In one among her poems from the gathering Love Letter from the Afterlife, Andrea Gibson writes, “Why did nobody inform us that to die is to be reincarnated in these we love whereas they’re nonetheless alive?”
These aren’t the idle musings of somebody for whom dying is a distant and vaguely unreal prospect. For the previous a number of years, the poet laureate of Colorado has confronted a life-threatening sickness after their analysis with stage 4 ovarian most cancers. The story of how Gibson and her associate, spoken phrase poet Meg Falley, have confronted this existential problem collectively — selecting to reside joyously, to chuckle, and most of all to stay full of affection – is advised within the award-winning documentary Come See Me within the Good Mild.
Director Ryan White introduced his movie to the celebrated DC/DOX pageant within the nation’s capital Saturday evening, taking part in a Q&A afterwards.
“This movie extra so than something, is a love story greater than a most cancers story,” he advised the capability viewers.
The screening occurred shortly after Pres. Trump’s army parade/birthday celebration in DC — timing not misplaced on the filmmaker.
“I hope this movie is type of counter programming for what’s occurring down the highway,” White famous. “Andrea and Meg have this magic high quality, I feel they’re actual unicorns of documentary topics in being so uncooked in all feelings… Each scene that we shot carried the entire gamut of emotion… I used to be handed unimaginable documentary topics that might weave out and in of hilarity and unhappiness and knowledge, all inside a three-minute scene. So, the problem was really becoming it right into a characteristic movie.”
Andrea Gibson in ‘Come See Me within the Good Mild’
Apple TV+
White and a small movie workforce adopted Gibson and Falley as Andrea (who makes use of they/them pronouns) accomplished a number of rounds of intensive chemotherapy therapy.
“It actually was constructing this tiny little household round them,” the filmmaker noticed. “We couldn’t get permission to movie within the hospital with like an actual crew and digital camera as a result of it could be disruptive to so many different most cancers sufferers. Typically it was simply [Director of Photography] Brandon [Somerhalder] going into the chemo rooms or once they would get outcomes, [filming] simply with an iPhone. He grew to become a part of the material, like a shoulder to cry on. He could be there for a four-hour chemo session with them after I would simply wait within the ready room to not be disruptive.”
White added, “It was for me a really, very susceptible means of filmmaking the place you’re keen on your topics they usually’re loving you again they usually’re trusting you utterly… They allowed us to movie all the pieces, an excessive quantity of belief letting you into such a painful journey.”
(L-R) Megan Falley, director Ryan White and Andrea Gibson attend the 2025 Sundance Movie Pageant in Park Metropolis, Utah
Neilson Barnard/Getty Photographs
Audiences have responded rapturously to the movie, moved by the intimacy of the storytelling and its shocking steadiness of poignancy and humor. Come See Me within the Good Mild received the Pageant Favourite Award at Sundance as voted on by pageant attendees; it likewise received viewers awards at Sizzling Docs in Toronto and the San Francisco Worldwide Movie Pageant, and the Folks’s Alternative Award on the Boulder Worldwide Movie Pageant in Colorado.
Some viewers of a extra conservative stripe, who may sometimes reject LGBTQ folks within the summary, have discovered themselves received over by the story.
Andrea Gibson in ‘Come See Me within the Good Mild’
Apple TV+
“I can’t think about anybody watching this movie and never wanting the very best for Andrea and Meg,” White mentioned. “Numerous people have come up after [screenings] to speak about that and say, ‘I like them a lot, how are they doing?’ And individuals who thought they have been on one aspect of those politicized points round queer and trans points fell in love with Andrea and Meg watching it. And I feel that’s the magic of Andrea as effectively. They’re so disarming in that means and that’s what’s so disarming about their poetry. It’s so accessible. The best way they write poetry invitations all people in and hopefully in our documentary Andrea’s character is inviting people who is perhaps — I’ll simply say — on the improper aspect of that, over to the appropriate aspect.”
As Deadline reported in April, Apple TV+ acquired the documentary and plans to debut it on the platform within the fall. Among the many workforce behind the movie is producer Tig Notaro, the slapstick comedian who’s an in depth good friend of Gibson and Falley, government producer Brandi Carlile – additionally an in depth good friend of the couple — and government Sara Bareilles, a longtime fan of Gibson’s poetry slam performances. Musicians Carlile and Bareilles, each a number of Grammy winners, co-wrote a music with Gibson that closes the movie, with Bareilles dealing with the vocals within the model of the documentary that screened Saturday evening. However the director revealed there might be an replace to the closing music by the point the movie premieres on Apple TV+.
“We have now a brand new model that might be popping out that’s a duet, as a result of it’s a love music,” he famous. “It’s a duet between Sara and Brandi the place they every take a verse and harmonize on the refrain and that music will come out later within the yr.”
The Apple TV+ launch will carry the movie to an enormous potential viewers, widening the chance for extra folks to fall in love with Andrea and Meg.
“The extra we shot, the extra we realized this isn’t a movie about dying. This can be a movie about residing,” White commented. “It’s inspiring us, the crew whereas we’re making it.”
