Crowning Achievement
DIEGO ONGARO’S DOWN WITH THE KING, FILMED IN THE BERKSHIRES, GOES GLOBAL
By Benjamin Lerner // Photos Courtesy Stage 6 Films
When the closing credits for Down with the King started rolling on the Mahaiwe’s big screen last winter, a sonic tidal wave of thunderous applause rippled through the audience. It had been five months since the film’s debut at the illustrious Cannes Film Festival in July 2021, but the screen- ing in Great Barrington was every bit as electric as a world premiere. Shot almost entirely in the Berkshires, it was the first time that the film had been screened at a local theater. Down with the King had come home to take its rightful throne, and it was clear from the crowd’s reaction that the film had made a profound impact on the community.
Released through Sony Pictures’ Stage 6 Films on June 28, Down with the King is poised to make an equally significant impression on film lovers around the globe, and will showcase the idyllic scenery and local culture of the Berkshires to a vast and wide audience. Although the exact geographic location is never directly referenced in the film’s dialogue, the indelible footprint of the Berkshire region is evident. “The decision to not mention wanted to create a feeling of seclusion and anonymity.”
Released through Sony Pictures’ Stage 6 Films on June 28, Down with the King was shot almost entirely in the Berkshires.
Even still, Berkshire residents will recognize local shops and landmarks. Key scenes were shot at two different houses and Snow Farm in Sandisfield, and additional scenes were done at Mount Everett and Guilder Pond in Mt. Washington, MASS MoCA in North Adams, and Carr Hardware in Great Barrington. The locations were expertly scouted by Sandisfield resident Matt Gallagher, and Down with the King’s cine- matographer, Daniel Vecchione, says that the natural scenery of the Berkshires made his work very enjoyable. “The main house in Down with the King is in Sandisfield and is surrounded by breathtaking mountain views, which we were able to use in many scenes,” says Vecchione.
The opening scene perfectly exemplifies the visual qualities that Vecchione describes. The fictitious rap star “Money Merc” stands on a picturesque hillside outside of the house. “The mist was coming off the mountains in an absolutely gorgeous way,” says Vecchione. “It made it look very cinematic.”
As Money Merc stares down at a fallen tree, his bewildered comportment lends an air of surrealism and suspense to the film’s introductory sequence. In subsequent scenes, the complexities of his predicament are revealed through a series of telling conversations with local townspeople and visiting associates. By the end of the film, Money Merc is forced to confront the underlying emotional issues that have been holding him back from self-actualization. After breaking through the fog of creative disillusionment, he achieves new levels of personal growth in the Berkshire wilderness.
Money Merc is played by Grammy®- nominated rapper Freddie Gibbs, who brings a phenomenal amount of energy and charisma to his performance. After starring in Down with the King, his career as an actor has continued to build. He has starred in multiple episodes of several high-profile TV shows, such as the popular Starz series Power Book IV: Force, and the Peacock Original Series Bust Down. While acting in his first leading role in a feature film in Down with the King, Gibbs was accompanied by veteran actors David Krumholtz (The Deuce, The Plot Against America), Jamie Neumann (Lovecraft Country) and Sharon Washington (The Joker). Although their humorous and poi- gnant interactions with Money Merc bring additional layers of thematic complexity to the film, many of Down with the King’s best moments occur when Money Merc spends time with a local farmer named Bob. Bob is played by the real-life Berkshire-based farm- er Bob Tarasuk, and many scenes in the film take place in the fields of his real-life Snow Farm.
Tarasuk and Gibbs had a connection from the moment they first met.
“When he walked into my backyard, there was an almost immediate chemistry between us,” says Tarasuk. He and Gibbs built a strong friendship over the course of filming. “We laughed, we hugged, we cried, and we shared a lot of emotional experienc- es together. We also had a lot of fun work- ing with the animals on the farm.”
The chemistry between them was critical, says Ongaro. “If we didn’t have that connection between Freddie and Bob, we wouldn’t have been able to make the film work.” Gibbs met with Ongaro and interviewed for the role over Zoom from his home in Los Angeles. Months later, he showed up in the Berkshires just before filming started. “I was praying that it would work out,” says Ongaro. “It was pretty magical to see it all come together.” In the first week of filming, there was a moment with Gibbs on the farm that was incredibly special. “We shot the first scene at Bob’s farm where Money Merc goes to feed the cows pretty early on. There was one take where Freddie tried to bring the cows toward the feeder, but they wouldn’t move. There was a transcendental moment where Freddie really connected with the cow. I remember feeling goosebumps and shedding a few tears. I could really see the film coming to life in front of me.”
Though Ongaro’s working relationship with Gibbs began in 2020, he and Bob Tarasuk have been making films together for over a decade. Ongaro moved to a small house in Sandisfield in 2007 after relocating from New York City. “The situ- ations that I encountered after moving to the Berkshires have played a large part in inspiring my films,” says Ongaro. “Many plot elements in Down with the King incor- porate my own experiences as an outsider coming to the Berkshires.” After making occasional forays into the social scene in Sandisfield, Ongaro met Tarasuk at a tag sale. Their chance meeting set off a chain of events that led to their first col- laborative film project, Bob and the Trees. (The movie is accessible on Apple iTunes, Google Play Movies, YouTube, and Vudu). “As time went by, Bob and I became close friends,” says Ongaro. He began helping Tarasuk with various tasks at his farm and eventually offered Tarasuk the opportunity to star in the film. “Diego made me want to be a part of his project,” says Tarasuk. “I could have said, ‘No!’ and none of this would have ever happened. Diego told me, ‘You’re going to play Bob in this movie.’ It didn’t take me long to realize I was just playing myself.”
Ongaro and Tarasuk initially released Bob and the Trees as a short film 2011. “We knew that Bob was incredible on screen at that point,” says Ongaro. “That’s when we decid- ed to make it into a feature film.” Down with the King’s producer Rob Cristiano began his creative partnership with Ongaro as a producer for Bob and the Trees. “I was called in from the bullpen to be the produc- er for that film only a few months before the shoot,” explains Cristiano. At the time, Cristiano had just graduated from the MFA Film Program at Columbia University with a degree in Producing. “I’m very grateful to Diego for everything he showed me when I was working with him on Bob and the Trees,” says Cristiano. “I learned a lot by watching him work.”
The feature-length version of Bob and the Trees premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah in 2015. It also won the top prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic. Following its success, Ongaro began work- ing on a new script in collaboration with the talented French screenwriter Xabi Molia in late 2015. Over the next nine months, the script that eventually became Down with the King materialized.
Ongaro says that although the majority of Down with the King’s original details were mapped out by himself and Molia, Gibbs had a considerable amount of input and improvised most of Money Merc’s dialogue. “Many attributes of the Money Merc character are closely modeled on Freddie Gibbs’ real-life persona,” notes Ongaro. “Freddie is a practicing Muslim, so we captured him praying on film. He also mentions that he doesn’t eat pork when it is offered to him in one scene. In addition, there are some fantastic moments where Freddie improvised free- style raps throughout the film.”
To that end, one of the most memorable scenes is set in an empty barn on Bob’s farm, when Money Merc and Bob take a break from their farming duties. As they pass a joint back and forth, Money Merc attempts to coax Bob into “loosening up” and improvise a rap verse about his life on the farm. Feeling self-conscious, Bob opts to recite a verse by celebrated underground rapper Immortal Technique. According to Tarasuk, the scene is a callback to the final scene of Bob and the Trees, which features the same Immortal Technique song. Although he is not a rapper himself, Tarasuk does enjoy Hip- Hop music. “I have three adult kids, and they took me through the Hip-Hop world. My daughter actually took me to see Immortal Technique when he performed in Northampton many years ago. I love his music. It’s powerful social expression.”
While Down with the King does not cross into the realm of explicit social com- mentary, the film does not shy away from addressing the cultural tension that Money Merc encounters as he adjusts to the pace of rural life. Upon his first visit to Carr Hardware store, Money Merc is accosted by several employees, who tactlessly ask him to pose for a photograph. One of the clerks is played by a true Berkshires local, who also happens to be Bob Tarasuk’s wife, Susan. During Money Merc’s second visit, he confronts another customer in the store who stares at him for an uncomfort- ably long period of time. As he indignantly walks away from the impolite customer, he provides some comic relief when he compares his appearance to the famed comedian Larry David. Without revealing any spoilers, there are many other power- ful and noteworthy moments in the film that manage to balance humor and drama without resorting to hackneyed Hollywood clichés or tired plot devices.
From an interpretive standpoint, the transformation of Gibbs’ character throughout the film can arguably serve as a moving testament to the importance of persistence and authenticity. Given the fact that Down with the King draws heavily on the life experiences of both Ongaro and Gibbs, it’s no small coincidence that those two qualities have helped them both to overcome their respective creative struggles. After years of hard work in the under- ground Hip-Hop scene, Gibbs’ efforts were rewarded by a rapid rise to mainstream prominence. This meteoric ascent led to Gibbs securing a Grammy® nomination for his phenomenal collaborative project with famed Hip-Hop producer The Alchemist, Alfredo, which was released in May 2020. After a long period of creative disappointment, Ongaro and Cristiano similarly conquered the challenges that pre- vented them from bringing Down with the King into reality. Ultimately, both Gibbs and the team behind Down with the King prevailed over seemingly insurmountable odds to find creative fulfillment.
After Ongaro and Molia finished the preliminary script for Down with the King in 2016, Ongaro and Cristiano began to shop it around to various film production com- panies. Although there were several prom- ising leads, they both became exasperated by the fact that no one wanted to finance the project. “The whole fundraising pro- cess was incredibly difficult,” says Ongaro. “It took four years of hard work.” At times, he felt like the project was going nowhere.
Disillusioned, he took a step away from his creative endeavors and focused on getting a contractor license. He worked on several construction sites and even installed tombstones at local cemeteries to make ends meet. “It was an insane emotional rollercoaster for me,” says Ongaro. “I was contemplating giving up on my career as a filmmaker, but all of a sudden, a little spark came back when the project gained some momentum.”
In March 2020, Ongaro contacted Cristiano and suggested that he reach out to Gibbs to see if he was interested in the film. “Diego had been watching clips of many actors and rappers,” says Cristiano. “He really thought that Freddie had something great.” After several months of correspondence, Ongaro and Cristiano connected with Gibbs. By early summer, Gibbs was on board with the project. In the months that followed, Ongaro and Cristiano were finally able to find financing through their producing partners Zach LeBeau and Kim Jackson, as well as executive producer Jake Craven at Breaker Studios. The film was officially greenlit on August 30, 2020. A few months later, they began filming.
Due to fact that Down with the King was shot during the early apex of the pandemic, the production crew faced a series of challenges that required inventive solutions. In addition to safety concerns and logistical obstacles, they had to shoot an important scene that featured a live performance at a packed music venue in New York City. To pull off the scene, they filmed the majority of it on the stage at MASS MoCA. Although the initial overhead crowd shot was sourced from stock footage, everything else was shot on site. According to Cristiano, it was important to make sure that the scene was believable. “We really had to sell the scene as a concert where people were there.” A total of 16 extras were used for the concert scene, with strict protocols enforced. “We lit the stage up and placed all of the extras near the front of the stage,” says Vecchione. “We had to use a lot of long lens work and camera trickery to make it work. The MASS MoCA technical team did a wonderful job with the lights, and the sound design work really creates the illusion of a packed concert hall.”
After the filming stage came to a close on November 20, 2020, the next several months were spent in post-production, mostly in Paris. The film’s VFX work was done by the Berkshire-based firm Sandbox. Down with the King was completed at the end of June 2021, ten days before the start of the Cannes Film Festival. Although Cannes usually happens in May, the festival was pushed back two months. “The rescheduling of the festival worked to our advantage,” says Ongaro. “We were able to polish the film more and send a good cut. Being featured at Cannes was a childhood dream of mine.” Down with the King won the Grand Prize at the esteemed Deauville American Film Festival, also held in France.
Although the film missed the summer edition of the 2021 Berkshire International Film Festival (BIFF), Ongaro and Cristiano worked closely with BIFF’s artistic director and founder, Kelley Vickery, to set up the special screening at the Mahaiwe in December 2021. “It was a beautiful full-circle moment,” says Ongaro. “The community was very helpful in making this movie happen, and we’re grateful to everyone from the folks at Carr Hardware to the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. There were so many people behind the scenes who were so supportive. The Berkshire Film and Media Collaborative and Diane Pearlman have also been a tremendous resource for us ever since we made Bob and the Trees, so I can’t thank them enough. It’s fantastic to have all of this community support and to know that we are loved and appreciated in the Berkshires.”