Background

James Anthony Merendino was born on January 11, 1969, in Long Branch, New Jersey, United States. He moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, at 6.

Education

James Merendino graduated from Judge Memorial Catholic High School in 1985. He attended colleges in Rome and Los Angeles, California, where he studied Western philosophy and theology.

Career

James Merendino settled in Hollywood, California, when he was 19 years old, and began a tenure with Hollywood producer Daniel Melnick. In 1991, Merendino was hired for his first motion picture, Witchcraft IV: The Virgin Heart. His second film, A River Made to Drown In (1997), is a movie that was pivotal to the gay community in the United States, with Richard Chamberlain coming out publicly after the film's release. His television work includes Alexandria Hotel, 1998, which he produced and directed. Merendino's film appearances include Ivans XTC, 2000.

Merendino's most successful film, SLC Punk!, was released in 1998. The film is centered on two punk rockers living in Salt Lake City and follows their daily nihilistic lives. Attempting to provide a genre under which to classify SLC Punk!, John Petkovic of the Cleveland, Ohio, Plain Dealer identified it as "rebel nostalgia." In such films, of which other examples (according to Petkovic) are Goodfellas, 54, Boogie Nights, and Velvet Goldmine, "well-adjusted characters revisit wild, bygone days only to realize that "Yes, it was crazy, but I’m not that person anymore." The story comes from Merendino's own experience as a teen when circumstances cast him in the unlikely role of a punk rocker in the famously conservative, heavily Mormon, Utah capital. "To be an anarchist in Salt Lake City in 1985 was no easy task," proclaims his protagonist, Stevo, perhaps speaking for Merendino himself.

In 2016, the long-awaited sequel to SLC Punk, Punk's Dead was released. Merendino wanted to tell a story about being alive, and clinging to life, and letting go of things a person can't have." That's sort of my sandbox. I thought that if I'm going to tell a story like that, it's going to be in Salt Lake," Merendino said. Punk's Dead introduces a new generation of Utah teens trying to figure out their place in the punk world. Today's punk scene has many subdivisions, Merendino said, but the disparate groups have common threads. "What's interesting about that generation of punks - or Goths or whatever the scene is - is they still listen to the same music we were listening to in the '80s," Merendino said. That music is heard throughout the soundtrack, but new music is represented in a rocking finale at a rock show staged in June 2014 at The Complex in downtown Salt Lake City - at the end of the movie's rapid-fire two-week shoot. The concert was paid for by SLC Punk fans through the crowd-funding website IndieGogo, where more than $90,000 was raised for the movie.

Achievements

• James Merendino has directed 18 movies also served as the writer on the majority of them. He was nominated for best original screenplay at the 2000 Independent Spirit Awards for "Salt Lake City Punk!" (1998).

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Amerikana

    (From the director of SLC Punk comes this road-movie about...)

    2001
  • Terrified

    (After watching in horror as her husband kills her lover a...)

    1995
  • Evil Remains

    (A graduate student preparing his thesis on mythology lead...)

    2004
  • River Made to Drown In

    (Thaddeus Mackenzie, a wealthy lawyer, learns that he is d...)

    1997
  • SLC Punk

    (It's 1985 and Stevo is that rare animal, a punk rocker in...)

    1998
  • Magicians

    (A Comedy of illusions Max is a less-than-gifted magician ...)

    2000
  • Punk's Dead: SLC Punk 2

    (Punk's Dead: SLC Punk 2 is the sequel to the cult hit SLC...)

    2016
  • Witchcraft IV: The Virgin Heart 1992

Views

James Merendino finds European cinema to be more friendly to independent movies and the United States' - to be friendlier to huge ideas.

Interests

• Music & Bands

  punk rock

Connections

James Merendino is in a relationship with Severine Ferrari, the editor of bridal publications.

life partner:

Severine Ferrari

Severine Ferrari is the founder of Engagement 101, the first multi-media platform dedicated to couples planning their engagement. Though she resides in New York, her native French sense of style and romance still strongly influences her editorial vision and voice. She is the 2017 Winner of the WJA Awards of Excellence Editorial Category.

colleague:

Daniel Melnick

Daniel Melnick was a producer who brought gutsy, smart movies like "Straw Dogs," "Network," and "Midnight Express" to the big screen. His movies won more than 80 Academy Award nominations and more than two dozen Academy Awards.

According to James Merendino, working with Daniel Melnick was the "best worst" thing that ever happened to him. In the end, it had no physical effect on his career, but Melnick definitely taught Merendino how to play.