“How do we tell a story about survival when our subject has passed away?” Adam Elliott, the director of David Again, asked, sharing a message with us through his producer, Emily Kincaid. “What we discovered was we could both honor that sad reality while also paying tribute to what David accomplished in his life. While David was no longer with us, his story of surviving addiction was still very much at the core of the story we were trying to tell.”
It comes as no surprise that you’re going to need a tissue or five when you dive into this documentary. Though clocking in at only 17 minutes, the film — which focuses on the eccentric, lovable, and sadly gone-too-soon David Dennis and his relationship with his childhood best friend Jon Cryer — is sure to make you shed some tears. As hopeful as it is heartbreaking, David Again proves that a good friend is the most powerful thing in the world and that it’s never too late to change your life.
I got to speak with producer Emily Kincaid about how she got involved with this special project and some of the film’s most powerful scenes. She shared some surprising behind-the-scenes facts, what she hopes people take away from the short, and more.
TAYLOR GATES: I want to start by asking how you got involved in this project.
EMILY KINCAID: The director, Adam Elliott, and I are longtime friends. We went to Marymount Manhattan College together on the Upper East Side, and he is a true born-and-raised New Yorker, which you don’t hear about very often anymore. He and I have done a lot of comedy together, and we’re both also actors — he does stand-up comedy, and I do improv comedy stuff, so we’ve done that. He’s been making short films for a while, and he’s seen my journey with my previous documentary that I made — a feature called Abducted in Plain Sight — and then I also produced a narrative feature. We’ve been talking about working together for a while.
I came on to this project a little bit later. The filming had already been done, and I had heard all about it — I knew everything. It was a very sporadic type of filming based on health issues and various things that played into actually filming in New York. I think my strong suits as a producer in general are selling and doing publicity and taking people through the film festival circuit — that’s something I excel at — so he brought me on at the end of post-production and was like, “This is where I see it going.”
Sometimes, you’re just so captivated by a project, and you just can tell that it’s either gonna go somewhere or needs to be seen. I’ve come on to projects at all different parts — I’ve come on all the way in pre-production, just the idea, and then a couple of times, I’ve come on in post because someone wants my knowledge and to help take it to where they want it to go.
I love working with Adam. We’re both extremely OCD, and sometimes, you would think that wouldn’t work, but there’s just something about our friendship. We have a lot of history in our own friendship and have dealt with things in family and friendship surrounding addiction and loss together, so I think this is a really special project for us to be working on.
There are a lot of different ways that you could tell this story. You’ve worked on feature documentaries, and there are, of course, fictionalized shorts and fictionalized features. Why do you think the short film documentary is the best fit for telling this particular story?
I think Adam would say that he never really saw this being a feature. He was David’s neighbor, and they lived together in the building. I don’t know if you’ve ever lived in New York, but I lived there for almost 11 years, and when I moved here, I was a little taken aback by the fact that people wanted to know their neighbors and talk to them. I was like, “I’m not used to this.” I would live in a building in New York, and it could be five years, and I wouldn’t know one person’s name and that was completely normal. Nobody really wants to talk to each other.
So, you know, Adam had kind of experienced that in that building, but he had seen David come and go throughout the building and on the street. He was this extremely tall man. He walked with a cane, and he wore incredible clothing, and one day, they struck up a conversation. Adam is a very open book, and it turned out David was, too. Sometimes, I feel like it just takes the right person. You just feel that trust immediately, and you can open up, and that’s what happened with Adam and David. Literally, by the end of that first conversation, Adam said, “You know, I’m a filmmaker. I’ve made a couple of things I could show you, but I’m really curious to film you — even if just on my phone just to kind of get your story down.” And immediately, David was like, “Yes, I wanna do this.”
I think Adam just loves shorts. We both want to make features as well, but sometimes, everything can be said in under 20 minutes. In this case, it was 17. David died in the middle of filmmaking, so we don’t know what it might have been — maybe it would have been longer; I don’t know. But there is kind of a poetic sadness in the fact his family really pushed us to carry on with it because David was so excited about using his stories to help other people. That was kind of his lifelong commitment — to help people. At this time, he had only been sober for four years, and it just shows that it’s never too late to get help. I think anyone, as they get older, would say that they would rather live one best day of their life than none at all, and he got about four years of that where he felt really good and he could have not had it at all. So yeah, I think it just worked better as a short, and that was kind of always the plan, and then, you know, with his death, it just kind of solidified that it was what it was.
I thought the opening shot was really interesting. It really sets the tone and the vibe and immediately lets us get to know David when we see all the New York prints and stuff. How did you come to the decision to open with that particular scene?
It just showed who he is. It’s funny — even though I’ve seen the movie so much, I wanted to rewatch it again today, and as many times as I watch it, I always get teary-eyed. It never fails. But it’s just the truest version of him. He’s such an open book, the way he talks about getting obsessed with things — whether it’s Swedish Fish or his New York prints. I don’t know this for sure, but I do know a lot of addicts, and I feel like you trade one addiction or the other. Sometimes it’s cigarettes, and sometimes it’s collecting art pieces. I’m like, “Whatever keeps you healthy.” And in that same vein, it is so intimately shot.
Emily passed this note along from Adam after the interview: “I wanted the audience to feel like David was welcoming them into his story vis-à-vis his apartment. That’s why I wanted the first sound the audience hears to be a key unlocking the door.”
I love the Hawaiian shirt details we get, too. I think that’s a really fun thing that he collects, and his passion for that is really interesting. I think those scenes humanize him and give us a small snapshot of who he is as a person, and by doing that, I feel like — because, unfortunately, addiction is still sort of a taboo in society — that breaks the stigma a bit by showing a whole person. He was very relatable and just like everyone else. Why do you think it’s important to sort of break that taboo or stigma, as it were, with that topic in particular?
So many people hide in shame in addiction or depression. We’ve seen this growing stigma of people not feeling like they can share that they’re depressed. Especially for men, there’s the stigma of having to be strong and not being allowed to show weakness, and “depression is weakness” and all of that. Obviously, I completely disagree with that, but it’s important to show that pressure.
I love that you say that he’s relatable because I think that, too. I don’t view him as an addict — I view him as somebody who’s lived and survived and made his way out on top, whatever that top is for him. I love the ending so much of the movie where he says, “I’m doing really well now. I have the food I want in my fridge.” The line that hits me that I always cry over is when he says, “No one’s mad at me. I think I’m doing pretty well.”
If he didn’t have people…it didn’t have to be Jon, you know? I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but when Adam first met David, he had no idea he was friends with Jon Cryer. He didn’t know until he went into his apartment to do that first preliminary interview. In all the stuff that David and Adam talked about that time in the corner in front of the building, he never brought up Jon Cryer. Adam actually said to him, “Okay, you’re so interesting — has anyone ever tried to make a movie about you?” And he said, “Well, kind of, but that’s for another time.
And I love that I didn’t know either. Adam and I are so close, and I just love that it had nothing to do with Jon. Jon was the bonus that took it in a different direction, but he was gonna make this about David regardless. And then the fact that David didn’t feel the need to throw that his childhood best friend was a celebrity…Adam, he sees all these pictures in his house, and he’s like, “Um…I’m sorry, you have a lot of framed photos of you and Jon Cryer.”
[Laughs] “Are you a super fan?”
Yeah. “Are you like a super fan, or are these CGI’d? What’s happening?” And he’s like, “No, no — we grew up together on the Upper West Side.” But Jon, I think, definitely helped him. Even though, as you see in the doc, they did have to take breaks from each other at some points. If you’ve had a friend that’s struggled with addiction or depression, sometimes they push you away so hard that eventually you’re like, “Okay,” as much as you don’t want to. But there’s always a chance for redemption, and I’m just so grateful that he had Jon because — even if Jon took a break from him — he was never giving up on him. He was never not checking on him from afar. I hope that anybody who sees this leaves realizing that it’s never too late. It really isn’t. There’s always a chance.
Speaking of lines or quotes, the one that really got me is when David said, “When you get to my age, there’s nothing unique about you anymore.” Which is crazy.
Because he’s so unique!
And interesting. This is a very vague question, but I want to know your thoughts on him saying that versus the reality of obviously what everyone’s seeing.
To the point where Jon is literally basing characters on him.
Exactly. And channeling him when he’s acting and still, to this day, being brought out of his shell by him a little bit because there are those childhood memories attached.
That line always affects me, too. In fact, when I was watching it earlier, I laughed out loud at that because it’s like you’re looking at him like the most unique person you’ve ever seen. I don’t think any of us see ourselves accurately or the way other people do. I can only speak for myself, but I think it’s my actor side. Everyone in the arts — we’re very hard on ourselves. You always go, “Wow, I’m not doing as well as I should be at this point” or “I’m failing” or “I’m not as funny as I should be.” And then other people are like, “What are you talking about? You’re doing amazing. You did this and that — you’re hilarious.” It’s really just so hard to see ourselves, and I think — because he had only been sober for four years — so much of his life was kind of chaotic that it’s really hard to see yourself not like that anymore.
I know that Adam had told me there was one time after David had seen a first cut of some stuff, and he said, “The only problem I have with this is that I still look like a drug addict.” And that hit Adam really hard. It made him so sad because that’s something David carried with him. He still views himself like that, but nobody else around him did. It’s really important to surround yourself with people who remind you of who you really are because it’s really hard. Even for people who are not addicts, it’s very hard. For somebody whos been struggling and feels a lot of shame — feels a lot of regret — it’s important to remind them of the good that they’ve done.
There’s a really powerful theme of “it’s never too late,” but at its core, it really is about the power of friendship, too, which I think is really beautiful. Even the part where we have Jon offering to fix his teeth — I think that’s just so beautiful, how friends can sort of help you like that. What message do you hope people take away about friendship and helping people?
I feel like as you get older, your circle gets smaller. The people who have stuck with you through everything are your true people. It’s so important to cherish those people who stick with you through the highs and lows — who aren’t just with you when you’re fun. Jon says in the doc, you look back at those pictures of him as a kid, and you’re like, “Wow, he doesn’t look the same.” It’s wild when you see the childhood pictures of David or the teen ones, and you can see how the drugs took a toll on him. And then you have Jon saying he was fun to get in trouble with, but that’s not all of who he was. There are a lot of people that I find almost accidentally enable people with addiction because they’re like, “Well, that person is really fun when they’re drunk” or “they’re really fun when they’re on drugs. They cause drama. It’s a fun story to talk about after.” But when they really need help — when they really need a friend — they’re absent.
It’s beautiful that I’m doing this with Adam, who I’ve been friends with for 20 years. We’ve had our ups and downs with each other and with various friends, and it didn’t really matter what happened — we would always say “I love you” at the end of a conversation, and we always came back together. It’s very poetic that it’s kind of the same in this. Friendship is everything. People always say you’re, “You’re born into a family, but you can create your own family through friends.” David had lost a lot of people, and Jon was one person very special to him who had stuck with him through it all, and I think that helped save him.
It is a film about loss — not only showing David having lost people but obviously, sadly, Jon has now lost both of his core childhood friends. Something that made me tear up was when he said, “My version of what happened is all that’s left.” What are your thoughts about film being able to be a powerful therapeutic tool for maybe easing some of that? I feel like, through this, you get to reminisce, which helps kind of preserve those memories and honor him — it’s a memorial, in a way, for Jon and for everybody else to hear David’s story.
Yeah, Adam did a screening of this after David passed for all his family and friends. Jon was there, and a lot of people who were in recovery with David all came, and David’s death hit everyone very hard because they had seen his struggle and how he had overcome it. And you feel you love David when you watch, and you want him to come out on top. Everyone was in tears in this screening and went up to Adam after and said, “You have helped us. You have done something for us. You’ve done something for David, and you’ve done something for Jon — to help preserve his memory and to help show that it’s never too late to ask for help. You can always change your life, no matter how long is left.”
For me, I look at this film, and I get taken by it for different reasons. I don’t think you have to be an addict or have a family member who’s an addict to get something from this movie. It’s hard to describe because, as sad as it is, I feel really hopeful after it. Which could be a weird thing to say in a story like this, but I think it’s because he had such an ease to him at the end of his life. When he lists off all those things that he has, to an average person, it doesn’t sound like a lot. People are like, “What about the house and the car?” We live in a very materialistic society, and David didn’t need that. He showed that you’ve got your friend; you’ve got your apartment; you’ve got the food you want; nobody’s mad at you; you’ve made amends with everyone, and you’re on the right track — the one thing I know for sure is that he died feeling finally at peace. I think he liked himself. When he says that line, “I just would want people to know that I’m David again” — that happened at the very end. Adam had asked him one follow-up question. Adam had said, “I have no idea what I’m gonna call this. I just don’t know.” But when he said that line, he was like, “It gave me chills.”
It’s a hopeful movie, and I hope that it will make anybody who sees it call that person that they’ve been thinking about. Maybe it makes them apologize — even if somebody’s like, “I forgave you for that a long time ago.” Maybe it’s just something you need to get off your chest and you do it, you know?
So that’s really what kind of kept him going. Because Adam was very affected by David’s death. They got very close. He hasn’t said this to me, but I think they saw a little bit of themselves in each other, and that’s why they connected so strongly and the trust was just so unique. It was a hard thing, but I’m proud of Adam for keeping going, and he’s overcome a lot, and I think that this movie is therapy for him as well.
You can see the trust there through the interviews and the openness with which he talks. It’s very real, and I think that’s what sets it apart from other documentaries.
It makes me emotional. The only thing I can say is that — though it wouldn’t be the same — I wish David had been able to see it because I just know he would be really proud. It lives on, and wherever he is, I know he’s proud. It’s just a hard reality to swallow at times.
David Again is playing at the Tribeca Film Festival. You can purchase tickets here.
— Taylor Gates