Mardik: From Baghdad to Hollywood

Running time: 85 mins

In the maw of the Hollywood machine, it can be a quick and precipitous fall from being yesterday?s darling to today?s ignored and unemployable pariah.

Mardik Martin had it all: beautiful women, a big house in the Hollywood Hills, a good friend and colleague in Martin Scorsese and a résumé which included screenwriting credits for Mean Streets, Raging Bull and New York, New York. But for the wunderkind who immigrated to New York City from Iraq, success, and the fame and money it brought, not to mention a self-destructive drug habit, sent his career into a seemingly bottomless downward spiral. At first everything was terrific, but eventually the demands of the Hollywood system cramped, then quashed his creative spirit, and he fled back to New York City, ending up addicted, broke and homeless.

A born storyteller, Martin weaves fascinating, spellbinding tales of his extraordinary life, many in conversation with his old film school classmate, Scorsese. A riveting cautionary tale of an ultimately triumphant maverick, Martin is a story of hope, renewal, redemption and the courage to hold onto one?s dreams and art.