Artist and advertising whiz André Ricciardi judges himself harshly for a reason that is simple, if dramatic: Asked by his best friend to endure their first colonoscopies together, he declined, his general philosophy being “No cops, no doctors.” Unfortunately, a year later Ricciardi faces the shock of a Stage 4 colon cancer diagnosis. Partly to deal with “my impending mortality,” the San Franciscan produced this imaginative documentary, which is both a biography and a farewell of sorts. Its antic approach to an angsty subject encompasses input from his wife and daughters, strange detours (including instruction on a recommended “death yell”), stop-motion animation, guest star Tommy Chong, and an appearance on The Newlywed Game. Little about this man’s life has been conventional—he shrugs off past “complex relationships with drugs and alcohol” as “nothing more serious than meth and heroin.” Will his departure from it be equally idiosyncratic? You bet. Tony Benna’s feature won the Audience Award for Best US Documentary at Sundance this year. —Dennis Harvey
Tony Benna
Tony Benna has developed and directed within a variety of platforms creating award-winning work with multiple mediums including film, advertising, post-production, and broadcast. With strong roots in stop-motion animation techniques, he is focused on pushing the boundaries of visual storytelling.