 2 days after I got the news:
Tomas has passed away. My heart is completely broken. He was one of my best friends; he was always there if I needed him. He was one of the best humans I’ve ever met. I don’t have words for how this loss feels.
This man protected me when it was absolutely not his responsibility, he stepped in many times for me, he was there when my life came crashing down on me, more than once. He was one of my best of friends, he was family, my dude, my bro, my bruh (like he called me at times, the only man to get away with that), the dude I’d go to multiple times per day by text about anything good, bad, stupid, anything. He quite literally saved my life by being there.
He was my cheerleader (pompoms and all), my biggest supporter, and a fan of my work. He always pushed me to go for that impossible goal, to get that gig, to go out with that guy. We had known each other for almost 2 decades, the last 6ish years being those where we connected the most after shit went down and we needed a friend.
He was also a regular contributor to my art. We were about to be published in a magazine for the first time together. You’ve seen him give me props and give me shit on social like only he could do. You’ve seen his face in all my calendars, you’ve seen him in my photos countless times. No matter what stupid idea I came up with, he was always right there willing to become Santa the Barbarian, a man overtaken by an alien entity, a post transformation werewolf, you name it. We have so many unfinished plans.
Tomas, I miss you, I will always miss you.
This giant of a man left a giant-sized hole in the lives of so many, none more so than his mother, so please take a moment to share and/or donate to his memorial fund on GoFundMe which has been set up to pay for his funeral expenses and help his mother: