Aaron Schimberg, Director/Writer: GO DOWN DEATH

Aaron Schimberg, Director

1Q: Tell us a little about the origins of GO DOWN DEATH, from concept to financing.

Go Down Death was inspired partly by a fever-dream I had while on morphine after having surgery. Unfortunately certain key elements of the dream infringed on some existing intellectual copyrights held by a large and intimidating media corporation, so I had to change or outright remove some specific details. This lends the film a chaotic, fractured structure.

Other elements of this dream were highly personal, which is to say, public domain, although now that these personal details have been filmed, they are jointly owned by the Library of Congress and my distributor.  I no longer hold any stake in my personal problems.

The making of the film seems to me now like another fever-dream, induced by stimulants instead of narcotics.  Now I’m incredibly hungover, and due for more surgery.

2Q: GO DOWN DEATH has done well at previous film festivals, and even made Indiwire’s list of Best Undistributed Films. Will you be less nervous now at Cinequest? Does this process ever get any easier?

It does get easier, theoretically, but I am just as nervous, especially about the flight to California.

3Q: What was your best and/or worst experience while making GO DOWN DEATH?

The night-terrors regarding my upcoming flight to California rank among the worst experiences I’ve had.  Another bad experience was showing the film to a hostile crowd.  The best experience was showing the film to a slightly less hostile crowd.

4Q: Festival audiences often have to make hard decisions about what to see, and the catalog descriptions sometimes run together. In your own words, why should people see your film?

You will never see another film quite like it, although you may see a film that has a fairly similar title.

5Q: Time to pre-plan: You just won the Best Director Oscar for GO DOWN DEATH. Give us your acceptance speech.

“Thank you, this is quite a surprise, and a true testament to the fact that, hypothetically, anything is possible.”

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