Humans love lists. To-do lists, resolution lists, “bucket lists” – unequivocal directives all. As the old saying goes, Moses didn’t come down from the mountain with The Ten Suggestions. So when documentarian Alan Zweig discovered Ray Robertson`s non-fiction book Why Not? Fifteen Reasons To Live, (and came to know Ray Robertson), he was intrigued by the concept of organizing the panoply of life itself into a list. Said 15 reasons are: Love, solitude, critical mind, art, individuality, home, work, humour, friendship, intoxication, praise, meaning, body, duty and death. To savour them all would presumably be to truly live. Thus was born this documentary, the most ambitious work to date by Zweig, and his first use of a crew, a wide location schedule (stretching a thousand miles from North Carolina to Montreal), and a first-time use of animation mixed with live documentary. Inspired by Robertson`s list, Zweig re-created or sought out real-life stories of human experience that fit Robertson`s 15 Reasons categories. Two of the stories, both animated, were intensely personal – including Death, taken from Zweig`s friendship with the late actress Tracey Wright, and the lighter-hearted Individuality, about a gentle anonymous act of vandalism (or art?) perpetrated upon his car.

83 minutes – Documentary
Release date: September 18, 2013 – Atlantic Film Festival
Canadian distributor: Kinosmith Inc,
Trailer for 15 Reasons to Live