Three Time Astor Award Winner

THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM — A Musicabre

Directed by DANNY ASHKENASI

Danny Ashkenasi is an American born, Germany raised, and current New
York City based filmmaker. He has been acting and composing music
since the age of 14, with a main focus on theater and stage work.
While his producing and directing has mainly been with the theater,
his new focus is headed toward film with the “Poe musicabres”. His
first Edgar Allen Poe inspired musicabre was “The Tell Tale Heart — a
Musicabre” (2019). “The Pit And The Pendulum” is meant to be a companion piece to his earlier Poe inspired work, “The Tell Tale Heart”. Danny didn’t find the inspiration for “The Pit And The Pendulum” until post-production for “The Tell Tale Heart” was already underway and a snag halted production. Danny said, “Then during post-production for Tell-Tale,
when we hit a technical snag that delayed completion of the film for
several months, I was feeling stuck and frustrated and in that mood
reread the text to Pit. And that is when I came up with the rather
dark and disturbing framing device I employ to retell Poe’s story, one
I possibly may not have thought of if not for Tell-Tale’s post-production problems.”. Danny went on to talk about how while the pandemic caused some delays in production, including an extended pre-production, it also gave him the time to write and compose the film in the first place. “The Pit And The Pendulum”s festival run will continue through fall 2023. Past that, Danny is currently working on a feature screenplay, a ghost story with a major focus on music, of course.

Written by — Kendall Mullenhour