Kino Lorber announces the DVD release of Down Down the Deep River, written and directed by Will Sheff of Okkervil River. This 42-minute, dialogue-free, dreamlike fantasy film tells the story of the friendship that develops between two young boys in 1980s small-town New Hampshire, set to a musical soundscape drawn from Okkervil River's song "Down Down the Deep River".
Set to street on September 5, Down Down the Deep River comes to DVD, and packed with special features including audio commentary by Will Sheff and Director of Photography Johnny North, a behind-the-scenes featurette, deleted scenes, music videos, and a read-along adventure book and recording. The film will also become available digitally on iTunes and Amazon Instant Video on September 5.
Down Down The Deep River marks the directorial debut of Will Sheff, lead singer and songwriter for Okkervil River. Shot in Sheff's hometown in 2014 with local non-actors, the dreamy, dialogue-free short film is a story of childhood, imagination, alienation, and loss as two young boys form a friendship and spur the unfolding strange events in 1980s small town New Hampshire.
For Sheff, Down Down the Deep River contains strong autobiographical elements. The film was shot in his own hometown of Meriden, NH, using mostly non-professional child actors from the area. The film crew was a multi-generational mix of New York-based professionals and local volunteers from the area. The locations are heavily autobiographically weighted, using actual classrooms at the elementary school attended by Sheff, the production design includes elements inspired by his childhood toys and furniture, and even the meal eaten in a dinner scene was made from his mother's old recipe, lending the film a strong mix of reality and autobiography.
Set to street on September 5, Down Down the Deep River comes to DVD, and packed with special features including audio commentary by Will Sheff and Director of Photography Johnny North, a behind-the-scenes featurette, deleted scenes, music videos, and a read-along adventure book and recording. The film will also become available digitally on iTunes and Amazon Instant Video on September 5.
Down Down The Deep River marks the directorial debut of Will Sheff, lead singer and songwriter for Okkervil River. Shot in Sheff's hometown in 2014 with local non-actors, the dreamy, dialogue-free short film is a story of childhood, imagination, alienation, and loss as two young boys form a friendship and spur the unfolding strange events in 1980s small town New Hampshire.
For Sheff, Down Down the Deep River contains strong autobiographical elements. The film was shot in his own hometown of Meriden, NH, using mostly non-professional child actors from the area. The film crew was a multi-generational mix of New York-based professionals and local volunteers from the area. The locations are heavily autobiographically weighted, using actual classrooms at the elementary school attended by Sheff, the production design includes elements inspired by his childhood toys and furniture, and even the meal eaten in a dinner scene was made from his mother's old recipe, lending the film a strong mix of reality and autobiography.
Impeccable art direction brings magic to nostalgic, dreamlike, fictionalized representations of Sheff's own childhood memories, filtering them through the aesthetics of the cornerstone children's fantasy films of the era - E.T., Explorers, and The Goonies to name a few.
In achieving this nostalgic tone for the film, Sheff said "I wanted to capture my own memories of childhood -- not the truth but rather how I remember it feeling to be a kid -- but I also wanted make an artwork that enacted my own desperate and melodramatic sense of nostalgia while also speaking to the way that nostalgia misrepresents what actually happened. And I wanted to make sense of the role that pop entertainment plays in all of that."
Sheff scored the film to a musical landscape drawn from his band's song "Down Down the Deep River" from their 2013 album The Silver Gymnasium. The score was inspired by the shooting conditions of the film, which involved re-visiting the same location four times throughout the year to capture the change of the seasons. Sheff's score reflects the seasonal feel of the film, shifting palette from warm bubbly synths in spring to electric guitar in summer to woodwinds in the fall and a piano and string quartet in winter.
In achieving this nostalgic tone for the film, Sheff said "I wanted to capture my own memories of childhood -- not the truth but rather how I remember it feeling to be a kid -- but I also wanted make an artwork that enacted my own desperate and melodramatic sense of nostalgia while also speaking to the way that nostalgia misrepresents what actually happened. And I wanted to make sense of the role that pop entertainment plays in all of that."
Sheff scored the film to a musical landscape drawn from his band's song "Down Down the Deep River" from their 2013 album The Silver Gymnasium. The score was inspired by the shooting conditions of the film, which involved re-visiting the same location four times throughout the year to capture the change of the seasons. Sheff's score reflects the seasonal feel of the film, shifting palette from warm bubbly synths in spring to electric guitar in summer to woodwinds in the fall and a piano and string quartet in winter.
Jeremy [Six Strings]
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