Ramy Katrib Movies
- 2008
Plenty of young movie buffs come to Hollywood hoping to break into the movie business, but Mardik Martin traveled a bit farther than most. Born and raised in Iraq, Mardik Martin's father was an Iraqi intelligence officer, but at an early age Mardik became fascinated with the movies and dreamed of going to America. When he was 18, after a stint working in MGM's Baghdad distribution office, Martin traveled to California to attend college, and while a political overthrow soon left his family penniless and unable to support him, the aspiring filmmaker refused to turn his back on his dreams. Mardik made friends with a fellow film student and rabid movie buff named Martin Scorsese, and Mardik would not only help the young Scorsese make several of his early films, he would help write the screenplays for some of Scorsese's signature works, including Mean Streets, Raging Bull and New York, New York. Mardik: From Baghdad to Hollywood is a documentary which follows Mardik Martin's story from his youth in the Middle East to his salad days in Hollywood, only to lose his career to drugs and start a new life in academia. Mardik: From Baghdad to Hollywood was an official selection at the 2008 Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, California. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 2006
Filmmaker A.J. Schnack draws from over twenty-five hours of audio taped interviews to offer an intimate meditation on the life of the man who changed the face of rock and roll in the 1990s in this film that uses materials originally gathered for music journalist Michael Azerrad's book Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana. From his early childhood to his discovery of music and his troubled attempts to make sense of his skyrocketing fame as a member of Nirvana, Cobain recounts his life in a series of previously unreleased recordings. By combining the interviews with footage of Aberdeen, Olympia, and Seattle - three Washington cities that played a major role in Cobain's tragically short life - director Schnack assembles a dreamlike journey into the mind of an oft-discussed but widely misunderstood legend. An ethereal score by Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard and Nirvana producer Steve Fisk, as well as songs by some of Cobain's favorite recording artists including David Bowie and The Melvins, merge with evocative imagery to strip away the legend and portray the subject as a real man whose talents stood in stark contrast to his ability to deal with the hardships of fame. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
