Andrea Gibson and their wife, Megan Falley in Come See Me in the Good Light Courtesy of Apple TV+ Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Ryan White wasn't completely sure what would come of his first meeting with poet-activist Andrea Gibson and their wife, Megan Falley, when he was approached with the idea of making a film about the artist's pending death. "I had never spoken with Andrea, I didn't even know about Megan, so I didn't have any idea that this film would end up being a love story," says White. Every three weeks for more than a year, White and his crew traveled from L.A. to Colorado to document the couple's handling of Gibson's 2021 ovarian cancer diagnosis that by the time they began filming had been deemed terminal. The resulting film, Come See Me in the Good Light, captures Gibson's resolve to live out the remainder of their life with joy and purpose between a cadence of promising then discouraging treatment results and against a backdrop of hope that they'll be well enough to perform one last live spoken-word show. Related Stories Lifestyle New Home for Vanity Fair Oscar Party: A-List Afterparty Exits Beverly Hills for LACMA TV 'Nobody Wants This,' 'The Pitt' Among First Round of Nominees for ICG Publicists Awards White talked with THR at SCAD Film Festival about spending the final days of Gibson's life with them before their death on July 14 and why the documentary, released on Apple TV on Nov. 14, doesn't end with their final breath. Take us back to the beginning of how this doc started, with comedian Tig Notaro coming to you and essentially saying, "I want to make a poetry cancer film." So I've been saying to Tig forever, "Bring us a funny idea for a documentary. Why aren't documentaries in the comedy genre?" So we were pretty appalled a couple of years ago when Tig called us and led with the words "poetry" and "cancer," which truly could not be a less funny combination of words on face value. But Tig said, "Just hear me out. Andrea Gibson is a lifelong friend of mine. They're one of the funniest people I've ever known in my life, and they're confronting end-of-life with remarkable perspective." At the time, I wasn't a big spoken-word person, but we watched a few performances and fell in love with Andrea's art form, with them as a potential character. So we said to Tig, "If Andrea is interested in doing this and meeting us, we'll fly out to Colorado this week." We met Andrea in their driveway in January of last year, so almost two years ago, and Andrea came out and gave me a hug and said, "Welcome to my home. I guess you're going to be with me when I die." And that's how it all began. Were you concerned about being able to find the funny in these circumstances and also relay that tone onscreen? Well, Tig is obviously extremely funny. So I trust Tig, and I trust her sensibilities. And I think what Tig saw was not only a remarkable friend of hers but also the possibility of subverting this terminal illness genre of film, which there have been some great films in, but they're often the most depressing things in the world. It wasn't really until we got [to Andrea's home] that I understood how funny they would be on camera. I think we can all agree, the funniest scene in the film is the fingering scene. [Gibson's friend plays a voicemail of her saying Falley is going to finger them and get the cancer out after learning they have a bone metastasis.] That was literally that day I met Andrea in their driveway. We were standing behind the camera because we were still walking on eggshells. I felt very invasive. I was going into someone's home as they were dying, so it was very tricky as a director. I was afraid, too, of the subject matter. I was very afraid at the time of mortality, my own and my loved ones'. So I was very nervous heading into the house. And then we were standing behind the camera while that fingering scene was going on, and I was like, "This couple is incredible." You and your crew were there in some of Andrea and Megan's most tender hours as well, like reading the devastating results of their cancer scans. How did you handle those moments? The crew was tiny. It was the same four people every time. Usually, the sound person might change depending on where you are in the world, and also availability because these people are very in-demand, but we flew in the same sound person for every shoot because we were building a little family. Megan and Andrea were also quarantined because Andrea's diagnosis began during COVID, so they weren't even really around friends and family that much. So we would test like crazy before we went, when we landed, before we went into that home. There are really only two locations in this film; there's the house and sometimes the hospital, and Brandon Somerhalder, our DP