‘Riverside’ writer and ‘Dancing Water’ director Neil Jimenez dies at 62

Neal Jimenez was the writer-director of a string of critically acclaimed films in the 1980s and 1990s, including the thriller Riverside and his directorial debut, the semi-autobiographical drama Dancing Water, He died of heart failure on December 11, his family has announced. He is 62 years old.

Paralyzed by a walking accident while a student at UCLA in 1984, Jimenez paved the way for disability representation with “Water Dancing,” a 1991 play by Eric Stoltz starring, he is a writer struggling to recover after being paralyzed from the neck down. Based in part on his own recovery, the film was released to critical acclaim and won Best First Film and Best Screenplay at the 1992 Independent Spirit Awards.

Jimenez also wrote the screenplays for “The Boys” (1991), “Sleep With Me” (1994) and “The Hideout” (1995, among others).

“My brother was passionate about writing and creating. The sound of typing seemed to come from his bedroom walls every day. His drawers were full of typed pages and journals full of his words and ink scribbles. He was writing Letter because he had to, needed, and wanted,” Jimenez’s sister, Elizabeth Ruskin, said in a statement. “I always imagined walking into a bookstore and seeing books written by my brother. Instead, it was a video store and a movie store. My brother and his friends have been making short films on the Super 8 for as long as I can remember. He spent hours editing and splicing the film. He seemed to know how he wanted the film to look. Neil was gifted and witty. He loved movies, books and music and wanted others to enjoy them too.”

Jimenez’s co-director on Dancing Water, Michael Steinberg, said in a statement: “His writing voice is seductive, powerful and utterly unique, like a complex minor chord with a range that can go in any direction. Moving. Dark, funny, romantic, political, gritty, fantastical, poetic. In the 40 years since I’ve known Neal, I’ve worked with dozens of famous and brilliant people. But only a handful of truly talented artists. Jimenez, like Tarantino and the Farrelly brothers, has the voice to subvert cinema.”

Jimenez was born in Sacramento on May 22, 1960, to Mexican-American parents who owned and operated a Shell gas station. Before beginning his college education at Santa Clara University, he began his career writing for a local weekly newspaper, The Grapevine Independent. He eventually transferred to UCLA to study film, where he wrote his first screenplay, “Riverside.”

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