Going Down
The timely and satisfying revenge short film
Calgary Black Film Festival
AMPIA Best Screenplay Nomination
AMPIA Best Performance Nomination
AMPIA Best Score Nomination
Director Ryan Northcott
Producers Ryan Northcott, Eric Giesbrecht, Lonni Olson, Mary Namorato, Carla Arnold, Laura Bicknell, Jerry Sun
Company Mediapop
DOP Paola Contreras, Ryan Northcott
Writer Ryan Northcott
Editor Ryan Northcott
Colorist Ryan Northcott
Talent Nikita Kalonji, Dallas Soonias, David Trimble
Score John Morgan, Ryan Northcott, Kennedy Durfy
Location Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Going Down, written and directed by Ryan Northcott, is a short film with teeth. Set in the 1980s, it follows a mother who decides she’s had enough, taking revenge on the man responsible for her daughter’s death at the hands of corporate greed. It’s part revenge thriller, part character study, and all mood. The film leans into repetition and rhythm, both musically in the score written by John Morgan and Ryan Northcott, and visually to keep you unsettled and locked in. It’s about the quiet, terrifying conviction of someone with nothing left to lose.
On the production side, we built a working elevator in a studio to trap our characters in close quarters and force the tension higher, then shot on real locations to keep the world grounded. The score is hypnotic and unnerving, pulling from that Philip Glass minimalism, while the style keeps one foot in the 80s and the other in right now; because corporate greed and negligence aren’t period pieces, they’re headlines. Going Down premiered at the Calgary Black Film Festival and will be released soon.