About this submission

Andy Kaufman supposedly died 36 years ago. Many are sure he’s really gone. Others, not so much. This documentary chronicles my quest to discover where the comedian has been hiding all these years. I investigate the claims made by his former writing partner, Bob Zmuda. For years, Zmuda has said that in 1984 Andy faked his own death and has been in hiding ever since. Many fans hold on to the belief that Andy will someday return to the spotlight. I go down the rabbit hole, using clues dropped by Zmuda, hoping to bring Andy back for his standing ovation.

Holly Lehren

Creator

Holly Lehren is an award-winning student filmmaker. In earning her MA in Media Studies at The New School, New York City, she will be interning during summer 2023 at CNBC’s Long Form Programming Unit. In September 2023 she will begin graduate studies for the Documentary MS Journalism at Columbia University. She has worked as a freelance web designer and video producer. Her documentary short, 'Why you have to be Black and gay' – an account of internationally renowned drag queen Odidi Odidiva from his formative years to the shaping of his drag persona in the shadow of South African apartheid – was selected for several film festivals in New York and Los Angeles and was awarded 'Best LGBTQ Short' at the Independent Shorts Awards. Her student documentary short, 'Are you there, Andy?' - a first-person narrative of the legacy of the comedian Andy Kaufman, theories on his “death” and the filmmaker’s quest to find him – was selected for several film festivals in New York and Los Angeles and was awarded "Best Student Documentary Short" at the IndieX Film Fest and "Best Web and New Media" at the Independent Shorts Awards and Indie Short Fest. Holly earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Theatre in 2019 from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa., and an advanced certificate in May 2022 in Documentary Media Studies from The New School, NYC. She was also a Fulbright Scholarship semi-finalist (2020, 2021, 2023) to study documentary filmmaking in Cape Town, South Africa. more...