Monica Nevi wanted to know the answers to life’s big questions.

What’s the meaning of life? How do find happiness? How do you have a happy marriage?

They were questions she started pondering after a few family members died.

“I wanted to know what they felt about their life and what was most important to them,” she said.

So she concocted the idea for “80 for 80,” a documentary that asks life’s big questions to those over 80 years old.

Nevi, a stand up comic who originally hails from Renton, said she thought seniors would likely give her the real answers to her pressing questions.

“I think people of that age are really honest so they’ll tell you exactly what they think,” said Nevi. “And they do. It’s pretty obvious in the documentary. It’s not what you expect them to answer most of the time.”

The documentary spans five episodes in which Nevi interviews to different King County residents about their lives.

“There’s diversity in these stories. Some people were married for 60 years, some people were married three times. No kids, 12 kids. There were all these different kind of things. It worked out well,” Nevi said.

She described the documentary to be comedy-focused with the intensity of a sports documentary.

“With getting to talk to these people, it felt like a beautiful insight hidden in all of the funny, honest things they said. You can’t get away from the moral part of it all, but it is still comedy focused, which I liked. Stuff like that shouldn’t be too heavy hearted,” she said.

So what were the answers to life’s big questions?

It seemed to point back to relationships, Nevi said.

“The relationships and the people in your life, whether it be significant others, friends or family. Those are still the resounding answers from everybody. It always came back to their partner or their kids; those relationships were the most important part of any of their answers,” she said.

Nevi said the interview allowed her to examine her own life and priorities, as well as find peace about her family members who died.

“It made me a little more conscious how I’m spending my time and who I’m spending it with,” she said. “There were parts of it where it eased the questions I had about my own family members who passed. Staying in the same patterns, they would have been proud of the people in their lives or kids or me as their grandchild, so that was comforting to know that they still valued us more than anything they had done.”

The documentary, which was made possible through a 4Culture grant, will premiere at 5:30 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 18 at Carco Theatre, 1717 SE Maple Valley Hwy. The screening will include one episode of the series, behind the scenes footage and a question-and-answer session with Nevi. Tickets are $10 online and $15 at the door, and can be purchased at http://monicanevi.com/80for80. The screening is free for anyone over the age of 70.