André is an Idiot

Co-Presented by UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center

Director Tony Benna in conversation with Mercury News writer, Randy Meyers!: Wednesday, March 11
Director Tony Benna + Executive Producer & film subject, Lee Einhorn in conversation with Mercury News writer, Randy Meyers!: Friday, March 13
Executive Producer & film subject, Lee Einhorn IN PERSON!: Monday, March 16

“Get a fucking colonoscopy” we’re told at the end of ANDRÉ IS AN IDIOT, a wildly entertaining documentary collaboration between director Tony Benna and his friend, the title character. When André Ricciardi—a successful San Francisco advertising executive—learns that he has stage 4 colon cancer at age 52, he regrets he waited too long for a procedure that might have saved his life. But he also resolves to document his final journey in his own way—with his acerbic sense of humor and absurdist temperament (punctuated by Benna’s uproarious stop-motion animation), often pointed at himself and his predicament. His therapy sessions and interviews with his wife, Janice, are particularly revealing and poignant—grounding André’s seemingly irreverent project in his efforts to protect his family during an increasingly painful time… and in his wish to never be forgotten.

“One of the most moving, most hilarious, most tragic, most wonderful works of non-fiction filmmaking in many years.” – Jason Gorber, POV Magazine