Alex Wheeler Movie Ops

On March 26th, 2015, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act was signed into law in Indiana, which was widely interpreted as giving businesses and individuals the right to discriminate against queer people. Major companies and conventions threatened to pull from the state, people protested, and queer Hoosiers (myself included) were thrown into confusion and fear. Two days later, Andrea Gibson performed in the state capital. It was a planned show at a small venue, on paper just another stop on their tour. But Gibson recognized the moment for their audience and transformed it into a space to feel the anger and love we had for our home and our place in it. It remains the most emotional live performance I’ve seen, and I’m not sure it will ever be beat.

That is the kind of work Gibson was known for, going beyond the normal flow of emotions to quiver and hold themselves and spit out whatever truths they’d found. Their wife, Megan Falley, describes Gibson as the rock star of slam poetry. They certainly had swagger, but their performances were captivating because of their ability to wrestle with more sensitive emotions than rock stars dare approach. Gender was a common topic, as was anxiety and suicide, and in the past few years, the highs and lows of a terminal illness. The latter is why documentarian Ryan White turned his camera towards the poet, taking the opportunity to capture an emotionally articulate person staring down a life much shorter than they’d like.

Outside of poetry and trans/nonbinary spaces, few knew of Gibson. Because of this, Come See Me in the Good Light has a lot of narrative ground to cover. The doc must introduce you to Gibson, their partner, their work, and their terminal cancer, which inevitably causes many fascinating things to be skimmed past. That will lead to some frustration, especially if you want to go down the rabbit hole of Falley navigating this at only 35 years old, Gibson’s family history with ovarian cancer, or any number of other things that pop up only to flow past as the world keeps moving around them. A lesser documentarian, and perhaps a lesser subject, would turn this march of time into a countdown. But instead, the film coalesces into a snapshot of life that is funny, sweet, and unexpected. Fans of theirs will be braced for the places the doc goes. The uninitiated are likely to be caught off guard by how openly Gibson experiences every moment that passes, good and bad.

No, Come See Me in the Good Light isn’t a heavy doc, despite its subject. It flits along, partially because of everything it has to cover, but mostly because Gibson doesn’t fall into despair. They talk openly about the things they’ll miss, but instead of mourning, they cling to what they have left, particularly the time they have with their wife. The pair are the film, more so than poetry or cancer. If this was White’s intent then he hides it well, because their prominence feels organic. They combat the endless treatments and nerve-wracking news with warmth and humor, coming off as sweet without being saccharine. The way they poke fun at each other’s quirks could be happening at any time in any place. In these moments, the film forgets its reason for being there. Or perhaps, it finds its reason for being there. We’ve seen plenty of documentaries about facing death, which run the gamut from sad to inspirational. In their final years, Gibson becomes neither. They remain as they were: effusive, open, silly, and astute. It makes for an unexpectedly fun watch, but it also leaves something missing. You will come to understand how lovely they were as a person, but you might not understand how great they were as an artist.

Perhaps it’s the sparseness of the poetry that holds the film back. It certainly doesn’t set up the film’s climax well, whose stakes come on abruptly. Gibson’s lifelong work of stringing together words (or as they joke, rearranging the few words they know) into heartfelt attempts to share the mess of living takes a backseat to their love and life. But this is largely a product of people close to Gibson, and everyone involved knew what was coming. There would be no last-minute reprieve. Perhaps it’s merely reflecting what they know Gibson worked so hard to convey: that life can be eased by the people around you. Or, as Gibson finished many of their shows, that we need to take care of each other. Falley and Gibson take care of each other throughout the film, and their unwavering, wholehearted support that is the abiding takeaway of the film.

Release: Streaming on Apple TV+ now
Director: Ryan White
Stars: Megan Falley, Andrea Gibson