GO DOWN DEATH
Go Down Death
Aaron Schimberg, 2014
Catalog No.: FTF-049
Length: 88 minutes
Go Down Death is a wry, sinister realization of a strange new universe, a cross-episodic melange of macabre folktales supposedly penned by the fictitious writer Jonathan Mallory Sinus. An abandoned factory in Brooklyn stands in for a decrepit village haunted by ghosts, superstition and disease, while threatening to buckle under rumblings of the apocalypse. Soldiers are lost and found in endless woods, a child gravedigger is menaced by a shapeshifting physician, a syphilitic john bares all to a young prostitute and a disfigured outcast yearns for the affections of a tone-deaf cabaret singer.
Highlighted by offbeat narrative construction, stunning black-and-white 16mm cinematography and immaculately detailed production design, Go Down Death is a distinctively original film informed by American Gothic, folk culture and outsider art.
Directed and Written by Aaron Schimberg
Produced and Edited by Vanessa McDonnell
Cinematography by Jimmy Lee Phelan
Starring: Lee Azzarello, Doug Barron, Burton Crane, Brandon deSpain, Rayvin Disla, Anthony Droz, Melissa Elledge, Kara Feely, Carrie Getman, Avi Glickstein, Adam Hocherman, Travis Just, Lucy Kaminsky, Sean Kryston, Eric Magnus, Morris Mandell, Sammy Mena, Tavish Miller, Benjamin Minter, Ricardo Molfa, Gina Murdock, Aphrodite Navab, Henry Packer, John Pamer, Kerrilynn Pamer, Bryant Pappas, David Regelmann, Alexis Rothenberg, Roy Scranton, John Henry Soto, Liliana Velásquez, Jon Wenc, Simone Xi, Johnny Zito
Festivals: Fantasia Film Festival, Raindance Film Festival, Ravenna Film Festival, Northside Film Festival, Starz Denver Film Festival, Three Rivers Film Festival
WATCH THE FILM
PRESS
"Dreamy Postcards From Limbo."
– Nicolas Rapold, The New York Times
"A captivating excursion into surrealist Americana. Certain to leave audiences thinking, arguing, rejecting, celebrating."
– Alan Scherstuhl, The Village Voice, Critics Pick
"An astonishing, out-of-nowhere film. Amidst all the cookie-cutter indies, Aaron Schimberg’s Go Down Death casts a mysterious spell. A dreamy, highly stylized affair recalling early David Lynch. Highly recommended."
– Scott Macaulay, Filmmaker Magazine
"A unique, strange, unforgettable film, a half-remembered dream that will trouble and beguile the subconscious long after you’ve moved on. (A-)"
– Gabe Toro, Indiewire’s The Playlist
"One of the best films of the year! An uncompromising feast of vision and atmosphere."
– Kentucker Audley, NoBudge
"Aaron Schimberg's Go Down Death is one of the strangest films ever, and then the last fifteen minutes happen. Some call him Lynch, some say Madden, but sooner than later you’ll just be saying Schimberg."
– Christopher Bell, Indiewire's The Playlist/Vivoscene
"Robert Altman meets Tod Browning...an immaculate, offbeat triumph. Rarely do homespun independent filmmakers convey such a distinctively original vision."
– Jon Dieringer, Screen Slate
"Irresistible! Evokes the great novels of William Faulkner, even as Go Down Death offers us a resolutely modern filmic experience. Schimberg appropriates the language of cinema and obeys only the rules he sets out for himself. The result is a thrilling leap into the unknown."
– Simon Laperriére, Fantasia
"A singular work of DIY punk filmmaking."
– Lisa K. Broad, Tativille
"A work of latter-day Dadaism...an expression of the same humanist-horror that Tod Browning imparted in his pre-Code classic Freaks. Go Down Death is as eccentric and daring as American indie cinema gets."
– Matthew Campbell, Starz Denver