Over twenty years after losing his father, Demetri Martin wrote, directed, and starred in his 2016 film “Dean” which was inspired by his father. Martin’s film follows a character named Dean, a guy who doesn’t want his dad to sell his childhood home after his mom dies. Although it isn’t about his dad, per se, the story is about handling grief. “At my dad’s funeral, I remember thinking, ‘This is the worst day of my life. No contest,'” Martin told the College Times. “It was horrible when he was sick. Don’t get me wrong, but it was that finality. Then, I remember thinking that someday I’ll be able to talk about this without crying.”
Martin, who loves drawing, was able to include that passion in his film since his character was a cartoonist. He told the Washington Post that he’d been drawing since childhood and giving his character a background not in comedy gave him more room to play with non-verbal commentary. “Dean” starred Martin alongside Kevin Kline, Mary Steenburgen, and Gillian Jacobs. It won the Best Narrative Feature award at the Tribeca Film Festival. Per Deadline, the festival jury said of Martin’s directorial debut: “It manages the near impossible task of breathing new life into a well-worn genre, balancing humor and pathos with an incredibly deft touch, and offering a unique perspective on the way we process loss.”
