Nicholas is my name

Nicholas von Sternberg was a first-year UCLA graduate film student when, at the age of 21, he became the unlikely director of photography on "Dolemite," a scrappy blaxploitation film released in 1975 that aimed to have it all — plenty of profanity, sex, drugs, crime and kung-fu-style action, in keeping with the genre that emerged only a few years before with the 1971 film "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song." Made on a shoestring budget of $70,000, the film went on to make $10 million, appealing to a young, African American audience eager to see themselves represented on screen in a different way. Now 68 years old, von Sternberg, who went on to shoot more than 50 films, TV shows and commercials as a director of photography in his 27-year career, is a supporting character (played by Kodi Smit-McPhee) in the new Netflix film "Dolemite Is My Name." In the film, Eddie Murphy portrays singer-comedian Rudy Ray Moore, whose stage persona was a loudly dressed, over-the-top pimp with a fondness for explicit rhymes. " The film received two Golden Globe nominations today in the categories of Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy and Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy (Eddie Murphy). Dubbed the "Godfather of rap," Moore entertained black audiences in Los Angeles in the late 1960s and early 1970s before setting his sights on cinematic fame; when studios turned him down, he decided to make his own film. "Dolemite Is My Name," directed by Craig Brewer, chronicles the wacky production that ensued.