Jim Jarmusch is an American director, screenwriter, actor, producer, editor and composer. He is a major representative of American independent cinema. As a musician, Jarmusch has composed music for his films and released three albums with Joseph van Wiss. 1)
His mother would leave the young Jarmusch at the local movie theater on mornings while she ran errands. The first adult film he saw was the 1958 cult classic “Thunder Road,” whose violence and darkness impressed the seven-year-old Jarmusch. 2)
Jarmusch was an avid reader in his youth; his interest in literature at the time was effectively fueled by his artist grandmother. Although he refused to go to church with his parents (as he expressed himself, he wasn't thrilled with “the idea of sitting in a stuffy room wearing a little tie”), Jarmusch credits literature with shaping his metaphysical beliefs and existential conclusions about theology, which took place when he was just a teenager. 3)
He has negatives of all his film works, except for “Year of the Horse”, the film he made for the famous musician Neil Young. 4)
He has been interested in mushrooms ever since he once ate a poison mushroom and almost died. 5)