Rome Mubarak’s twitter account, under the name The Mysterious Mr. Foley, describes him as a Film Director, Editor, Producer, Writer, Master’s Bike racer, Educator, Professor of Political Science, lover of truth and fighter of causes. And indeed he is all those things and more. He directed several short films including The Surrender in 2019 and The Tempest and The Thin Line in 2018. He is the writer and director of The Way We Were which is currently in pre-production. I asked what he considers his values: “Well my chief values probably rest in my children — making sure that their prosperity and aspirations far exceed mine. I think that’s probably number one for me, being a provider type and family man pretty much since I was 24 years old. I started early.”

I asked Rome how his values have determined his choices in life. “I think much of that grew out of really good discipline. My values were instilled in me by my mom and I think that worked in my favor because she was the kind of mom who, even though she was loving, had a very, very strict work ethic. So even though I did play in the neighborhood with the other kids, playing did not take up most of my free time. She was the sort of parent that said, ‘Okay, look, not only do you have your chores, but you’ve got a garden that you’re responsible for and other things that have grown out of good choices that you have made.’ Much of that kind of thing has changed with the children of today in that they didn’t get that industrial workshop class that we got growing up as kids. I had metal shop, wood shop, auto shop, and a lot of those things helped develop a work ethic.”

Rome Mubarak sees pride of ownership as extending into being able to maintain what you own as well. “You need to know how to fix it if something went awry with it. Today, on my entire street, there are only a couple of us guys who have a workshop in their garage. I know that seems simple but, we used to be in the majority. Everybody had a drill press, everybody had a buffer and a grinder, everybody had a table saw, you name it. Everybody knew how to maintain things.”

When it comes to Freedom Rome defines it as follows: “Freedom for me is probably the ability to go where I would like to go without trepidation, but also I think having the ability to change my mind. Those two things in particular really stand out for me.”
Today Rome is semi-retired, but he worked twenty years as a social worker for Child Protective Services and then taught Political Science for six years as a college professor. “I’m excited to be going to go back to school now to pursue my passion in photography and film I was on the yearbook staff when I was in school and I was a reporter as a CPS social worker. One day I said to myself, ‘Well, I know how to write, why don’t I just start writing about the stories and experiences from my lifetime.’”
Since then he has won many accolades and awards from film festivals across the world including 2nd Place for Best Screenplay at the Peachtree Village International Film Festival for The Way We Were, Best Treatment in the Cannes Screenplay Competition in Paris for The Way We Were and a quarterfinalist award for The Introspect at the Screencraft FilmFund Competition in Los Angeles. He has also written The Tempest and Sugar Loaf in 2018, Manny’s Mania in 2019 and screenplays for The Way We Were, The Introspect, The Chernny Bavarskiy, and Northern Winds. Rome Mubarak is also an actor, known for Til Death Do Us Part (2017) and The Birthright Project (2016).
With The Way We Were currently in Pre-Production, Rome finds himself on the verge of a big breakthrough, “I’m really looking forward to making my first big break with one of the stories that I wrote and that’s really where my interest is now.”
Rome says there have been times when he had to turn down a project based on his values. I tried acting for a while and some of the roles I had to walk away from just for my own integrity and my own moral fabric. It’s hard because I’m not in a position where get to pick and choose my roles. If I walk away from something, it will affect me financially and career wise.”
Rome was born and raised in South-central Los Angeles and says “ I have had an extra-ordinary life as an African American male transcending stereotypes by being exposed to the world and its different mediums by living abroad, owning International real estate and seeing my own country and her people’s from the outside looking in. Film and photography have always been an integral part of my life since childhood – conveying life’s magic as a member of my high school’s yearbook staff to present day as a re-entry graduate student at UCLA’s Extension program. Presently on the Director’s track, I also find myself wanting to study cinematography as well since that is my childhood background.”
When asked who inspires him Rome is quick to mention a couple of well known Hollywood names: “I really like Denzel Washington and I like Quentin Tarantino. I love the drive that they have about them. Even though they’re very different in their manner and how they carry themselves, they’re very similar in drive and they’re both nice individuals. And I really appreciate that and I like how off-the-cuff they both can be with tackling different issues. Because I do a lot of writing I also follow Aaron Sorkin, Martin Scorsese and Oliver Stone as well. They are definitely favorites of mine. When I was in my 30s, I got a chance to go Oliver Stone’s ranch up in NorCal. That was when they allowed people to tour it and it was a lot of fun doing that and meeting him for the first time. He talked to us as a young group that was inter-ested in film and so forth. It was just very cool.”
Like most of us, Rome Mubarak is concerned with the impact the Covid-19 virus is having on the world, but he does see some signs of hope. “I think, little by little, we have been seeing some signs that we could maybe, and I’m stepping out on faith here, but I think we could maybe get back to some level of normalcy soon. Of course, with all the politics involved on the myriad of issues out there it’s hard to know what that new normal will be. I think people have just mastered clickbait, creating a shock culture and the media plays into that, the idea of how can we keep every household’s attention on the screen. And so we’ve gone from, ‘Be advised this clip is not suitable for children under a certain age,’ to how much more contamination can we create on the airwaves. It seems as though there is a no holds barred on discretion or advisement. The revisionist ideas are changing so many narratives. That has its place, clearly, but the theatrics are stepping out of the theater into the real world.”
A multi-talented man with sound thinking and sincerity defines Rome Mubarak as one of the Men of Value in our world.