Producer Patrick Malkassian Brings Heart, Heritage to Filmmaking

When most businesspeople enter the fourth decade of their careers, they begin planning a second act. Known for his ambition, Patrick Malkassian is already onto his third - and with astonishing early success. His most recent effort, “Amerikatsi,” shortlisted for this year’s Academy Awards in the Best International Feature category, was inspired by his Armenian heritage – all not bad for someone who only recently entered the filmmaking arena.

Malkassian, 52, who splits time between Malibu and his native San Francisco Bay Area, began his career by founding Ropama, a global leader in “farm-to-fashion,” sourcing and supplying premium leathers to major European brands. The company has a global footprint supplying major brands across the world. Ropama also supplied American hotels, casinos and nightclub venues with leather. Some noteworthy projects were the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, SBE in Los Angeles and the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas.

For his second act, he created RAM & East Bay Holdings, a real estate investment and operating company focused in San Francisco and Oakland, where Malkassian was born. The company’s assets include multiple industrial buildings and numerous multifamily apartment complexes across the Bay Area cities that he is passionate about revitalizing. In recent years, Malkassian has turned toward film production, becoming a patron for independent voices and backing films that have been released to great acclaim.

The most significant of these – and the one closest to Malkassian’s heart – is “Amerikatsi.”

The path to making any film is long and winding. In the case of “Amerikatsi,” the journey toward this stirring labor of love began decades ago in the halls of an Oakland high school. It was at Bishop O’Dowd that Malkassian, an athlete, met an acting talent named Michael Goorjian to whom he felt tethered thanks to their uncommon heritage. Goorjian and Malkassian both attended UCLA after graduating from O’Dowd, but their paths diverged from there. Goorjian went on to become a celebrated director and actor, winning an Emmy Award for best supporting actor.

As Malkassian was building his international business, he also developed creative interests. He lived in. Guadalajara, Florence, and Paris, and art history and culture became strong influences.

Malkassian’s family was deeply rooted in Armenian, African and international culture. His mother’s family immigrated through Ellis Island to California’s Central Valley, where they faced tremendous prejudice. Malkassian’s paternal grandparents landed in Aleppo, Syria, after the desert marches of WWI. His grandfather proposed to his grandmother – an orphan – and took her and her surviving sibling to Sudan, where Malkassian’s father was born. He grew up speaking six languages, attended university in the United Kingdom, and eventually moved to Berkeley, California. Patrick began his journey career in Africa, following in his grandfather’s footsteps, in Khartoum where the Blue and White Nile meet in Africa. It was here that the influences of his cultural past blended with his future to trade.

“I have mainly had a commercial background, but I had artistic interests from a young age,” said Malkassian, who is a cousin of famed artist Manuel Tolegian, one of Jackson Pollock’s closest friends, and whose grandfather, Albert Kalakian, was featured in several of Pulitzer Price awarded author William Saroyan’s books.

Those influences deepened when he married Elizabeth Nalbandian, who joined some of his endeavors and business. Her parents had a love and collection of fine art, with a special attention to Dutch and French-Armenian artists. Her father, Albert, was a part-time actor and close associate of San Francisco filmmakers George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola. He appeared in more than 20 films, including “American Graffiti,” “The Conversation,” “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” “So I Married An Axe Murderer,”and “Jack.”

“I always appreciated art and artists, I began to see film as a place I could make my own contribution,” said Malkassian. Malkassian became interested in film production, eventually producing acclaimed independent films like “Freeheld,” “Silk Road,” “Windfall”, “On the Line: The Richard Williams Story .”

But “Amerikatsi” was a different sort of project, far more intimate and personal. Malkassian cultivated relationships with financiers and producers who could help them shoot the film on-location. “Amerikatsi” eventually shot in Armenia with a local crew and many regional actors. Filming started in early 2020 just as the COVID-19 pandemic began. It was eventually released in mid-2023, playing to rousing ovations across the world.

Armenia chose “Amerikatsi” as its official submission for the Academy Awards in the Best International Feature category. The movie made history when it was the first Armenian entry added to the Academy’s shortlist. “The Amerikatsi experience has been beautiful,” Malkassian said. “It’s difficult to express the power of helping create something so close to your heart and have it be received so warmly. It’s something I want to keep doing, getting behind stories that are vessels for cultures and events that may have been forgotten.”

What’s next for Malkassian? He is a producer of “Sasquatch Sunset,” an absurdist comedy called “ingenious” by reviewers after it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. The Zellner Brothers creation which starred Riley Keough, Jessie Eisenberg, Christophe Zajac-Denek was also produced by San Franciscans Todd Traina and George Rush.

Malkassian is a board member of the Near East Foundation, which provides funding for women-owned businesses in the Middle East and Africa. NEF also helps build more sustainable, prosperous, and inclusive communities through education, community, and health. He is also passionate about vocalizing crimes against humanity as with Amerikatsi and his global network of contacts.

Malkassian remains deeply committed to California. His current real estate focus is to help redevelop Oakland and San Francisco, especially affordable housing in struggling areas. He would like to work with local politicians to reconfigure Oakland’s industrial possibilities.

In Los Angeles, he is utilizing his film experience to look toward other avenues of creativity. Malkassian would like to be immersed in film by finding pathways for film distribution, creatively collaborating with industry leaders.

Whatever the outcome, it will surely involve his love of art, his passion for global business, and his ability to bring people with different ideas together to make a positive change in the world.

-Scott Brown