Screenwriter and filmmaker Neil Jimenez, whose credits include “Rivers Edge” and “The Water Dance,” died of heart failure on December 11 in Arroyo Grande, California. He was 62 years old. His work has been a favorite on the award circuit, garnering wins in screenwriting categories at ceremonies like the Independent Spirit Awards and the Sundance Film Festival.
Jimenez wrote and co-directed The Waterdance with director Michael Steinberg, and along with the film’s recognition on the awards circuit in 1993, the biopic was included in The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made. He co-wrote five other films: “Where the River Runs Black,” “For the Boys,” “The Dark Wind,” “Sleep With Me,” and “Hideaway.”
For more than a decade, he’s been an in-demand script doctor in Hollywood, commissioned to write screenplays for Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, Wolfgang Peterson, Atom Egoyan, Robert Redford, Madonna, Tom Hanks, and more.
“His writing voice is seductive, powerful and completely unique,” said Steinberg. “Like a complex chord with a range that can move in any direction. Dark, playful, romantic, political, gritty, imaginative, poetic. In the 40 years since meeting Neil, I’ve worked with dozens of big names and huge talent. But only a handful of real artists are on the field.” Genius level. Jiménez, like Tarantino and The Farrelly Brothers, had a voice powerful enough for cinema birds.”
Born in Sacramento, California to Joe and Marcel Jimenez, Jimenez wrote plays and made Super 8 movies from an early age. He began writing professionally at the age of 17, starting landing assignments for LA Weekly and California Magazine while an English major at Santa Clara University. At the age of twenty-one, he transferred to the UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television, where he wrote “River’s Edge” while in film class.
“My brother had a passion for writing and creativity,” said his sister, Elizabeth Rathgen. The crackling of writing seemed to come daily through his bedroom walls. He had drawers full of typed pages and magazines full of his own words and ink drawings. He wrote then because he had to, he needed to and he wanted to. I always fantasized about walking into a bookstore and seeing books Composed by my brother. Instead it was a video and movie store.”
“For as long as I can remember, my brother has been making short films at Super 8 with his friends,” Rathjen continued. “He spent hours cutting and splicing the movie together. He seemed to know how he wanted the movie to appear. Neil had an easy wit and a great wit. He enjoyed movies and books and music and wanted other people to enjoy those things too.”
The release of “River’s Edge” in 1987 put Jimenez on the map as a notable screenwriter, whose dark theme and tone influenced independent films and music over the next decade, marked by such examples as Nirvana’s 1991 album “Nevermind.”
At the age of 24, Jiménez went on a camping trip with friends and fell into a life-changing midnight stroll, subsequently using a wheelchair for the rest of his life. BBC film producer and director Tony Garnett picked up one of Jimenez’s screenplays and managed the Warner Bros. development deal after hearing of his accident. Jimenez was tapped to write a script about five months of spinal cord rehabilitation at Rancho Los Amigos — and the result was “The Waterdance.”
“Few people know the true level of cinematic vision that Neil carried, because his best screenplays are left unfinished,” Steinberg said. “He and I had a deep connection from the moment we met at UCLA Film School in 1982. We liked the same authors, films, and music. He made my student film and we began collaborating on a number of projects that we wanted to co-direct.”
Jiménez is survived by two sisters, Kathleen and Elizabeth.
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