Dear Jack (2009)

Chronicles McMahon on a roller-coaster year, through the highs of recording and releasing the first Jack's Mannequin album and the lows of being diagnosed with leukemia and breaking up with the love of his life. Using a DV camera Sire Records bought him to capture the making of his album, Andrew shot everything before and after that crucial day in May of 2005 when he both finished the project and was diagnosed with cancer. The documentary is a raw look at the battle that is leukemia, from spinal taps to radiation, from using a lint brush to remove your hair to infusing your body with someone else's stem cells (in this case, Andrew's sister Kate, coincidently on the exact date his album was released). The film opens on the day Andrew is diagnosed and follows him through every scary, life-changing and intensely personal event that follows. It also flashes back to his childhood, the making of the Jack's Mannequin album and his collaboration with Lee, one of the last concerts he played before becoming ill, and his relationships with the two most crucial women in his life, his sister and her best friend. "Dear Jack" is a breathtakingly emotional film, as well as a testament to family, friends and, perhaps more than anyone will ever know, a love of making music.