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Andrea Gibson will be the first to tell you that she never expected a documentary about her life with a terminal cancer diagnosis to be funny. Nobody did. But Gibson, a renowned poet and performance artist who died in July at the age of 49, also didn’t expect to see the film at all. He was not alone in this either. Three years after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer, life grew day by day.
Yet by some miracle Gibson was able to watch “Come See Me in a Good Light”, a lively document of his life over the past year with his wife, Megan Foley chronicles everything from coffee chats to chemotherapy appointments, and to realizing that yes, a dinner table conversation about a certain sexual act, which he had about two hours after first meeting the documentary crew, made the final cut.
“I don’t think he had any expectations that it would be funny,” Gibson told The Associated Press at the Sundance Film Festival in January. “They say, ‘Okay, we’re making a death documentary about serious poets.'”
In that moment at the dinner table, everyone involved understood that this was a collaboration that was going to work. It was the kind of silly, intimate, and deeply authentic conversation that would not only serve as an icebreaker with a group of strangers following them around with cameras, but set the tone for the movie (now streaming on Apple TV).
“I remember my jaw was hanging open,” said filmmaker Ryan White. “You never get to see things like that on the first day. But that scene quickly turns from funny to deeply real. Andrea and Meg have this way of making those changes in everyday life that made every scene magical: stomach Laughter and tears in the same 20 minutes.”
Filming of ‘Come See Me in the Good Light’
For the next year, the film production crew would visit Gibson and Falley every three weeks and film everything for three consecutive days, never knowing if it would be the last time they would see Gibson. Two weeks before its premiere, they were still shooting.
The idea partly began with comedian Tig Notaro, who had known Gibson for several years. Notaro thought Gibson was one of the funniest people she knew. White and his producing partner were pressuring Notaro to come up with a lighthearted documentary. And while suffering from stage 4 cancer, the slam poetry film wasn’t even remotely on his mind, all those hesitations melted away as soon as he saw Gibson on stage — not just the material, but the star quality that led some to call him the “James Dean” of the spoken word poetry world.
White said, “It’s a very difficult film to present or put into the log-line without it sounding really heavy, heartbreaking and tragic.” “And it’s all of those things. But it’s so much more than that.”
Gibson and Falley had been riding the roller coaster alone for two years when they were contacted. His yes was immediate.
“The presence of a camera there, we thought, would help us do what we were already trying to do, which was to take whatever was happening and beautify it and make it something that could help others or be a gift in some way,” Foley said.
Gibson agreed – here was a direct way to share everything he had learned, everything he was feeling. It wasn’t about legacy, he said, it was about making art that could help.
Making it to Sundance and letting the film speak for itself
Neither Gibson nor Foley could believe they’d made it to the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.
The previous week had been one of the worst he had ever experienced, but one morning Gibson woke up feeling better and decided to trust the feeling of the moment, packed a few things and left. park cityUtah, with Foley, for the world premiere of the film. Being outside at all was too risky due to tumors in his lungs and liver: and yet sitting in a cozy condo next to Foley’s, just steps away from a wood-burning fire and with some of their closest friends nearby, the couple were happy to be in the moment, feeling loved and loved.
Gibson said, “Our hope for the film is that it will help anyone going through an extremely challenging situation about which the entire culture says, ‘This is impossible. You should be sad going through this.’ “Just keeping the door open to the possibility that maybe it shouldn’t happen.”
Sundance was the last time Gibson traveled out of state with the film. He died a month before his 50th birthday. White decided to keep the film as it ran in January and not focus on Gibson’s death.
White said, “The way the movie ended, we felt the movie was perfect.” “I felt very strongly that I didn’t want to update it because I feel very strongly that it’s not a movie about dying. I’m very, very at peace with that and so is Megan.”
Foley, now a 37-year-old widow, continues to tour the world with the film. Although it often has her crying, White said she gets to watch her 20-foot-tall love story unfold every night and talk to the audience about the love of her life.
White said, “It’s devastating that Andrea is no longer with us in person, but I almost think it all worked out beautifully, Andrea got to see this movie, and they know Megan will now take over that responsibility.” “It’s so beautiful and perfect to see this legacy of Andrea’s live on.”