Our friend Tony Benna last year brought his film, Andre is an Idiot to Sundance where it won multiple awards including the Audience Award! Last week the film had it’s San Francisco premiere at The Roxie and we were on hand to check it out.
Esquire nailed it when they said ‘The Best Comedy of the Year Is a Documentary About Death.‘ Now the subject of the film, André Ricciard, is a whirlwind of energy and humor and while he is dying of colon cancer, the journey is enlightening and touches on so many realities that we can all relate to. The big takeaway the film wants you to have is to get a colonoscopy and there are funny scenes in the film about working with Mekanism, the agency where Ricciardi worked (and Benna and others too) putting together creative treatments for a campaign to raise awareness about colon cancer screenings.
Now our relation to Tony was through our very first employee ever, Traci Griffin. We were working out of our Victorian flat on Natoma Street in SOMA when Tony was living next door. Traci and Tony dated back then and eventually married and left San Francisco. Even back then Tony was working on films and video and had also shown us his stop motion work, which is showcased in the film. Other friends from the time including Ethan Indorf worked with him on the documentary and the entire crew was close knit which makes the film footage feel even more genuine. 
You might think that a documentary about someone dying of colon cancer might be a bit heavy, but the humor in the film really shines through and they don’t ignore the real questions and emotional impact. At The Roxie premiere we were fortunate to have so many involved in the film on hand as there was a Q&A afterwards and we got to hear from André’s wife, one of his daughters, his “Ass Doctor” at UCSF and his death yell coach and many others.
Check out the film as it is still showing in theaters in many metros and I guarantee you’ll have a good time. Watch it in a theater, cry, and then go get a colonoscopy with your BFF!
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