A brazen acting teacher suffering from chronic pain announces he is going to end his life, and hashes the decision out with the young filmmaker who attempts to change his mind.

In 2009, at the age of 52 and suffering from terrible chronic back pain, Victor D’Altorio decided to end his life. Victor was a proud homosexual, a lover of life, honest, and outrageous. As an acting teacher of the Meisner technique for 20 years, he was committed to living in the moment, and accepting all that that had to offer, however painful it may be. But after fighting bone marrow cancer into remission he found himself with debilitating degenerative disc disorder in his neck and back, and he could not deny the pain that he was in or the dim prospects of relief. His personal commitment to truth and honesty made him strongly despise the idea of suicide in the traditional sense. He simply could not cause that pain to the ones he loved. So in a typical Victor way he decided to tell everyone (via his blog) that he was going to kill himself. This is the starting point for our story. Three months after Victor’s blog announcement, Brendan (the filmmaker) found out about his story and convinced him to make a film exploring his experience and decision. Over the next five months together we see Vic soaking in the tub in pain, making sex jokes, yelling at the cameraman, crying over his deceased partner, teaching eager new students, wavering on the big choice, and bonding with Brendan. During this time, Brendan’s mission changes. He stops being simply the filmmaker asking why and becomes a close friend trying to change Victor’s mind. Brendan puts together an acting class for Victor to teach to remind him of the life he once loved living, he teams with other students to produce the play that Victor had written, he does all he can to convince his new friend and mentor to stick around.