The Short Film About Death and a Dick Pic

Dealing with death is a total bummer. Even though it’s the one thing that everyone is guaranteed to experience and can happen anytime, anywhere, most of us are like, Ugh, wish that wasn’t the plan... But as shitty and strange as dealing with a dead loved one can be, it doesn't get more surreal than the plot behind I’m a Mitzvah. The short, which is co-written by Josh Cohen and Ben Berman, follows a mensch named David whose buddy died unexpectedly while partying in Mexico. David, played by Parks & Recreation's Ben Schwartz, is forced to go to the podunk Spanish-speaking town where his friend died and retrieve his Jewish corpse and bring him back to his hysterical, overbearing mother in America. Throughout David's journey, peculiar situations constantly seem to get the best of him. After he picks up the carcass, which is in a cardboard box, his flight back to America is canceled. So David is forced to spend the night in a motel with just his rotting buddy’s body and a bottle of tequila. Bored and unable to properly grieve, David decides to go out for a night on the town with his buddy's cardboard coffin in tow. The short is a strangely touching sendoff to a best friend. It's an ode to modern relationships and the idea that if a man ever cries, it should be over a dead homie and a dick pic.

Watch the film below. That is my mitzvah to you. Share and be well.

Ben Berman is a writer/director working in the comedy television world. He has worked closely with Tim & Eric, Jon Benjamin, Zach Galifianakis, Scott Aukerman, and Will Oldham. Berman started as an editor for the Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! and went on to direct the pilots and series for Jon Benjamin Has a Van on Comedy Central and Comedy Bang! Bang! for the IFC network. I'm a Mitzvah is his first venture into more sincere and serious drama. It premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. I gave him a call to talk about the film and what he has planned for the future.

VICE: Have you ever been a mitzvah?
Ben Berman: I don't think I've been a mitzvah in the way the movie suggests, exactly. My understanding of a mitzvah is that it means "a good deed." In the movie Ben Schwartz's character does the good deed of watching over his friend's body and attempts to bring it home to America. I don't think I've done a good deed in that grand of a scale. I know I've done some good for other people throughout my 31 years. I've also done some bad. Some bad that I've done to others I've felt terrible about and regretted. Others I've enjoyed and don't regret. Such is life. L'chaim!

When casting the movie, was it Ben Schwartz or bust?
It wasn't exactly written for him, but when I thought of him for the role, it became incredibly obvious that he was the only one to play that character. I had just worked with him on the Comedy Bang! Bang! show very briefly one day. He was hilarious, he played an over-the-top dope, and was so quick with improv banter. Very impressive. Having seen a film he did years ago called Peep World, I knew he could play it dramatic too. He's a Jewy looking dude, quick on his toes, with such incredible comedic and dramatic talents. Exactly what we needed. So we reached out and within 24 hours he said he'd do it. I was blown away and we jumped right into it.

How did you land on an irreverent dick pic as the catalyst for coming to terms with grief? I think it's perfect.
That credit completely goes to Josh Cohen who co-wrote the film. It is genius for sure. The thing most important to us was that the film not ever come off heavy-handed. When dealing with death it might be easy to fall into the traps and tropes of a film dealing with death and loss. We knew we had to be honest and sincere and not shy away from real emotions, However, it's in our nature to allow for some levity. That's life to us. Seriousness and darkness mixed with funny weirdness.

The dick pic is not random or meaningless. In the photo, David sees the essence of his weird friend. He's not responding to the dick alone. He's responding to the memory of his dumb, wild friend who would pose with a stranger's dick.

How much of the film is improvised? Was there an actual language barrier while filming?
We stuck to the script for the most of the movie. Not much is said through the majority of the film really. We completely threw out the script for the beach scene when David meets the local woman. Our good friend Dave Kneebone encouraged the mixed language conversation, which I feel helped so much. We had a few beats that we wanted to hit, but other than that, Schwartz and the actress Alicia Benavides just went for it. Schwartz is such a great improviser that we knew we were in good hands. Alicia was just perfect. We were lucky to find her. I still don't know exactly what she was saying as I don't know too much Spanish, but to me it works nicely.

We shot the film in and around Los Angeles actually. The only language barrier I experienced was me being an inarticulate dumb man while talking to my brilliant crew and cast.

What are you working on now/next?
I'm about to shoot a few little projects—a weird public access meets Dick Cavett special and a Bonnie Prince Billy music video. Hopefully, we'll make some more Ben and Andrew videos. I'll go back to work on  Comedy Bang! Bang!  to direct some episodes of it's fourth season on IFC. There is a feature in the works that is also a weird dramatic story with comedic undertones revolving around the theme of death. It's amazingly exciting. I feel it could be something special and unique. Unbelievable yet non-fictional subject matter. Other than that, I gotta try to get this weight off.

By the way, where did you find the old dancing Mexican man? He should be on reality TV. 
We found him on some local LA casting site. I auditioned him for another role, but knew he'd be perfect for one of the two dancing men. He nailed it. You're thinking we put him up for So You Think You Can Dance?

Yes.

Jeffrey Bowers is a tall mustached guy from Ohio who's seen too many weird movies. He currently lives in Brooklyn, working as an art and film curator. He is a programmer at Tribeca Film Festival, Rooftop Films, and the Hamptons International Film Festival. He also self-publishes a super fancy mixed-media art serial called PRISM index.