© 2025
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
The Roundtable

BIFF hosts regional premiere of award-winning "Down with the King" - new movie by filmmaker Diego Ongaro

By Sarah LaDuke
Published December 8, 2021 at 11:45 AM EST
Freddie Gibbs as Money Merc in "Down with the King"
Breaker Studios/ Inside Voices
Freddie Gibbs as Money Merc in "Down with the King"
Filmmaker Diego Ongaro in a Zoom interview
WAMC
/
WAMC
Filmmaker Diego Ongaro in a Zoom interview with Sarah LaDuke

In the new film “Down with the King” directed by Diego Ongaro and co-written by Ongaro and Xabi Molia: rap star Money Merc is struggling with the music industry and the pressures of being a celebrity. He leaves the city to re-evaluate his career while immersing himself in a small farm town in the mountains. The film stars real-life Grammy nominated rapper Freddie Gibbs in a captivating debut film performance.

“Down with the King” is the second feature from Diego Ongaro, whose feature debut “Bob and the Trees” premiered at Sundance in 2015. “Down with the King” premiered at Cannes this past summer.

The Berkshire International Film Festival is hosting the regional debut of “Down with the King” at The Mahaiwe in Great Barrington, Massachusetts on Thursday, December 9 at 7 p.m. Diego Ongaro joins us.

Tags
The Roundtable filmmakerdiego ongarohip-hopberkshiresfreddie gibbsrapperindependent filmfilm festivalberkshire international film festivalThe Mahaiwe
Stay Connected
Sarah LaDuke
Sarah has been a public radio producer for over fifteen years. She grew up in Saranac Lake, New York where she worked part-time at Pendragon Theatre all through high school and college. She graduated from UAlbany in 2006 with a BA in English and started at WAMC a few weeks later as a part-time board-op in the control room. Through a series of offered and seized opportunities she is now the Senior Contributing Producer of The Roundtable and Producer of The Book Show. During the main thrust of the Covid-19 pandemic shut-down, Sarah hosted a live Instagram interview program "A Face for Radio Video Series." On it, Sarah spoke with actors, musicians, comedians, and artists about the creative activities they were accomplishing and/or missing.
See stories by Sarah LaDuke
Related Content
  • Stephen Sondheim circa 1970
    The Roundtable
    Stephen Sondheim - in memoriam
    Joe Donahue
    American Theatre icon and innovator, Stephen Sondheim, has died at the age of 91. The composer and lyricist had a creative hand in shows like "West Side Story," "Gypsy," "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to The Forum," "Company," "Follies," "A Little Night Music," "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," "Sunday in the Park with George," "Into the Woods," and "Assassins." This interview was recorded in 2011.
  • Sarah and Carolyn LaDuke
    The Roundtable
    A conversation with Carolyn LaDuke about a bucket list accomplished
    Sarah LaDuke
    Ten years ago, I interviewed my mom, Carolyn LaDuke, for an on-air StoryCorps inspired celebration of Mother’s Day. We recorded the interview on her 70th birthday in April 2011. Two years later, I recorded an interview with her again - after she’d recovered from a heart attack and while she was undergoing treatment for a second recurrence of breast cancer. This past April, she turned 80. The last time we went to Tennessee, Paul and I had a meeting with my parents, their priest and one of my brothers about funeral planning, my dog played with the dog my Dad got to keep him company when my mom dies, and I recorded a new conversation with my Mom.
  • Artwork for "Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon" - black and white close-up of Paul Simon with white text
    The Roundtable
    "Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon" audiobook experience from Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam, and Pushkin
    Joe Donahue
    Paul Simon’s life and career get the Malcolm Gladwell treatment in the new audio presentation: "Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon." The book is an audio biography of one of the greatest songwriters in music history. Malcolm Gladwell and longtime New York Times journalist Bruce Headlam, were granted unparalleled access to Paul for the project.
Load More