Neal Jimenez

Neal Jimenez (born May 22, 1960) is a screenwriter and film director, best known for the 1986 film River's Edge. He was a member of the dramatic jury at the Sundance Film Festival in 1994.[1] He won Independent Spirit Awards for Best First Feature and Best Screenplay for The Waterdance.[2]

Jimenez attended UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. In 1984, while a film student, he went hiking with some friends and slipped on a rock, falling twenty feet into a shallow pool below. He was initially paralyzed from the neck down but subsequent surgeries restored movement to his upper body and he has been a paraplegic since. The film The Waterdance, which he wrote and co-directed, was partly based on his experience in rehabilitation.[3][4] He is of Mexican American descent.[5]